Torquay United have questions to answer with Cody Cooke absence

Paul Wotton was still pondering what to do about Cody Cooke’s absence at his weekly press conference on Thursday.

torquay -united-fc>Torquay United face Tonbridge Angels at Plainmoor on Saturday, the first of three consecutive home games, but after six-goal striker Cooke picked up his fifth yellow card of the season in the 2-2 home draw against Chelmsford City last weekend, he is unavailable this weekend, serving his one-match ban.

Cooke scored the penalty in the 1-0 win at Salisbury on Tuesday night - but it is for his physical game, rather than his goals, that Torquay will miss the player. New striker Jordan Young has started really well after signing from Yeovil Town, and will almost certainly start, so who will partner him: Brad Ash, Ben Seymour, Omar Mussa, or even a big man from the back?

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Whatever Wotton decides to do, he said this week he is ‘happy’ with his team’s start after 15 games. Going into this game, Torquay are fourth in the National League South table, and only three points off the top - although, said the manager, striving to improve is a constant must for everyone, including himself.

Wotton said: “After 15 games, it’s fact, we are third of the way through the season. I couldn’t be happier with where they are. We still need to improve, we know that, I still need to improve, the players need to improve, we all need to improve constantly. If we don’t strive to do that every day we’ll never get to where we want to get to - so that’s really, really important.

“I am really happy. Recruitment in the summer was tough, recruitment is always tough anyway if you want the best players, or players that you think will do well for your football club. So I am happy with them. They train hard, they are good lads, so overall I am very pleased.”

While Torquay are one of four teams on 28 points, Tonbridge are 13th with 20 points. It is taking little while for the division to stretch out this season. Tonbridge were beaten 2-1 by Truro City the weekend before last - and were turfed out of the FA Cup at the first round proper stage last week when they were beaten by Harborough Town 4-1 - a terrible result in front of their biggest crowd of the season

Manager Jay Saunders was annoyed after that and suggested it is time he changed some players. “I’ve gone with it for long enough and there’s one or two areas where we need to change things up,” he said.

“I need to do some work away from the pitch to get some bodies in because I think we’re at a stage where we need to do that.”
Maybe it’s a good time to be playing them, then? Maybe not. Wotton said: “I have got a lot of respect for Jay at Tonbridge, he does great with them there.

“They are a really well organised team, they are strong, and they have got some good players, technically, and we are in for a tough afternoon. They’ll come here, they’ll enjoy the experience - but they’ll work tremendously hard for him.”

Wotton reported no more injury issues, other than goalkeeper Matt Wonnacott still recovering from his broken arm. So it’s just that question about who replaces Cooke for one game, before the big man surely returns on Tuesday night, for the visit of bogey-team Maidstone.