A well balanced and fair article...

[DavetheRave]

from:-

http://www.thisissouthdevon.co.uk/tufc/ ... ticle.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;


WHAT A PITY that we're looking back on not just a season but an era this week after the disappointment of losing in Saturday's Play-Off Final at Old Trafford.

For over the last four years there have been many more highs than lows, and Paul Buckle left Plainmoor this week with a record which is likely to stand comparison with the very best managers in the club's history.

If Torquay United had beaten Stevenage at the weekend, he would have become the first man ever to win two promotions at Plainmoor.

Along the way, United have challenged for promotion in three out of his four seasons in charge, rising back into the Football League on an unforgettable day at Wembley in 2009.



Under Buckle they won eleven FA Cup ties, reaching the Fourth Round twice, as well as making it to Wembley again for the 2008 FA Trophy Final.

Yes, he was given an opportunity and a budget to haul United out of the Conference after taking over at the low point of 2007.

But it was one thing to be given the chance, it was another to take it.

Many other managers have been in his position at other, bigger clubs and failed.

There is a section of Gulls supporters who have never found it easy to love their manager.

Perhaps Buckle's style and his personality don't lend themselves to universal affection.

But he wasn't paid to be sweetness and light all the time. He was paid to deliver results, which he did, consistently.

And behind the feisty, self-confident exterior, there has always been a man who questions himself more than most people realise. He just doesn't let on that he does.

Some of his decisions, especially about one or two popular players, have bridled with some fans.

But he's usually been proved right in the long run. And, in football, there is seldom a good way to say goodbye.

As the late Cyril Knowles once said to your correspondent: "Hey lad, if I make a hundred decisions a week, I don't want you having a go at me for a couple I might get wrong!"

Knowles didn't make too many mistakes. Two decades and more on, Buckle's account is massively in credit.

Good luck to his successor.

[chippygull]

That just about sums up my feelings on the whole matter; now, let's move on.