Torquay United need to 'start again' as Dover Athletic visit

So far, it has been a season of bouncing up and down inside the top half.

Dover Athletic at home tomorrow feels like a chance to 'start again' for Torquay United, who were poor at Hereford last weekend in the FA Trophy, and are without a win in the three games in the National League South.

When Torquay have got close to the top this season, they have suffered setbacks and dropped out of the play-off places. So far, it has been a season of bouncing up and down inside the top half. But, although they are eighth going into game 26, they are still only five points off second place as they welcome the team from the bottom of the table - Dover.

Johnson said: "I'll never ever say that there's an easy team and people sometimes get the hump when I say there are no mug teams in this league. But there isn't because somebody's got to be at the bottom and somebody has got to be at the top. On their day, anyone can beat anybody else - a famous sentence of managers that we spit out now and again - but it is true. However, we know the importance of winning these games at home, which is why our form has been very good at home.

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"Some people might not appreciate it but I think it's double the points to games - on average two points a game - and we have got to stop saying, me especially, that we have got to go on a little run now, because I have said that for about four or five games and we haven't started that run yet.

"So we have got to work very hard, as the boys are trying to and we are, to start that run again. That's the big thing, so this gives us the opportunity against Dover, a home game, to start a run. And that's what we are always going to be trying to do."

Johnson has suggested that one or two of the injured players could be back this weekend, with the leading candidates being Tom Lapslie and Brad Ash. The return of either of those players would be a result but the wait will continue for Aaron Jarvis, Kevin Dawson, Ryan Hanson and Finlay Craske. One player definitely back after being cup-tied for the Hereford game is Ethon Archer.

With eight games in February coming up, the Dover game is quickly followed by a trip to 19th-placed Chippenham Town on Tuesday. January ends with a trip to Worthing next weekend with the Gulls in need of points to maintain the play-off push.

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