Torquay United Fans Forum

happytorq wrote: ↑31 Oct 2022, 16:35 We're all mercenaries to a degree. I'd absolutely leave my company (which I really like) if somebody said "hey, here's 3x the money". I'd be an idiot not to when it could set me up for a far easier life later on. I never understand why we get so precious about footballers moving for money

We want to think the players on the sports teams we support are as much in love with the team as we are. And they're just not. And are never going to be. For us, sports is a distraction from life. For the players, it is their life. They're going to do what's best for their lives, just as we do in our own lives. Emotion is just not going to play the part we'd like to think it does.

If Torquay go down this year the supporters will be devastated and that pain will never go away. Meanwhile, the players will post a short message on Twitter about how disappointed they are and a few days later they'll sign up with some new team and never give Torquay another thought. That's life. It doesn't mean they don't care. It just means they're never going to care in the same way the supporters do. It's just a completely different perspective.

When it comes down to it, we're all rooting for laundry. Players come and go, we root for whoever is wearing yellow shirts at any given moment.

chardie wrote: ↑03 Aug 2017, 15:26 I don't think the commo via the BBC works when you are outside the UK.

Has always worked for me well outside the UK.

http://www.bbc.com/sport/football/36722733

tomogull wrote:Little has been said about Tranmere's penalty miss. Did the penalty-taker miss the target, or did Brendan save it? If he saved it, how many pens in succession has he now saved ?

Missed wide.

happytorq wrote: You have to go to New Jersey?

My comiserations.

*commiserations

New Jersey is a lovely place inhabited by people who know how to spell.

Glostergull wrote:Hi NJgull. are you in New Jersey. Im coming over to the states Aug 25th. my agent said i would be landing at newark but it appears I'm actually landing at JFK but will be traveling through New Jersey by train.

Yep, I'm in New Jersey and always will be unless I win the Powerball in which case I'm moving to Monaco.

happytorq wrote: Realised I hadn't actually replied to this, in my drive towards sarcasm.

Anyway, your credit card/bank will just convert the £ into $. Some financial places will charge you a foreign transaction fee too (which is why I chose one that doesn't do that). It's really pretty easy.

Yeah I went back and just clicked £30 which was the default donation and whatever happened happened. 30 sounded like a reasonable number. I'll trust I haven't been bankrupted.

If an American tried to do this thing would it work? When I clicked through to the site it was (unsurprisingly) all set up for your British £ things rather than American $ things.

Plymouth Gull wrote:JOINT 9th: Torquay United 4 - 3 Aldershot Town - 2012/13

37 points, 6 votes (3+9+6+6+9+4)

League 2
Tuesday 2nd October 2012
Plainmoor
Attendance: 2358

Torquay: Michael Poke, Joe Oastler, Aaron Downes, Brian Saah, Kevin Nicholson, Lee Mansell, Nathan Craig, Danny Stevens, Niall Thompson, Rene Howe, Billy Bodin. Subs: Ryan Jarvis, Ashley Yeoman, Martin Rice, Daniel Leadbitter, Tom Cruise, Kirtys MacKenzie, Carl Baker

Torquay scorers: Billy Bodin, Ryan Jarvis, Ashley Yeoman, Rene Howe
Aldershot scorers: Craig Reid (3)

---

No surprise to see this feature highly. Aldershot came to Plainmoor really out of form, and the fans wanted a change of management at the club. However, Dean Holdsworth remained in a job. They came to Devon and should have gone home with 3 points and a comfortable victory. Craig Reid hit a hat trick inside 47 minutes to put the Shots 3-0 up. The first was a conversion from a free kick, the second a penalty and the third came from close range. Within two minutes of Reid's third, United got one back through Bodin. Substitute Ryan Jarvis made it 2-3 just past the hour. The pressure continued and another substitute, Ashley Yeoman, got the equaliser with 7 minutes to go. As if that wasn't enough, United won the game in stoppage time as Rene Howe banged home from 25 yards.

This was the best comeback I've ever seen - much like the Lincoln match that featured on this list - coming from 3 goals down to win is a special achievement and so it isn't a surprise this game picked up a few votes.

I didn't vote in this thing what with being on the other side of the planet and thus only ever having seen a handful of Torquay United games on dodgy internet streams. But if I had to vote for one Torquay United game which holds a special place in my heart, not even having actually seen it, this would be the one. Look at the date this game was played up there ^^^^^^^^^^ and then look at the date I joined this forum over there >>>>>>>>>. Not a coincidence.

It was this game that turned me from someone who VERY casually followed Torquay United as a lark with no real emotional attachment to the club into someone who lives and dies with every game. As this game was being played I was planted in front of the television watching a Champions League game featuring that other English soccer (er, football) club I support, Manchester United. (I know. Manchester United. BOOOOOOOOO!) As I watched I had my laptop next to me with the matchday thread on this here forum open as that was really the only way for me to ever keep up with a Torquay game. I wasn't a serious Torquay fan so I didn't have Gulls Player and couldn't listen to the game. I had just barely dipped a toe into the waters of this newfangled thing called Twitter but back in those days the official club account barely ever tweeted anything and, unfamiliar as I was with the thing, damned if I knew how to find anybody who actually did tweet stuff about the club. So, it was this forum or bust. When Torquay went 3-0 down suffice to say I was no longer paying attention and was instead totally locked in on Manchester United's epic struggle with the mighty CFR Cluj. Torquay scored. Eh, still 3-1 down, who cares. Scored again. OK, now you've got my interest. Finally with 7 minutes to go comes the equalizer. Now I forget Manchester United are even playing. I'm refreshing this forum every 30 seconds. I'm totally hooked. This Torquay United thing isn't a lark anymore. I care! And then, in stoppage time, the winner! I start clapping and cheering and hooting and hollering. This was the most exciting, thrilling, amazing, stupendous, wonderful, memorable game...that I actually didn't see.

So then things changed. The next day I signed up for this forum, just to thank the people who had made following that matchday thread so enjoyable. Never really intended to post anything again as I figured someone who couldn't actually see (or at that point even hear) the games wouldn't really have anything to say. But as the years have gone by I've dived headfirst into the Torquay United experience. The rest of that 2012-13 season I followed every matchday thread on here religiously. I started ignoring Premier League games to follow a club I couldn't even see play. When a hurricane blew through here a few weeks after the Aldershot game and I was without power for days the first thing I did when I finally got an Internet connection was check to see the result of Torquay's FA Cup game. We'd lost. To Harrogate Town. Maybe then I should've known supporting this club was going to be, shall we say, challenging at times. The next season I signed up for Gulls Player. I was going to listen to every single game. I was going to be a real Torquay United fan. Silly me, I expected great things from the club then, it was going to be an exciting season. The club was destined for a glorious rise. Well, that hasn't quite gone as expected. But I'm in, and I'm staying in, wherever this ride goes. Every Saturday morning the first thing I do is fire up the laptop and tune in to the Torquay United game. Weekday games mean I'm glued to my Twitter feed when I'm theoretically "working." Hey, the club (and I) have actually figured out the Twitter thing by now! Snob that I am I hardly follow anyone on Twitter. Of the mere 77 people I follow 8 of them are Torquay United related. I'm following more people because of Torquay United than because of anything else. And I created a Torquay United Twitter list so I could keep up with MORE people who tweet about Torquay United. I read any article I can find about the club online. I gobble up every available morsel of information about the club. I am well and truly obsessed with this 5th-tier club that plays in a little English town I've never been within 3,000 miles of. And it all goes back to Torquay United 4 - 3 Aldershot Town on October 2nd, 2012. (Sorry about writing the date like an American but I am, you know, American.) That day I sat down to watch my club, Manchester United, barely sparing a thought about a Torquay United game that happened to be going on at the same time. Now, my club is Torquay United. I'll watch a Manchester United game...but only if the Gulls aren't playing.

This thread has made me so angry I've decided I need to find a random group of people to hate for no reason. Hmmmm...I think I shall hate Vanuatuans. They're annoying.

Now please excuse me while I go dig out my New York Yankees WORLD CHAMPIONS jacket and go shovel snow. Hopefully I'll avoid a heart attack as being an American I am obviously morbidly obese.

PhilGull wrote:Anyone know what's happening with TULFC? A load of players seems to leave for Buckland in the summer and today WTS have announced they have ended their shirt sponsorship.
Results seem okay though, certainly better than the men!

There were a bunch of tweets a while back from players and sponsors and general hangers-on who all seemed quite perturbed with what was going on with the team.

Bleeper wrote: What is his Twitter username?

http://x.com/thoraxian

Bleeper wrote: its probably hard to spread the word when you have minimal followers..

And when you have your twitter account set to private so nobody can actually see your tweets.

forevertufc wrote:Thanks once again of the feedback, yes, had a feeling when I was writing this, any response might be sporadic to say the least. It is a shame, I do try to put talking points in these to provoke members to share their opinions, but, I guess three seasons of terminal struggle has worn us all out, never mind I enjoy doing them so will continue if everyone's happy for me to do so.

As someone who is thousands of miles away who hasn't got the foggiest idea what the hell an Altrincham is let me say I always greatly appreciate these previews.

Well this is all kinds of disgusting.

Well now I miss the silence.