Hampton & Richmond 3
(Bloomfield 17′, 90+5′, Seymour 42′ pen)
United 1
(Hall 90+9′)
United suffered defeat at Beveree Stadium, as Hampton & Richmond ran out 3-1 winners on Saturday.
A Mason Bloomfield goal, followed by a Ben Seymour penalty, saw The Gulls left with a mountain to climb at the break, and despite throwing everything at the hosts in the second period, a second strike from Bloomfield sealed all three points for Hampton, before Asa Hall replied with a very late consolation strike.
Gary Johnson made two changes to the team defeated at Weston-super-Mare on Tuesday night with Ross Marshall replacing Aaron Jarvis, and new loan signing Callum Dolan coming straight into the starting line up to replace Hall, who took his place on the bench.
Torqusy began the match on the front foot, with new boy Dolan coming close to opening his account twice in the opening fifteen minutes.
The best chance came from a partially-cleared corner, and with Ollie Tomlinson just unable to bundle the ball home with his back to goal, the Fleetwood Town loanee took aim from just outside the box, and was unlucky to see his curling effort just clear the crossbar.
Johnson’s men were punished shortly after in unfortunate circumstances.
An attack down the left hand side saw a low ball drilled across the face of goal, and although Bloomfield managed to get a strike on goal, it was the deflection off Brett McGavin that ultimately saw the ball diverted past Mark Halstead.
That setback appeared to knock the stuffing out of The Gulls, as they were unable to build upon their promising opening to proceedings.
If the first goal was unlucky, the second was open for debate.
With home skipper Jake Gray sending Seymour into the box in pursuit of an inviting through-ball, the referee adjudged the Beavers’ frontman had been illegally brought to ground by Ross Marshall, with a penalty awarded amid much protestation from the United ranks.
Seymour confidently sent Halstead the wrong way to double the lead, and that was the way it remained at the break.
The travelling Yellow Army would have been hoping for an enhanced showing in the second period, and although it took a little while for Johnson’s men to gather some momentum, when they did, the hosts barely got out of their own half.
Dolan was leading the charge from his attacking midfield position, letting fly with a number of fierce drives in and around the penalty area, however no reward was forthcoming.
Even when The Gulls did get the ball over the goal line, their efforts were met with nothing but frustration, as the Match Officials failed to spot substitute Hall’s header being clawed back into play by a scrambling Adam Desbois in the Hampton goal.
The corner count reaching fifteen in Torquay’s favour served to show how dominant The Gulls has become, but having failed to make it count, a third goal deep into injury-time rubbed further salt into the wounds.
A long ball forward flicked into the path of Bloomfield saw the home striker left with only substitute ‘keeper Rhys Lovett – on for the injured Mark Halstead – to beat, and he duly applied a calm finishing touch by lobbing the advancing Lovett to make it 3-0.
Although Hall eventually got on the scoresheet, after Desbois could only parry Ash’s near-post strike, it was scant consolation for his team’s efforts.
Bath next Saturday at Plainmoor was always going to be a big clash, but now it appears even more so, with City one of a number of the leading sides United will be looking to reel back in.
HAMPTON & RICHMOND: 19. Adam Desbois, 2. Jordan Thomas, 3. Ruaridh Donaldson (16. Alex Solomon, 90+6′), 4. Dean Inman, 5. Luis Fernandez, 9. Ben Seymour, 10. Jake Gray (c), 11. Sam Deadfield (5. Issac Pitblado, 67′), 12. George Hunt (6. Jordan Cheadle, 81′), 15. Dan Wishart, 26. Mason Bloomfield..
SUBS: 8. Alfy Whittingham, 17. Connor Kurran-Browne.
Yellow Cards: Wishart 96+3′
UNITED: 1. Mark Halstead (22. Rhys Lovett, 57′), 6. Ross Marshall (8. Asa Hall, 67′), 10. Lewis Collins, 11. Brad Ash, 14. Brett McGavin, 15. Finley Craske, 16. Shaun Donnellan, 20. Callum Dolan, 21. Dean Moxey (c) (7. Ryan Hanson, 73′), 23. Ollie Tomlinson, 27. Jack Stobbs.
SUBS: 2. Dylan Crowe, 24. Calum Thomas.
Yellow Cards: Dolan 82′, McGavin 86′
Attendance: 1,469