Familiar face back to Cooke up away loss

Former Roman Cody Cooke scored the only goal of the game this afternoon to send City to defeat against Torquay United. He struck on 67 minutes after Harvey Wiles-Richards failed to hold Young’s long-range strike and keep the home side firmly in the hunt for the National League South title.

A competitive but largely uneventful first half saw City enjoy decent spells of possession but, with top scorer Scott Wilson out injured and in-form Brad Ash ineligible against his parent club, they rarely threatened Hamon in the hosts goal. The Gulls were equally toothless up front against a City backline that had not conceded in their previous three games. Their best chance came on 14 minutes when Threlkeld’s cross-shot flashed across goal, just evading Dreyer at the back-post.

Torquay began to gain the upper hand after the break but it was the introduction of Cooke early in the half that turned out to the decisive move. He reacted quickest after Young’s low shot got away from Wiles-Richards to slide the ball home from a couple of yards out. The keeper made up for this mistake moments later when he produced a stunning save to keep out Zanzala’s close-range volley. Torquay were now content to protect their narrow lead and, despite conceding a couple of free-kicks in dangerous positions, they did this with minimum fuss. And when a stoppage time corner was headed wide by Jordan Tillson the Gulls could celebrate a vital victory.