Torquay United Fans Forum

I feel the bookies are playing it safe. I just cannot see this team scraping a relegation battle. Mid table is my prediction, top end as well. But the bookies are never wrong are they......

Torquay favourites to go down with Paddy Power, bit tough but not far off again I reckon

It's fairly quiet on here at present (great news that Jordan Lee is returning to Plainmoor) and as it's less that a fortnight to go before the first match of the season - yeah ! - here are my mythical predictions for the new season. I know not eveyone likes predictions ...... but I bet everyone reads the posts and has their own ideas !

Last season, predictions were fairly straightforward. Lincoln, Tranmere, FGR & Dagenham & Redbridge were amongst most people's favourites for the top places and Southport, North Ferriby and perhaps Braintree were seen as relegation fodder. I don't think many thought York would collapse so spectacularly, except maybe YorkieAndy. I thought FGR would falter after two play-off failures, but Forever called it right and they are now in the league of course. However, I recall Forever thinking Chester would do better than the lowly place I had correctly forecast.

It is not so cut and dried this season i don't think. Tranmere and the Daggers will probably be most people's favourites for promotion and some seem to think Hartlepool will do well. I'm not so sure - they seem to be in the sort of mess that we're in. At the other end, I don't think there are any obvious 'fall guys' although Guiseley's luck will run out at some time. Of the promoted teams, they all look quite strong expect for poor ol' AFC Halifax who could struggle. Anyway, here are my fantasy predictions. Just to be different, I have divided the league into quarters (no particular order for each quarter) -
Top Quarter - TRANMERE, DAGENHAM, ALDERSHOT, LEYTON ORIENT (they seem to have brought in some useful signings), BARROW and EASTLEIGH
Second Quarter (above halfway) - WREXHAM, SUTTON, AFC FYLDE, HARTLEPOOL, MACCLESFIELD, EBBSFLEET
Third Quarter (below halfway) - GATESHEAD, MAIDSTONE, BROMLEY, TORQUAY, DOVER, MAIDENHEAD
Bottom Quarter - WOKING, CHESTER, BOREHAM WOOD, FC HALIFAX, GUISELEY, SOLIHULL MOORS

I have a feeling that I could be very wrong about Boreham Wood - they are a bit of an unknown quantity. Time will tell ! I am not expecting miracles from TUFC but KN has assembled a squad that should move us up the league towards halfway.

Good idea, CP Gull. If I were to rank the National League into three bands, it would be as follows:

Top third: Aldershot Town, Barrow, Dagenham & Redbridge, Eastleigh, Hartlepool United, Leyton Orient, Tranmere Rovers, Wrexham

Mid third: Boreham Wood, Chester, Ebbsfleet United, Gateshead, Macclesfield Town, Maidstone United, Sutton United, Woking

Bottom third: AFC Fylde, Bromley, Dover Athletic, Guiseley, FC Halifax Town, Maidenhead United, Solihull Moors, Torquay United

Ray

My 2017/18 predictions ....

I do believe we have a stronger squad than last season ... but sadly not strong enough in certain areas to really compete for a play off spot. I do however think we will be good enough to avoid another #greatescape3

I actually think we might even enjoy one of those rare events in recent TUFC history .... mid table obscurity! I'm predicting a 10th - 14th place finish ... not great,but an improvement on the last couple of seasons at least!

I would say however that I genuinely think that this league is getting stronger and stronger as each season goes by and for what it's worth here are my predictions ..

Top 8 : Tranmere, Dagenham, Wrexham, Aldershot, Hartlepool, Leyton Orient, Barrow, Sutton United

Middle 8 : Gateshead, Eastleigh, AFC Fylde, Ebbsfleet, Torquay, Maidstone, Bromley, Boreham Wood

Bottom 8 : Macclesfield, Chester, Dover, Woking, FC Halifax, Maidenhead, Guiseley, Solihull

I have the same feeling as you at the moment Tommo but I hope I am wrong and we can get in the play offs.

gullpower wrote: 16 Jul 2017, 08:54 Ray, are you aware that amongst a section of Gulls fans the Barrow manager is considered to be a Judas? And before some people cry "He wasn't being paid", he knew what he was taking on, he spent the budget on a load of crap players and then ****** off. So... JUDAS!

Say what? Who on earth said that then or now? If you look back at this forum at the time when he resigned you'll see that most people were strongly on his side once the truth started to come out. His sacking was the first real sign of the craziness that was about to erupt under the Phillips regime and most of us were very sympathetic to a guy who always came across as committed, respectful of the club and open to the fans.

To add to Merse's and Rossi's posts, my understanding was that Paul Cox had been promised a contract at the end of September (?) and after being stalled well into October, he gave a deadline which was not met, hence his understandable decision to leave. I have the utmost respect for him and wish him and Barrow well. By the way, I see that Tyrone Marsh, released by Dover, has signed for Macclesfield. Okay Rossi - now I'll get back on predictions !

lower mid-table - about 15th
F.A. Cup & F.A. Trophy - we may have good runs in both as long as we don't come up against Bognor Regis ... or Basingstoke.
Player of the Season - Jake Gosling
Top Scorer - the striker that Nico hasn't signed yet !

People going on about how Paul Cox is a Judas lets look at the facts. He wasn't getting paid. For a professional who is living away from his family working 5 days a week. I don't blame him for leaving I had near nothing to work with yet he signed James Hurst who we sold for 10,000 and Tyrone Marsh both who which scored a combined 15 goals in six months. If you want to discuss this then please don't do it on here. This page is about predictions for the season

I have removed part of that original email. Ray please keep to TUFC related comments when replying to topics as you are starting to wind our blog readers up. Thank you.

Thank you for the messages of support. That was a vile passage to read. We have had trouble with malicious e-mails over on barrowafc.net ever since John Little resigned from his post as moderator. I hoped this blog would have had slightly tougher rules with regards to death wishes on other members.

It's Sunday today, so please take a few minutes to re read your bible, Gullpower. There is no comparison between Paul Cox and Judas.

Ray

Anyway, back to the point of the thread!

League: 12th
FA cup: 2nd round with hopefully a big money home tie
FA trophy: quarter final
Player of the season: Young, who else??
Young player of the season: Keating
Top scorer: JP Pitman

Agree that that type of posting is totally uncalled for.

LankyGull wrote: 16 Jul 2017, 10:11 Don't get me wrong, I find his Barrow posts annoying but to say those kind of things, whether you're joking or not is completely uncalled for.

Agreed. Unnecessary to say the least.

Good post LankyGull,that sort of offensive language is not what you want to read.