Nuneaton Town 0 - 0 Torquay United

[dutchman]

[dutchman]

Match report: Nuneaton Town 0 Torquay United 0

THERE is no doubting it – the Boro are a lot more solid than they were at the start of the season – but a lack of goals means they are left staring relegation in the face.

For the fourth successive league match the Boro managed to engineer a shut-out, meaning keeper Max Crocombe has still to concede since he joined the club back in February.

But, it is at the other end that the Boro are facing problems as for the second week in a row they were unable to build on their defensive solidity, barely registering a chance in anger at the Torquay goal.

The first chance they did muster came in the 12th minute as Rob Ogleby showed the turn of pace that could make him a vital cog in this Boro machine this season. He burnt past his man from a Max Crocombe goal kick but smashed his half-volleyed effort at a nice height for Martin Rice to punch clear to safety.

That chance did not herald the beginning of an open end-to-end encounter, instead in stood out as a rare bright spot in an otherwise poor first half.
With seconds to go until half-time it was usurped as the best of the half, though, as Max Crocombe pulled off two fantastic stops in a matter of minutes to keep his side level.

First he came out well and used his feet to deny John Cambpell when the Torquay man was one-on-one. Then from the resulting corner the Boro stopper pulled off arguably the save of the season as he somehow managed to get a hand to a fantastic Courtney Richards volley, only just getting enough behind it to tip it over the bar.

The second half was a non-affair chances wise as neither side seemed able to break down their opponent.

George Maris had the best of the chances that were created, the Boro man was fed through by Andy Brown late-on, but he could only manage to fire his effort at Rice, when a left footed effort rather than a right footed one would surely have left the keeper with no chance.

How costly that chance will be – what with Alfreton, Southport and Welling all winning is anyone's guess – but with the gap now standing at eight points, and with tough games to come, the Boro are going to need to do more than just shout teams out if they are to survive to face another season in the Vanarama Conference next time round…