Football – England – Conference Premier
Saturday 20th September 2014 – Kickoff: 1500hrs
Torquay United laid down an early marker in the Conference on Tuesday night when they beat high-flying Woking 1-0 at Plainmoor to move up into second place.
That was The Gulls’ fifth straight win on the trot with previous victories over Lincoln City, Nuneaton Town, Chester and Grimsby Town and are now just one point adrift of early league leaders Barnet who have started to wobble recently.
Torquay have lost just once in this new season and that was away at Gateshead as they make a bid to return to the football league at the first attempt, a feat which not many clubs relegated from League Two have actually managed to do. Torquay’s home record stands at a solid 3-2-0 9/1 and they’ve kept four clean sheets from their first five home matches.
Visitors Dover Athletic came off second best in the Kent derby with Dartford losing 1-2 away, and they now face a long 600 mile round trip away at in-form Torquay this afternoon having lost five of their last six matches overall.
A rare away win was secured at poor AFC Telford with The Whites winning 4-1 but to be honest, this is not much of a benchmark to test the Kent outfit ahead of today’s clash with Torquay. Dover’s away form has been pretty poor also as their record shows at 1-1-3 7/13, with only Alfreton Town (14 goals) conceding more goals than them on their travels in the division.
Indeed, Dover have kept just two clean sheets from their last eleven away trips, a record which extends back into the last few weeks of the Conference South where they were promoted from at the end of last season.
With Young and Bowman in goalscoring form for The Gulls along with a miserly defence behind them, I’ll back Torquay to win and cover the -1 line here against a Dover outfit who find it difficult to keep clean sheets. Torquay to win 2-0.
Pick: Torquay United AH-1 @ 1.88 Bet Victor
