Torquay United adapting to the challenges of a top of the table clash at Hornchurch

Manager Paul Wotton says that Torquay United are ready and able to adapt their passing game to cope with heavier pitches and different opponents over the second half of the National League South promotion race.

The Gulls (3rd) travel to Hornchurch on Saturday, two points behind the leaders, while Worthing (2nd) also entertain Weston-super-Mare (5th).

There may well be bigger weekends ahead, but this one will certainly do for the last Saturday in January.

The Hornchurch Stadium pitch is not likely to be a carpet and the hosts, who won a tight game 2-1 at Plainmoor three months ago, have become a thoroughly effective horses-for-courses team under former Dagenham & Redbridge manager Daryl McMahon.

“As long as Torquay United are in the National League South, teams are not going to let us dictate and do what we want to do,” said Wotton.

“You have to be adaptable. You have to change formation, play the conditions and play different ways.

“Hornchurch are very resilient. They are experienced, with players who have played an awful lot of league games.

“We respect them, but we are not in fear of them.”

In the wake of Tuesday’s postponement against Farnborough, few team selections will be more eagerly awaited than Saturday’s.

And few United fans will relish being in Wotton’s shoes.

Joint leading scorer Louis Dennis is still suspended and Callum Dolan is sidelined after knee surgery, but everyone else is available.

Wotton has his other top marksman Jordan Young back from a one-match ban, but that hardly simplifies things in attack.

Young, Dylan Morgan, who has scored in three successive matches, Cody Cooke and impressive young loanee Kieran Wilson, who coolly dispatched a late penalty at Enfield Town (2-1) last Saturday, all have strong claims for starting spots.

Throw new loanee striker Joe Hatch from Plymouth Argyle and fit-again Munashe Sundire into a mix already including Matt Jay, the in-form Sonny Blu Lo-Everton, Dan Hayfield and Matt Worthington, and the attacking options spill over.

Recently we’ve even seen midfielder Worthington switch to right-back mid-match to good effect.

Maidstone are the only team to win at Hornchurch so far.

The Urchins, ninth last year after promotion from the Isthmian League, did not lose until Chelmsford finally beat them in Round 16.

And, although they haven’t enjoyed back-to-back wins since their victory at Plainmoor on November 1, they have clawed their way back to top spot.

Possibly their biggest frustration is that gates still hover around the 800/900-mark, although several hundred Gulls fans may well see the season-high 1,100 against local rivals Enfield beaten this weekend.

McMahon has been lifted by the return from injury of former Millwall striker Harry Hearn – he and the ever-classy Angelo Balanta have scored 20 goals between them.

There are plenty of other scoring threats, including recent signing Junior Morais, ex-Gulls loanee Josh Rees, skipper Tommy Wright, Henry Sandat and centre-back Harry Gibbs, who is always dangerous at set-pieces.

But United are in good form (W8 D2 L2) and only Worthing, who have stuttered of late, have scored more goals than their tally (53).

It should all make for a cracking contest, with a ‘clean sheet’ either way possibly decisive.

Saturday’s referee is Callum Fisk from Stratford-upon-Avon.