Mr John Salako

[Kernowgull]

I dont get to many games these days, but I'm assuming that its the same group of morons who were completely embarrasing at Barnet last year. Instead of supporting the team, which almost everyone will join in with, they got into a pathetic slanging match with a group of school kids, and were singing about having jobs and not having to go to school!!

I have a group of about 15 Man United and Man City fans who I was planning on taking to the Stockport game away with me, and I've told them how awesome our fans are away from home. Hoping that I don't end up looking like a fol because of these idiots!!

[Dave]

So he tipped us to go down, that's it? He doesn't abuse kids or kick kittens into desk fans? Bloody hell, what is the world coming to?

Earth to morons, EVERYBODY tipped us to go down. Pundits, bookmakers, some of the posters on here for that matter, this is exactly what we want, everyone turning up at Plainmoor thinking it's a day at the seaside and a nice easy three points.

Yes, I am sure that Mr Salako did slack off and use the results of the past few seasons to predict who would struggle and who would go up, because to do anything else is completely pointless and totally unnecessary.

He could have spend weeks and thousands of pounds travelling the country, speaking to fans, watching pre season matches, scrutinising the transfer market and then researching thoroughly every single player in and out of every single club. He would then have made a bunch of predictions which were no more accurate than the ones he has made now.
Why not pick Bradford to go up? They are an ex premier league side with 11,000 home fans and a top drawer manager, they finished somewhere near the top of the league last season.
Why not pick TUFC to go down? We are a tiny club with 2500 home fans and a manager no one has ever heard of, we were lucky that Grimsby and Darlo were so bad, otherwise we may well have been relegated straight back to the conference.

He had to pick someone to go up and someone to go down, he took the easy (and entirely sensible) decision to have a quick look on google, then write his 300 word piece to camera. He probably then went to spend time with his wife and kids, or his mates down the pub. Is that really justification for shouting abuse at him for 90 minutes, or is it exactly what each and every one of us (myself most certainly included) would have done?

Next time, can we please spend 90 minutes singing Yellow Army and suchlike, rather than wasting swathes of energy and time directing anger at some geezer who happened to say something with which we (as Torquay fans) disagree!

Matt.

not having a go at you,nor do i want to be miss-understood,i really dont care that salako tipped us to go down or bradford to go up,and you are spot on when you say he did not deserve to be abused.

most bookies had us around mid table in there pre-season odds,and the racing post had us as best value bet to go up ,as outsiders.

i was focusing on lazy sports jurnolism(not sure on my spelling there )i brought bradford into it,becuse i did not want people to think i was just on about his torquay prediction.

bradford in the last 3 seasons (league 2) finished 10th with 62 points,9th with 67pts,and last season no where near the top,they finished 14th 2 places above us,and with 62 points,just 5 points ahead.

they made 6 new signings,of which there flag ship signing jake spieght i believe ended up in prison,there manager peter taylors recent record,was sacked at stevenage ,sacked at wycombe for all but taking them straight back to league 2.

this would lead me to predict nothing better than mid table,and i did not need to trawl around the country or spend 100's of hours on the internet..came up with that info in less than 5 minutes,could have done the whole league in 1 hour.

anyway like you say hardly the end of the world,and when it comes to these moron fans,they really are nothing to worry about,some were down near the away end against yoevil in the psf,mouthing it off.

if 2 yoevil fans had jumped the wall and ran at them,they would have run away,because they are nothing,and only do what they do,when they are in a safe place.

[AndyC]

It's not as if he said anything nasty about us, a la Claridge. I find it hard to disagree with his assertion that we are 'perennial strugglers' apart from the odd season here and there (and yes I realise the odd season here and there makes us slightly less than perennial!). I would very much doubt that he wrote the script he was reading from anyway and, at the time, we were one of the outsiders for the league. It's not as if he said we were certainties for the drop - he bracketed us in with other teams you would possibly have expected us to be in a similar position to - Cheltenham, Barnet, Macc and Accy - all of whom spent most of last season ahead of us, until the late great run.

In hindsight he looks a little on the stupid side, same goes for his Cheltenham prediction, but what's to say we won't struggle over the rest of the season. None of use truly knows, but whatever happens there is no excuse for the way a small minority in an otherwise excellent crowd treated him, and yes, I did hear the odd racist comment. Sadly I had my back to the protagonists, so I have absolutely no idea who said them - I could have an educated guess though.

[diamondgirl]

Not wishing to keep on about this, but I'm hoping that the persons responsible for this abusive/offensive chanting, read the comments made on this forum, and take note (Although I very much doubt it). We want Torquay fans to be remembered, at away grounds, for the right reasons. I have no wish to be bracketed alongside these morons, nore do I want to be forced to stop going to away matches because of it.

Come on people. Make the club proud. Support OUR team. Keep it clean and make it friendly. Let our football do the talking, on the pitch, and loud, verbal support from the terraces. "YELLOW ARMY, YELLOW ARMY" is far more relevent than "Salako is a C***" or "We are embarrasing" :Oops:

[tommyg]

It's the same group of morons that are at most away games. I think puberty has hit them late. Hopefully they will grow up soon.

As for Salako, it did anger me that he couldn't get simple facts correct while reporting the game. According to his commentating, we have a couple of new signings called Grifton and Nichols. The least he can do is read the team sheet and remember the names of the players. That is what he's supposed to be getting paid for. That being said, the abuse was way out of line.

[Fonda]

Fans from the 'big city' joke that 'country bumpkins' such as oursleves are inbred and backward. It's a bit of a shame an element of our support seem keen to provide them with supporting evidence.