The bare bones of Torquay United deliver a crucial victory over Salisbury

Torquay United ground out a massive three points on a wet night at Plainmoor with the Gulls struggling badly on the fitness front.

After a tight first period, Dylan Morgan snatched the lead for the Gulls and Matt Jay added a second with a sumptuous finish. Salisbury pulled one back in the final minute but the night belonged to a hardworking team in Yellow.

In a clear indication of the depth of United’s injury concerns, interim boss Neil Warnock was only able to name three players on the bench, and one of them was reserve goalkeeper Adam Seedhouse Evans.

Number one for the whole season, James Hamon, was one of those missing from the weekend defeat at Ebbsfleet United, and he was joined in the treatment room by Louis Dennis, which meant a rare start for Sonny Fish.

Within five minutes of the game starting, injury worries deepened even further with Nashe Sundire limping out of the action but, despite the personnel problems, United started quite well on the slick surface, Morgan forcing a save from Will Buse.

Morgan was the catalyst for United’s next foray, clipping a lovely ball to the back post that was scrambled clear by the Salisbury defence. The Gulls caused further mayhem in the penalty area with a Will Tizzard flick just eluding the out-stretched leg of Jay Foulston.

The visitors responded with a confident spell of possession, Richard McIntyre finding space in the channel that almost picked out the arriving runners. Ollie Morgan was next to have a pop from Salisbury, who then struck the bar with a cracking effort from Noah Coppin.

United were hanging on, Josh Hedges and Max Jolliffe both going close, as United’s new loan goalkeeper from MK Dons, Seb Stacey, tried to rally the troops in front of him.

As it turned out, it was the rallying cry of Warnock did the job at half-time, Dylan Morgan breaking the deadlock with a tremendous left-foot finish, and the Yellow Army responded to a proper shift in the rain with a rousing response.

The Gulls had to soak up some pressure from the visitors before a Dan Hayfield free-kick was gobbled up by Buse. The Yellow Army then held its breath after a clumsy challenge on Hedges in the box was waved away by the referee.

United grabbed the pivotal second with ten minutes remaining. Hayfield was the architect with a rampaging run down the right and his cutback for Jay was weighted perfectly. Jay took up the challenge with a drop of the shoulder and a lovely curled finish into the top corner.

Salisbury set up a tense finish when Coppin scrambled the ball over the line with United furiously appealing for an offside, but all was ok at the end of an exhausting night at Plainmoor.