Taylor upbeat despite defeat

Assistant manager Shaun Taylor heaped praise on Torquay despite their 1-0 defeat to Fleetwood on Saturday.

Cod Army striker Jon Parkin scored for the third successive match to settle the contest in the 26th minute, looping a header in at the far post and over United keeper Michael Poke following a superb deep cross from left-back Dean Howell. Howell also cleared a Kevin Nicholson shot off the line as United pressed for a leveller, with Town goalkeeper Scott Davies making a string of superb stops to deny Billy Bodin, Ryan Jarvis and Nicholson. In stoppage time home central defender Aaron Downes crashed a header off the bar from Nicholson's free kick. Taylor said: "I don't think we have played better than we did in that first half, home or away, this season or maybe even last season." "The effort from the players was fantastic. That's all I asked for and to be fair they delivered. "At half time I was thinking we would have to go again in the second half. "All right maybe we didn't create the chances we did in the first half but I did get from them was another committed performance. "If anything maybe the final ball in the second half was a little bit wanting but they put so much effort into the first half and were still going at the end of the second, so they proved they are fit enough. "Man for man I could not fault what they put in."