Torquay United Fans Forum

When Jarvis played all we did was play high balls up to him hoping he could score. It rarely happened. Opposition defences were easily able to deal with high balls meant for Jarvis. When he was out of the team we didn't stop scoring. We had to find other ways to the goal other than lobbing up to him. And we did find other ways, and it was only when Jarvis was out towards the end of the season that we found the way to play a bit of creative football. Successful teams do not rely on one player to score all the goals. All outfield players should be capable of scoring. The team we had three seasons ago was capable of doing that - that is why they were successful.

If the council ever decided to sell Plainmoor there would be a massive objection from the residents of Torquay, not to mention Gulls fans. They would be forced to back down from that decision. I think the fans objections alone would probably be sufficient to change their minds. I believe there is some sort of covenant that requires Plainmoor to be used for sport / recreational purposes only. I don't believe it's realistic to think that Plainmoor will be sold. It's a developed football stadium, so any buyer would have to factor in the cost of the removal of all the infrastructure. Must be a disincentive. It's been let to Torquay United for a hundred years - I don't see any change happening to that arrangement, unless the club is completely liquidated.

One of the most effective ways of making money, with extra benefit, is if yesterday's gate of over 3600 is repeated at every home game from now until the end of the season. There is also the extra money that is spent at the stadium. This would be a great encouragement for the players and Aaron Downes. Even if we keep losing we still need to have gates of this order if the residents of Torquay want to keep their football team.
Please keep coming.

It sounds as though some Torquay fans will expect any new manager to get instant success. In other words promotion in the first season. If he doesn't achieve that, he will be subjected to the same treatment that Johnson is getting now. Fans won't wait for him to recruit all those players who are going to get us promotion out of this league. All managers here have struggled to recruit the players they really wanted, because we are too far away etc - we've heard this complaint from nearly all our managers for years. So how long will it take for any new manager to get the team he wants in his first season? It won't happen. As I've said before Torquay fans need to get real.
Think Owers, it didn't take long for him to become unpopular. Who knows, given time, ie. two or three seasons, he may have achieved something here - we'll never know.

To all those who are constantly carping on that Johnson should go, need to realise that getting a new manager in will not necessarily result in automatic success. The latest in a long line of these to prove that it doesn't happen that way is Wayne Rooney and Birmingham City. United fans want to be careful what they wish for.

If the club leaves Torquay it will be diminished. If it leaves Torbay it will be finished. Yes the club may make more money, with all the promised avenues of revenue that will be available, it may even be sustainable, but the football side will be the poorer for it. Torquay United will not be the main revenue interest. Support will be much lower than today. Clearly, there is not a suitable site in Torquay, and I can't think of anywhere in Torbay. Perhaps one place is the old gasworks site on the Paignton / Torquay border? That seems to have been given up by the current developer. Chaos though, getting there, and nowhere to park. Plainmoor is a good stadium for us. It will be hard to create a better one. It is in a good location easy to get to, plenty of on road parking. You won't find better anywhere in Torquay, let alone Torbay. I don't look forward to any move away from Plainmoor.

Some fans think Plainmoor is bad for parking. So you think the Gallows Gate area would be better? We could all park along the ring road, it's wide enough. Get real.
On the question of buses from Preston, it would be better to get a No 22 which would take you St Marychurch - an easy walk from there. So there's another option.

By 'community based club' I meant it is situated right in the middle of a community - adjacent and convenient to its fans.
I don't think there are that many fans who travel from places like Reading, that would make a difference to the size of the Plainmoor gate. The club has to consider that the majority of its fans that attend matches are based locally. That must be obvious, I would have thought. Of course there are an occasional few who travel long distances to get here for matches. I've done it myself when I was living elsewhere, to get to special games, for example, a cuptie.
What railway station do you think we could build a stadium near? Answer, there are none, because there is no suitable land near any local station. ie. Torquay, Torre. I would have thought that was an obvious observation.
Plainmoor is in a unique position for a football club. Be careful if you wish to move away from it. Would Exeter City ever want to leave St James Park? Only if they ever got in the Premiership I should think. The siting of SJP allows the fans excellent access to their football club. If it was out of town, all spectators would need to drive there. Not a good idea.

Plainmoor is a community based club - close to amenities, on a bus route, has plenty of on road parking, set in the midst of its fans. A move away to some characterless stadium would be a disaster. There is no flat land anywhere near, either on the ring road, or in Teignbridge, (would all our fans travel that far every week, I don't think so), that would be big enough to accommodate a football stadium, a large enough car park (forget the whole idea if there's no car park), and all the other amenities that CO wants. The whole scheme is totally unrealistic, and I think he knows that by now.

Don't write us off yet for the title. You don't have to look at the Premiership for an example of a runaway club losing it in the end. It was only a couple of seasons ago that Torquay were twelve points ahead in Feb / March and we still missed out on automatic promotion. It's a long way to go to the end of the season, and anything can happen. I wouldn't bet on Yeovil yet.

I've only seen the highlights, but I must agree with Desperado that if Havant could finish properly then we would have lost about 6-2. However, given the fact that our team is so diminished, and lacking a lot of key players, we have to be thankful for this win. Good to see the new boys doing so well. Amazing that we are fifth in the league, so there must be hope once we've got our injured players back. However, we do need more backup, particularly a centre forward and a central defender.

When Stobbs is attacking down the right wing his centres usually reach the far post or are even well beyond it. If Ash or someone could position themselves just beyond the back post or thereabouts they would get a stack of goals.
Now that Jarvis is out for a while, perhaps Stobbs ought to try and send in low, hard centres that just need a touch from a player in the box, especially from the goal line where he often delivers the final ball. It could even come off a defender for an own goal. I think a lot of the attacking work he does is wasted with his final ball in. With the players we've got at the moment, high crosses are unreachable. Even Jarvis struggles to reach them, let alone get enough on the ball to score with a header.

In the light of the seriousness of the injury list, and the loss of so many of our key players just now, I think we all ought to forget our criticisms of the club, the manager, the shortcomings of the team and individual players, and get right behind our team and support them to the hilt. If the fans who turn up on Saturday make their protestations, it will only help the opposition big time. I suggest we all now give 100 per cent support to our club and team. I'm sure all true fans of TUAFC will agree with this.

If the budget has been used up for this season, what could a new manager do if there is no money to spend on new players. He would just be recycling the current squad, to very limited effect.

Leaving Plainmoor could be disastrous for supporters. It would be very tight at the Recreation ground with zero parking. I can't see the planning department allowing it. Imagine the chaos at the end of a match as people left the stadium onto those main roads. If we got anywhere above League One there would be no room to expand the terraces and the stands that would be required. There is plenty of onroad parking at Plainmoor. If a large enough flat area could be found in the Edginswell area (and I don't think there is any), you would also need to provide a large area for car parking. There's nowhere in the ring road area, and moving out of town to Paignton or Newton Abbot would be fatal for the club. Gates would drop to a low level. Plalnmoor is situated in the midst of a lot of houses where many fans are drawn from, and is easily accessible from most areas of the town. I fully understand the need for the football ground of any club to be available for other functions during the week, but wouldn't that also require an artificial surface? I think the fans who are in favour of moving the ground want to be careful what they wish for.