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Reading the Herald Express website today it shows that Chairwomen Thea Bristow and other directors of Torquay United are backing CH to bring us straight back up next year and will support him to the hilt in his quest to make sure this happens.

We cant thank Thea enough for her support and money to ensure we still have a football club to support at Torquay.

Extract Below


CHAIRWOMAN Thea Bristow insists she is ready to back manager Chris Hargreaves and lead relegated Torquay United in a determined bid to win promotion back to the Football League at the first attempt next season.

Mrs Bristow – she and her late husband Paul helped to buy the club after the Gulls went down to the Conference last time in 2007 – said: “The Conference is where I came in, if you like, so it’s reasonably familiar territory.

“We know what it takes to get out of it, and I am confident that we are going to be great in it, as we were last time.

“We are going to support Chris as much as we possibly can, to have a new start and build something new.

“We are all a lot more upbeat than you would expect, and we want to look forward to the challenge and tackle it.

“I do have this sort of guilt gene inside me, that says I have presided over one of the worst seasons in Torquay’s history.

“People tell me I shouldn’t feel like that, and I do believe that I should try and push it aside and get on with the job in hand. That’s the most important thing.”

Despite beating Mansfield Town 3-1 at Field Mill on Saturday, their eighth away win of the season, United were relegated by Northampton Town’s 3-0 victory at Dagenham & Redbridge.

Mrs Bristow, United’s major shareholder and backer, was talking after gathering her three joint vice-chairmen – former chairmen Alex Rowe and Simon Baker and ex-managing director Bill Phillips – for a post-relegation planning meeting at Plainmoor.

She followed that with a call to manager Hargreaves, who is starting the build-up to United’s final game of the season, at home to one-from-bottom Wycombe Wanderers this Saturday.

Victory for the Gulls will take the Chairboys down with them.

Mrs Bristow stressed: “It’s all still very raw and l know how everyone is hurting, but let’s have a great party at Plainmoor on Saturday – it’s all we can do for now.

“Our fans have been magnificent at Plainmoor all season, but I want to say a special thanks to the wonderful support we had at Mansfield. I was so proud of our supporters there, they were wonderful.

“I was proud of the way the team played, and I was so pleased that the players threw their shirts to our fans at the end of the game.

“Everyone connected with Mansfield – their fans, staff and directors – were terrific to us on what was a very difficult day.”

She really is a top woman, the real Iron Lady.

Her commitment to the club cannot be questioned.

Out if all the criticisms levelled at Board members, none apply to Thea. She (and Paul) have given our club more backing and commitment than we could in our wildest dreams have hoped for. Thank you Thea, you are a treasure.

You have nothing to feel guilty for Thea. Please do not attach this seasons performance with anything you have given, and continue to give for our club.

I do not want to get into club politics, I just want to thank you for everything you have done and continue to do for TUFC.

gullintwoplaces wrote:Out if all the criticisms levelled at Board members, none apply to Thea. She (and Paul) have given our club more backing and commitment than we could in our wildest dreams have hoped for. Thank you Thea, you are a treasure.

seconded.

Its good to hear that. Especially as she appears to be Torquay through and through. Certainly one misconception that seems to have been posted on here is that Mrs Bristow may have been drained dry by the other directors in bank rolling the club.
I would imagine that this is probably far from the truth in reality.
I am sure Mrs Bristow is a very astute lady and having came by such an extremely large sum of money, recieved sound financial advise on investments etc.
Far from being almost destitute in her excellent support of our football club I would imagine her windfall in reality is probably now worth considerably more than when she came by it.

Amazing woman, so thankful because without her we might not even have a club to support!

She doesn't always get the thanks she deserves, part of me going on Saturday will be to show my appreciation to her

good article........

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/27190925

SuperNickyWroe wrote:good article........

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/27190925

It is a good article. Steve Breed's pessimism in the article saddens me, if we don't have hope then all we are left with is despair.

You have to take your hat off to Mrs Bristow for her continued support to Torquay United,she comes across as a lady who cares and feels guilty for last season,blimey!,now I feel guilty for thinking I would not renew my season ticket,we need to get behind her for next season and really give it a go,if she is up for the fight then certainly all Torquay fans should be one step behind her.

Steve Breed's comments summing up at the end really is far too negative. I don't think they are very helpful and this stage.

As much as it pains me I see it the same way Buckle does.

Agreed. From what's in that article you wonder whether Steve Breed has actually watched any of our recent matches. Surely nobody expected CH to work immediate miracles, but he has actually been turning things around and changing the 'ethos' at the club. The players have begun to believe in themselves again and found the desire to win games.

It all bodes well for next season.

Steve rightly says finances will be an issue, but in the long history of the club when were they ever not? In probably less than a handful of seasons. It's not all about money.

Hargreaves came in with exactly the right idea about the way forward for the club. And we have as good a chance as any other team of a promotion challenge next season. I have a positive feeling which was totally absent when Alan Knill was fortunate enough to save us from the drop a year ago. We should support CH and the team all the way.

It's going to be an exciting season ahead.

It all depends on the backing of the board and how well we do. We have had rumblings about the finances for weeks but Phillips was touting the promotion budget line three weeks ago and thats seems to have been reaffirmed by the chair person.
How ever hard it might be to get out of this league it isn't the same quality as league 2 (and bearing in mind that wasn't very good either).
We are clearly one of the leagues bigger clubs so lets hope we can make a real fist of it next year.

Steve's comments are realistic

Completely agree with the positive comments re: Thea and her late husband. Thank you for everything you have done and continue to do.