Torquay United need to avoid complacency against league's bottom side

Paul Wotton will be making sure that his players do not suffer from any form of complacency when Torquay United take on National League South bottom-side Enfield Town tomorrow.

After Tuesday night’s massive, dramatic and entertaining win against the then leaders Weston-super-Mare, Wotton is wary of his players going to Enfield and thinking they are world beaters.

Wotton is a big fan of the Enfield manager, Gavin McPherson, and he knows that despite their lowly position in the table, the home players will be fit and ready to take on third-in-the-table Torquay.

Wotton said: “It’s Enfield’s first season in this league. They haven’t got as big a budget as other teams, which is obviously difficult. “They have a really good manager, Gavin is a really good manager, and they will be drilled and they will be well organised. They’ll be fit and they won’t take a backwards step. They will be up for the challenge, definitely. So if we go with any form of complacency...

“That’s in any game of football by the way. I shouldn’t do it, but I keep going back to Bishop’s Cleeve, because it will stay with me for a long time - you don’t want that feeling again. There was complacency about us that day, absolutely. So managing that will be key over the next two and a half days.”

Wotton reckons his players are some of the fittest in the league - and the midfield trio of Lirak Hasani, Will Jenkins Davies and Dan Hayfield ran and ran and ran on Tuesday night when they beat Weston 4-2 at Plainmoor. Although Hasani was sent off with a straight red card in that game, his suspension doesn’t start until after this game, so expect those three to be in midfield again.

Having struggled to score goals, the four on Tuesday all came from open play, and the two by Cody Cooke took his total for the season to eight. It is likely that Wotton will field an unchanged team for this one, so Cooke could be supported in an attacking line up by Jordan Young and Omar Mussa again. The defence of Jay Foulston, Sam Dreyer, Jordan Dyer and Jordan Thomas was fantastic on Tuesday. It was a real team effort though - and the work rate on show was phenomenal.

Wotton said: “I think it’s something that I pride myself on as a manager that I like my teams to be able to run. I think it’s a minimal requirement: hard work. There’s lots of things you can’t control in football, that’s one thing you can control - your attitude, your desire and your work rate. I think that should be a given. I say ‘should’ because it’s not always at every club.

“We are fit, we train four times a week so - hybrid, full time, whatever you want to call it - there’s no reason for us not to be fit. We work hard and the boys can run, definitely.”

Enfield scared Torquay when they came to Plainmoor on the first day of the season. They scored in four minutes to remind the Gulls they weren’t going to have it all their own way after the summer takeover. Torquay won 2-1 in the end, following goals by Matt Carson and Brad Ash, but Dyer did have to stop a late chance from going in - so it could have been one point instead of three. However, 11 points from 18 games is a poor return for Enfield since then, and on paper Torquay ‘should’ go to the Queen Elizabeth II Stadium and make it defeat number 14 for the home side

Torquay’s record is currently nine wins, seven draws, three defeats - and unbeaten at home. As long as, of course, complacency doesn’t play a part. If there’s one thing you can be sure of, Wotton will have been spending the last couple of days drilling just that message into his players' heads. Just in case.