Ball hails 'brave' Torquay as winless run ends
Jimmy Ball saw his side win for just the second time this season
- Published
Jimmy Ball has hailed the "brave" performance of his Torquay United side after their 3-2 win over Folkestone Invicta in National League South.
Matt Jay's 82nd-minute goal secured the win after the Gulls had given away a 2-0 lead.
The victory moved them up to 13th place after seven matches and ended a four-game winless run that had seen Ball's side score just one goal and take two points.
"The lads were nervous early on - [there was] a lot of pressure, a lot of criticism recently and rightly so because of the performance on Monday [in a 2-0 defeat at Farnham]," Ball told BBC Radio Devon.
"But they were brave enough to stand up and be counted and run and fight and think and play like we try to work on.
"I think we had exciting periods like that against Weston, against Horsham first game of the season, and first half I thought we were fantastic."
Matt Jay has scored late winners in both of Torquay United's victories this season
New signing Jacob Beaumont-Clark gave the Gulls an eighth-minute lead before Deon Moore made it 2-0 midway through an opening period that saw Torquay miss a host of chances.
The misses looked like they would come back to haunt the Gulls when Liam Smith halved Folkestone's deficit three minutes after half-time and Donnell Thomas made it 2-2 two minutes later.
But Jay fired into the top corner with eight minutes left as he secured a second late win for Torquay, having scored an 84th-minute winner at Tonbridge Angels on 15 August.
"There's two choices in life when you're down - you quit or get up and fight, and we got up and fought," added Ball.
"I told them before the game that quitting is not an option, so 'let's go' and this is a tough league, every game is going to be tough.
"I expect it to be tough and win any way and we did today."
