JOHN Coventry believes Torquay United’s full-time status came to the fore as East Thurrock United suffered a heartbreaking late 2-1 defeat to the National League South table-toppers.

Danny Harris deservedly gave Rocks a first half lead, but Saikou Janneh got the visitors back on level terms soon after the break.

Torquay snatched all three points as Ruairi Keating grabbed a 90th minute winner and Coventry felt the Gulls’ fitness levels allowed them to see off his determined East Thurrock side.

The Rocks boss said: “When you’re playing against a side as good as Torquay, you can’t just turn up and play off the cuff.

“You have to have a little bit of a gameplan and we carried ours out to a tee.

“The only thing that was noticeable was the fitness levels.

“They’re a full-time side and that was the major difference.

“We’re at the bottom, whereas they’re at the top of the table.

“There was no doubt they had better quality but I thought we matched them for effort and probably outworked them in the first half.

“In the second half we just didn’t have the legs.”

Torquay were favourites as they made the trip to Rookery Hill for the first time, but they fell behind as Harris scrambled the ball home from close range on 18 minutes.

East Thurrock were by far the better team in the first half, creating numerous chances and causing havoc from set-pieces.

But Torquay were level, with their first meaningful attack, 10 minutes after the break as Janneh found the back of the net after Lee Burns failed to cut out Keating’s centre.

Although both sides created clear-cut opportunities, the visitors grabbed a late winner as Keating got his name on the scoresheet.

And Coventry was gutted to see his side’s fine display go unrewarded.

“We were 1-0 up and wanted to hold out in the second half, but it wasn’t to be,” added Coventry.

“I’m gutted from that point of view but then I have to look at the bigger picture and realise that we put everything into the game.

“Everybody knows the situation we’re in and we’re trying our best to get out of it.

“We played the best team in the league and took them to 90 minutes before they could get the win.

“I don’t think I could ask too much more of my players and you hope there are a lot of positives to take from the game.”