Ebbsfleet 0 Torquay 2

Ebbsfleet United slipped to their fourth successive defeat after suffering a 2-0 loss against Torquay in Blue Square Premier at Stonebridge Road on Saturday.

Sacha Opinel returned to the side after recovering from a knee injury, while Gary Bowes - who had signed on a one-month loan deal from Millwall - was given a place on the bench.

Torquay started brightly and almost took the lead on two minutes when Wayne Carlisle found himself in space on the right before cutting in and seeing his shot blocked by Darius Charles.

The home side were slow out of the starting blocks and nearly found themselves a goal down after 12 minutes when Carlise again found himself in space, but this time his effort was saved by the foot of Lance Cronin.

The Fleet rarely threatened and were restricted to a half chance from Michael Gash, whose header failed to trouble Scott Bevan.

The visitors were eventually rewarded for their efforts in the 42nd minute when Nicky Wroe saw his shot from the edge of the area come back off the post. Tyrone Thompson reacted quickest and dragged the ball back into the path of Wroe, who made no mistake second time round as he slotted into the bottom right corner.

In the second half, Torquay continued where they left off and doubled their lead on 54 minutes when Thompson took advantage of a Paul McCarthy error before squaring to Carlisle, who was left with the simple task of firing past Cronin.

Ebbsfleet never looked like recovering and found their long balls easily dealt with by Torquay's central defensive partnership of Steve Woods and Chris Robertson.

Neil Barrett had a close range effort saved by Bevan and Luke Moore fired off target as Torquay comfortably held out for the victory.

Fleet: Cronin, Charles, McCarthy, Pooley, Opinel, Shakes (Bowes 46), Hand (Stone 61), Barrett, Long, Gash, Moore. Subs not used: Mott, Smith, Ibe.

Attendance: 1,781.

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