I wrote a while back about how proper planning prevents poor performance; a couple of things have happened recently to bear that out.

A late arrival at Ebbsfleet lead to the game being delayed by nearly half an hour.  The game was lost and although the management and team refused to use it as an excuse the delay can’t have helped.  The M25 is notorious for traffic problems; when travelling around the northern section, and hoping to cross the river, there is the traffic leaving the motorway at Lakeside Shopping Centre to be negotiated, there is a queue to sit in waiting to pay the toll, then there is the fact that you have to pay to get over.  An earlier start, or at least the alternative route around the southern side of the motorway, would have had the team at the ground on time and not stressed out from the journey.

On Saturday Torquay had done their homework and used it to their advantage to help them to victory,  although the calamitous defending probably had more to do with the outcome of the game.  Paul Buckle knew that James Constable has a short fuse and sent his team out to do  their best to get him into trouble.  I lost count of the number of times that United defenders went down as if they had been shot whenever James went near them.  Eventually it paid off for them as he got a yellow card – his third of the season – but they were unable to get him to bite a second time and he stayed on the park and netted a couple more goals.

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