Torquay United Fans Forum

No idea on this Truros form is patchy, ours worse, sitting on fence
Truro 1 v 1 TUFC

Not a lot of confidence here, defence awful Monday.

Welling 3 v 1 TUFC

One of the biggest problems amongst us the fanbase right now, is we are far, far to fixated on the £1million year losses that were being racked up, NO, £1 million a year loses do NOT come automatically within the territory of running a full time club at TUFC.

Under CO it appears the club was spending ridiculous amounts of money for no return in value , please forgive me if I'm wrong here, but don't we have a full time media department ? If so a total waste.

Covered this so many times, there's no doubt in my mind that Johnson, Downes and Johnson would have been costing our club a kings ransom, then I look around from 40 minutes to about 1.5 hours drive of TUFC and I see 4 managers of part-time clubs Paul Wotton (Truro) Rob Bray (Taunton) Scott Bartlett(WSM) even though I believe he's no longer at the club (Bobby Wilkinson) Weymouth, All recruited better than us, produced part-time teams who've looked fitter, better organised and well drilled. Some ask what managers could we attract well there's 4 right on our doorstep who done pretty well on significantly less resources than us, and would cost this club a lot less money than GJ.

Some say we have to move the training up country, I don't agree. Lets look at Truro, if TUFC hadn't have been deducted 10 points, Truro would be sat 9 points behind us, with us still to play and 4 games in hand, their location is worse than ours, where have they got their players from ?

Yesterday one of the best players on the park and got the first WSM goal No3 Jordan Bastin, certainly a better left footer than anything we've got was signed by WSM from Elmore, their No4 Lloyd Humphries who at times had total control of the midfield, stood head and shoulders above McGavin and Lapslie is a Welshman not sure where he's based but is playing part-time for Weston and their centre back No6 Raphael Araoye again stood stronger than ours is on loan from Bristol City this shows just how it can be done, these types of players who are clearly available right here in the South West would cost less than some of the over hyped full timers we've got, mixed with better sourced loan players that these part-time managers named seemed to be able to get hold of.

So be more efficient with the amounts of money we spend, and what we spend it on. There is no real for a sugar daddy.

Better engagement with the fanbase and community at large, back at the online Q/A Mel Hayman said 'things like the £2 match day surcharge and cashless turnstiles were measures to keep the match day ques down' When I heard that nearly fell off my chair, football is an entertainment business and like retail relies heavily on footfall, you've got have the mind of a mad man to bring in measures to discourage footfall .

Remove what I've mentioned with a better all round match day experience, because for many it is a day out as well as football, and your gates figures go up.

Remaining full time is a must, I believe it could be done, by means as set out in my post regards more controlled spending, and spending in the right areas as a priority, however at the end of the process, if the only show in town, is TUST/investor and part time football, with our club remaining in tact , it's fine by me, I'll support it , and I would buy into any community share issue as I've said all along.

The team go into tomorrows game off the back of a 3.0 defeat at Yeovil, personally was at work Friday, however taking into account views from people at the match I know, and write ups on here and elsewhere , the main compliant maybe wasn't the defeat but the manner of it, with suggestions the travelling fans saw a real lack fight once again.

To me however, and I know, I'm not alone in this thinking, Friday game was a free hit, you don't go to the champions elect off the back of our season both on and off the field, with the squad available with much expectation.

The focus now most shift back into relegation avoidance, the club simply can not afford to slip out of the NLS, and this match, with all due respect to our
opponents once the 10 point deduction had been confirmed was always going to be a target match for a win, there will be no underestimation here, we can't afford another Taunton home scenario, and our record v W.S.M isn't great.

W.S.M ended a run of 4 straight defeats with a thumping 4.0 home win v Taunton on Friday and will come into this game surely thinking, it's great time to be playing Torquay away, they'll have a degree of confidence.

I have the day off tomorrow, really looking forward this one.

TUFC 2 v 1 W.S.M

Going to to be a tough one.

Yeovil 2 v 1 TUFC

Don't think I've ever walked away from Plainmoor feeling so relieved, having seen the team win a game they simply had to win, against one of the form teams in the division right now.

I've been critical of the so called 'old guard' all season, and I believe rightly so, they would have cost the club a lot of money to retain, and overall during the season to date, don't think the club has had value for money in this area, however it does have to be said, yesterday when it really counted, Dawson, Hall and Moxey their professionalism, Experience and quality made the difference in this game.

Even though Hampton did miss two absolute sitters in this game, thought Hall and Moxey were two rocks at the back for us, maybe helped by Hamptons more direct style of play particularly in the first half, TUFC had good possession and certainly didn't lack any fighting spirit that's was missing v Taunton, but there was no real cutting edge upfront.

Stobbs looks like he's once again got the bit right between his teeth, Hampton struggled to contain him and he had them for pace, my on criticism, which might be unfair was the crossing into the box, we saw a lot of crosses and to be fair they were going into good areas, however with no Jarvis and no DOA we didn't have 'that' type of player on the pitch, so that tactic didn't make much sense to me, thought the ball needed to come into to feet a bit more, and the one time it did, the reward was a penalty kick.

Not a lot say about the second half, Hampton play-off chasing and on the back of 4 wins and draw were always going to come out and have go at it, credit to Downes and Herrera, we had a good defensive shape in the second half, we didn't try and flood numbers forward chasing a second goal as we'd seen so many times under GJ only to fail, and at times it was backs to the wall, especially in the later stages, but what we saw was a goal line clearance from Moxey, Yellow shirts blocking, and defending like their life depended on it, we saw our team dig in and close out the game.

When your in a relegation scrap, that's exactly how it's done.

OceanYellow7 wrote: ↑23 Mar 2024, 18:40 Who questioned my suggestion last week that Hall could not play at centre back ?
Old brigade done us proud today. Better organised, strong challenges a Big win which not many of us expected.
Well done to all

That was me, just merely expressed an opinion, having seen the last experiment to try and turn an aging midfielder into a CB under Buckle, with Chris Hargreaves turn out to be such a miserable failure, and factoring in Asa Halls lack of match time didn't think it would work, however over the years I've never had a problem admitting when when my opinion was wrong, and to be fair in this match Hall at CB worked really well, certainly added to the team rather than taking anything away.

Totally agree with the rest of your post.

Minneapolisgull wrote: ↑22 Mar 2024, 23:06 For all those a few weeks ago waxing lyrical with happiness that they finally got there club back with CO pulling the plug.
This is that club looks like without CO money! bearly existing heading full steam into oblivion.We still await our Torquay night in shinning Armour with pots of money..... More chance of lord Lucan coming in with a bid.
As we stagger from one disastrous result to another at least we have our club back......
Torquay 1-3 Hampton Richmond

What future do you think our football had with Clarke Osbourne as owner ? We're talking about a business man who's never, once, ever (just to get point across) delivered on one single new stadium project promised, coupled with the club that was losing just shy of £1 million a year, was only ever going to end one way.

And what's all this talk of a 'night in shining armour' Running a full time professional football club here at TUFC does NOT need to come with a million quid a year loss, what the club needs from any new ownership is sustainability, for a start maximising all resources we have got like the Gulls nest, Boots and Laces, no 10's etc, also is there empty office space that can be rented out etc. also much better proactive engagement with fans and local community, we might see attendances more consistently higher, coupled with investment in youth on and off the field, instead of chucking eye watering sums of money at an over hyped manager and players who are not fit, or not fit for purpose, off field youth projects will help the community at large also could bring in new fans.

standupsitdown wrote: ↑18 Mar 2024, 07:33 Aaron Downes came over and spoke to some of us before the game. He said that because of the M25 closure the cost of a coach was about the same as a hotel. They asked the players which they’d prefer and they chose cars plus hotel rather than coach. So the club still found the cost of travel but for hotel not coach.

Makes perfect sense to be fair.

TommyGunn wrote: ↑17 Mar 2024, 19:31 Blimey I had no idea it could be that long. Thanks.

Just be aware, that's if my understanding is correct.

TommyGunn wrote: ↑17 Mar 2024, 19:19 How long is a club allowed to remain in administration? A set time or until the administrator feels there is not going to be a new owner???

And at that point we start a phoenix club at the bottom of the pyramid?

I believe it's 18 months or not more than 2 consecutive seasons, but must be remembered our club is not in administration , much water to flow under the bridge yet .

Gone with this one early as title says, we have Devon Day at Plainmoor Saturday, it is reported that a number of both Plymouth and Exeter supporters are coming in support of our club, what sort of numbers who knows, and while we are all thankful and grateful to any fan from another club that lends their support to us, I must make the point here, it's not up to them, to do the work to save our club. It is 100% down to us TUFC fans to turn up in numbers here and help save our own club, if other fans see us making the effort, they'll be back, if they don't, they won't, that simple.

It was reported back by a number of fans at Tonbridge Saturday that our team turned up in their cars Saturday and not on a team coach, well this sums it up, and a certain poster who still try's to paint Clarke Osbourne out as a white knight, well for you know who this tells CO is 'not' still paying the bills , and we truly are down to essential operating costs only, like wages etc.

Can you forgive the last two results ? If so please attend the game, if not at least consider buying a 'ghost ticket' it will all help.

I just can't put my finger on a reason for last week, why the fight and passion v Aveley/Weymouth and Dartford has disappeared, and last week saw us pick no points at a whimper, with a whopping great -6 goal difference, maybe Downes hasn't done the best job of taking the pressure off, or maybe Downes has put them too far into some comfort zone, these players can perform better. For me, it's not down to the team losing the last two games it's the manner.

Over the last few seasons us Gulls fans have taken a mental beating, we're pretty much all feeling the same, we all want this season just to end now don't we, however we've landed in another relegation dog fight, and this one really must be overcome as I believe the Southern premier south awaits us, again my appeal as much as, not many of us want to, we need to stick with these players, Downes and the club, unless new ownership rock up, and soon, this squad, the interim manager is all we've got, back them, or we defiantly will go down.

Unfortunately we face one this divisions inform teams Saturday, with 4 straight wins and draw from their last 5 games, now looking a shoe-in for the play-offs, going to be a difficult afternoon, Hampton will be a mountain to climb, but one we can climb if the team get themselves together.

Sadly for me think we'll come up short, I really want the biggest egg in the face here.

TUFC 1 V 3 Hampton.

No administrator worth their salt is going to come into a football club and cut playing staff, for a start if TUFC does fully enter administration then 'the football creditor rule' applies meaning all contracted players owed money become creditors of the club, no1 in order of priority, can only presume this applies also to non-league clubs

https://business-insolvency-helpline.co ... ors-rules/ a good read for those interested.

It would perhaps be back office staff who would be vulnerable, although not entirely sure what that would save, we all know the administrators first objective is to save the business and sell it on, a football without enough players, and certain roles like club secretary have to be filled (requirement of FA to have one) can't really be sold I would suggest.

We saw Chris Hargreaves tried at CB didn't work, if Hall isn't fit for 90 mins certainly wouldn't be putting him at CB.

However do agrre regarding Tomlinson, and the point about a return to a back 4.

OceanYellow7 wrote: ↑16 Mar 2024, 15:16 Tomlinson starts WTF after that performance on Tuesday !

Booth injured, who else is there?