Torquay United fringe players impress Martin Ling

Torquay United manager Martin Ling says he was pleased with the way his squad players performed in their Johnstone's Paint Trophy loss to Yeovil Town.

The Gulls lost 5-4 on penalties after drawing 2-2 with the Glovers.

Ryan Jarvis, Tom Cruise, Daniel Leadbitter and Craig Easton all started for Torquay.

"It proves that when I look behind myself on a Saturday at the bench I've got good players who can do the job," Ling told BBC South West Sport.

Jarvis opened the scoring as he got on the end of a Billy Bodin cut-back from the byline after a great passing move after 24 minutes.

James Hayter equalised for the Glovers seven minutes before half-time after Michael Poke dropped a high ball and the former Bournemouth striker reacted quickest.

Jarvis gave Torquay the lead again after 57 minutes before Hayter got his second in stoppage time.

Tom Cruise missed Torquay's third penalty as every other player scored to send Yeovil into the next round where they will face Wycombe.

"You've got to be able to see games out and we didn't do that," Ling said.

"It's disappointing as a manager to be so close to Wycombe in the next round and not that far from Wembley."

But Ling was more impressed with the form of Jarvis, who scored his third goal of the season in what was his third start.

"He's had to be patient, he's not had that many starts, he's there as Rene Howe's replacement or to join Rene when we need him," he added.

"That'll give him plenty of confidence and he's looked a lot sharper in training recently and we chose to go with an individual striker.

"I know that he can do the job because he's done it for me previously, he did it for me tonight and that means if Rene's one booking away from suspension we've got a replacement there or we can partner him with Rene if we need to.

"It's a competition where you can use your bench and I think the bench players didn't let themselves down."