Torquay United well beaten in opening home game

Torquay United 0 Worthing 3

Woeful Torquay United were soundly beaten in their first home match of the National League South campaign.

It took the Gulls 85 minutes to muster a meaningful shot on target, and by then the visitors were home and hosed.

Three ex-Gulls returned to haunt the Plainmoor side with eye-catching performances. Defender Aaron Racine was calm and confident at the heart of the Worthing defence and winger Joe Felix was quick and lively throughout.

But it was Ricky Aguiar who hurt his old team-mates first, firing a shot against the Torquay crossbar in the 17th minute before opening the scoring with an unchallenged header in the 29th.

Torquay were without combative midfielder Tom Lapslie, but the returning Jack Stobbs had a promising afternoon in a wide position..

Gulls keeper Mark Halstead was named the sponsors’ man of the match despite the scoreline, earning the accolade for a string of second half saves which did much to keep his team mates in the game.

But United were getting caught time and time again by the swift attacking of the visitors, and Halstead was beaten by a low shot from Ollie Pearce and again by Reece Meekums just before the end of normal time, by which point many Gulls fans had already made their way to the exits.

Torquay are at home again on Tuesday night, with Chippenham the visitors on that occasion. Manager Gary Johnson kept his players shut in the dressing room long after the end of their humiliation at the hands of Worthing, and will be demanding better when Chippenham come calling.