Flooding Hell Pre Portsmouth

The Torquay players has a rather unique pre match build up for last weekends game against Portsmouth at Fratton Park – they conspired to have almost no sleep at all ahead of the game.

The Official Site ahead of the game claimed that it was ‘the worst possible preparation’ for the game away from home, but I can’t be alone in thinking this should now become a ritual for the team for the remainder of the second half of the season!

Well, football is superstitious isn’t it. Putting your left sock on before the right, and then putting your right boot on before the left. Not changing your underpants – maybe I just invented that one?

Anyway, our pre game preparation for Portsmouth began in a very typical ‘you know you’re having a bad season when…’ the hotel that we were booked into suffered the fate of many pitches around the country and become waterlogged – for those who hadn’t heard, the hotel was flooded following the partial collapse of one of those all important building thingy’s known as a roof.

That meant given the rainfall that water was having it’s own little party in our hotel from around 2am in the morning ahead of the game.

The coaching staff and all 18 players then were ‘left to wander the hotel lobby in their pyjamas for three hours in the night before finally moving to a new hotel at 5am.’

Surely somebody sat down?

Credit to the Official Site though for the crack ‘when it rains, it pours.’

I assume they couldn’t have got away with saying sometimes it’s a ‘peeing joke’.

That said, it appears manager Chris Hargreaves wanted to win the war of daft jokes with our website team, as he then went on to declare that ‘sleep is for wimps’ but I must admit, the website team won with sub headings like ‘tired Gulls are dangerous’ following the game.

Gulls generally are dangerous when they smell chips, maybe that’s why they are now flocking more into the middle of the country – they aren’t getting their beauty sleep?

‘Footballers can use excuses at the best of times…’

I really did think there was a joke coming, but Hargreaves put his professional hat back on, and gave credit absolutely where it was needed following the performance the lads put in.

‘…but these players were up from 2am to 5am, changed hotels, and it shows me what they’re about. Not many groups of players would then produce a fighting performance like that – they’d use every excuse under the sun – but they were dragged out of their beds with no possessions, hardly any clothes, and had no sleep for three hours. To then produce that performance is fantastic for me as a manager.’

And let’s face it, after that kind of waking, getting to the new hotel at 5am, most wouldn’t have still been asleep by 6, maybe 7am so to remain that remarkable, in front of that type of crowd, just goes to team spirit, desire and what a boost the victory would’ve been.

Given the whole thing is a little comical though, I’m still smiling at the comment that flooding set the fire alarms off. Usually a fire alarm will set off the sprinkler system – not only is that daft enough in a flood, but I can’t be alone in thinking that a flood alarm turns all the radiators and fires up??