Torquay United Fans Forum

Matt88 wrote: ↑26 Jul 2018, 13:59 Where you goin'?

Matt.

I can’t attend this meeting as I’m about to go on holiday but I hope plenty can. Expect though that the five minutes of questions will be Pre-booked full of headnodders like David Thomas asking easy questions that let Osborne off the hook.

tomogull wrote: ↑21 Jul 2018, 17:16 Yes - good post from Brucie. I don't like to see individual players being picked on. However, I think it's over the top to accuse Bristol-Gull of (quote) 'bullying and witch hunt'. He was simply repeating the frustrations of many posters on here over the past two seasons. Personally, I think Jamie Reid can become a more effective player with the right coaching, and i don't think there was much evidence of effective coaching last season.

Apologies, I should have made it clearer. I wasn’t accusing Bristolgull of bullying etc but in general, reading some of the comments on here and especially on Facebook, some are tantamount to bullying, even bring Jamie Reid’s mum into. It's appalling and particularly cowardly.

Brucie is right, the bullying and witch hunt of Reid is out of order and really quite ridiculous after matches against teams 4 and 5 divisions higher.

madgull wrote: ↑20 Jul 2018, 18:25 I would contend that expecting commentary because 'we're Torquay' and we're 'still a big club' despite languishing in a regional league is what is ignorant and arrogant. It's that kind of thinking that does the club no favours at all, this whole 'we're too good for this' outlook gets us nowhere.

We're in a small league, so, unless we can get promoted again, we're a small club. We don't deserve to be in the Football League. We don't deserve to be in the National League. We don't deserve radio commentary. The club must strive to change this, but - for now - this is our reality.

It’s ridiculous for people to expect us to have the same level of media coverage as our local League 1 and League 2 clubs, when we are nearer Tiverton Town and as near to Bideford and Barnstaple in the pyramid. In fact, being 3 divisions below Plymouth means we are as close to Buckland in the pyramid as the GAWS. It’s so utterly, blindingly obvious why Radio Devon no longer consider us worthy of live coverage that those getting up about it are the ones devoid of reality.

Have Dover announced theirs yet?

Unfortunately, it would seem Exeter have not taken up the offer to recruit Gary Owers; they have already appointed Tisdale’s replacement: Matt Taylor, one of their youth coaches and former player. Could be argued they have gone down the #legend route but at least Taylor has some credentials.

Teigngull wrote: ↑01 Jun 2018, 17:12 How long before old special balls Nicholsons' name gets linked with the job ?

Kevin Nicholson has indeed been linked with the job, except that it is their former youth coach with the same name, rather than our former lottery-winning legacy builder.

Tisdale has left. Suspect things are going to take a sharp dip for them now. Their fans don’t know how lucky they’ve been and perhaps deserve the decline that is heading their way.

Can I recommend Gary Owers for the vacancy?

Southampton Gull wrote: ↑30 May 2018, 15:04 Along with the majority of the fans.

Possibly but I doubt even the majority of Torquay can muster a cheer if Exeter are losing. It’s just pointless now.

Southampton Gull wrote: ↑30 May 2018, 14:02 Our rivals are Exeter and that's a fact whether they consider us worthy or not.

Only in your own head, Dave!!!

There may be some TUFC fans whom see Exeter as our rivals but we are so irrelevant to them now, that they don’t see us in that way.

There was a time when I really couldn’t stand Exeter and took enormous pleasure from their misfortune and when they lost games. This has dissolved over recent years when they have become a progressive club with a good culture based around the development of youth and playing attractive football.

It is the Neanderthal element that is going to blow this apart for them, by being shortsighted when they served Tisdale his notice. Somewhat ironic that their own fans will eventually be the authors of their downfall and the irony could be delicious as I can perhaps get back to enjoying their demise and disappointments rather than the respect and admiration I currently have for them.

As for Plymouth - don’t get me started - I can’t abide them and the patronising attitude of plenty of their fans basking on the supposed glory that robbing local businesses gets you when you only repay 0.7p of every £1 you owe, vexes me even more.

However, deep down in the NLS, both Plymouth and Exeter are now so far removed from them that seriously considering them as rivals is daft. You’re only rivals when a feeling is mutual and there is no way that either seriously see us as rivals anymore.

Wealdstone have also played at Confernece level. Again, in the mid 80s they were the best non-league team in the country. Pretty sure they did the non-league double of winning the Alliance Premier and also the FA Trophy.

Bath have played in the Conference and were certainly in it, when the league was formed in the late 70s when it was known as the Alliance Premier - effectively an alliance of the northern and southern leagues.

When we finished bottom of the league under Webb, Bath finished as high as 4th and actually applied for our league place (when the system was re-election) as the team’s above them declined to apply but they weren’t taken seriously and hardly anyone voted for them.

We’ve seen the past, managers come and with the odd tweak transform a squad.

Look what Cyril Knowles did with Stuart Morgan’s team.
Look what Colin Lee did with Wes Saunders’ team.
Look what Ian Atkins did with the team he inherited.

Lee and Atkins transformed their teams in a matter of weeks.

This is what Owers was brought in to do. He had almost an entire season to nudge our fortunes but he couldn’t.

He was left a poor team by Nicholson but there is no denying Owers had time to improve things. It’s not like he came in during February.