The Serious Torquay Thread

[Bat Fastard]

Think it's a real shame. Could never get up the steam to really dislike them - felt like a bully picking on a small kid in the playground. Will be tragic if the South West loses another team and a traditional derby game for us.

Here here, will be a real shame, always enjoyed the derby against Torquay

 

[MJP_Exeter]

I really hope Torquay find a way to stay up this season. A real shame for Devon football they are struggling as much as they are at the moment.

 

[jase 07]

You may be right and I hope he keeps them up, but for a striker his career stats are played 425 and scored 63. That's not great.

I think he has played on the wing for large chunks of his career

 

[Grecian Max]

Thing is with Torquay is they were artificially in the league for too long, they don't have the gates worthy of a FL club, even the tinpot made up clubs manage to pull in better.

National League is there level and perhaps being a yo-yo team between NL and NLS suits them. Miss taking the **** at away games there, but I think future generations will regard Torquay as a non league club.

 

[Pete Martin (CTID)]

Thing is with Torquay is they were artificially in the league for too long, they don't have the gates worthy of a FL club, even the tinpot made up clubs manage to pull in better.

National League is there level and perhaps being a yo-yo team between NL and NLS suits them. Miss taking the **** at away games there, but I think future generations will regard Torquay as a non league club.

Sad perhaps, when you think that the Gulls first became a league team in 1927, nearly 100 years ago. Like ourselves, they have never been higher than the third tier. Their highest ever League finish was when they were runners-up to Alf Ramsey's Ipswich Town in the in the Third Division South in 1957. They have won automatic promotion to the third tier on three occasions (1960, 1966 and 2004) and promoted via the playoffs just once, in 1991. Also, they have reached the Fourth Round of the FA Cup on seven occasions and the Third Round of the League Cup on four occasions.

I do think they have suffered in part due to the emergence of non-league teams that have come into the EFL and stayed there, with bigger attendances than are seen now at Plainmoor. Crawley, Stevenage, Salford, Sutton United, Morecambe, FGR. Even Wycombe and Wigan were non-league at one time. I just don't think they can compete successfully at FL level any more and I do wonder whether at least some of our growth in attendances this season has been as a result of Gulls fans seeing the writing on the wall.

 

[Grecian2K]

Thing is with Torquay is they were artificially in the league for too long, they don't have the gates worthy of a FL club, even the tinpot made up clubs manage to pull in better.

Torquay actually first entered the league in 1927 and retained their place there until 2007...four years AFTER our own "fall from league heaven". Indeed, in that first season of our own non-league hell they got promoted to L1 - albeit a promotion that possibly precipitate their own swift descent to financial difficulty and non-league embarrassment a couple of years later. And, unlike us, their first spell down there only lasted two years before they re-joined the "proper league" before their last, longest, decline.

Indeed I'm also old enough to sadly recall those days back in the late 1960s when, while we were annually just scraping along in the bottom half of the old Division 4 they were sailing high in Division 3 - even briefly flirting with promotion to the second tier when between 1967 and 1969 they finished 4th and 6th - higher than WE'VE ever managed in our own history.

Don't get me wrong - I'm decidedly NOT a "closet Turkey" by any means. and have always considered them our annoying LITTLE cousins. But let's be fair. In the overall scheme of thing there isn't a lot to choose in the achievement table and comments like yours are as patronising as those frequently postured by those Cornish "slumbering giants" towards us.

And, as for tin-pot - aren't the current bottom two league tiers littered with even more "tinpot" outfits with equally tiny gates?

A bit of historical perspective needed perhaps - hubris is a very dangerous game to start playing.

PS: Shouldn't this be on Banter Board btw?

PPS: Pete M beat me to it!

 

[Grecian2K]

Oh and I do seem to recall that, in our very darkest hour, it was the Turkeys who not only gave us a pre season friendly down there due also donated all of the proceeds to the "Save the City" fund?

 

[Martin Lawrence]

Sad perhaps, when you think that the Gulls first became a league team in 1927, nearly 100 years ago. Like ourselves, they have never been higher than the third tier. Their highest ever League finish was when they were runners-up to Alf Ramsey's Ipswich Town in the in the Third Division South in 1957. They have won automatic promotion to the third tier on three occasions (1960, 1966 and 2004) and promoted via the playoffs just once, in 1991. Also, they have reached the Fourth Round of the FA Cup on seven occasions and the Third Round of the League Cup on four occasions.

I do think they have suffered in part due to the emergence of non-league teams that have come into the EFL and stayed there, with bigger attendances than are seen now at Plainmoor. Crawley, Stevenage, Salford, Sutton United, Morecambe, FGR. Even Wycombe and Wigan were non-league at one time. I just don't think they can compete successfully at FL level any more and I do wonder whether at least some of our growth in attendances this season has been as a result of Gulls fans seeing the writing on the wall.

To be honest Pete, I know a few Gulls fans who now consider themselves regulars at ECFC. They have just had enough at TUFC. Partly due to the ownership and partly because they are generally not very good.

 

[Radio Free Skaro]

A few thoughts on our feathered friends

1) The Gulls' period of relative success was mid 50s to mid 70s where they more often than not finished higher than us.


2) If Gulls do go down their fair-weather contingent will be heading to Home Park rather SJP


3) There are kids in the TQ area that have never known Torquay United as a league team.


4) Turks have a sizeable and growing catchment area, Torbay, Newton abbot, Teignmouth etc . Their problem is that they probably have a higher amount of population ('Grockles') who have in their wisdom relocated to Torbaydos but retain loyalty to their home town teams and only a passing interest in what's happening at Plain Moor


5) If by some miracle Torquay were to do well, From Dawlish in the East , to Totnes in the South , an seagull sh!t stained curtain could still descend across the county .

 

[DawlishBouy]

A few thoughts on our feathered friends

1) The Gulls' period of relative success was mid 50s to mid 70s where they more often than not finished higher than us.


2) If Gulls do go down their fair-weather contingent will be heading to Home Park rather SJP


3) There are kids in the TQ area that have never known Torquay United as a league team.


4) Turks have a sizeable and growing catchment area, Torbay, Newton abbot, Teignmouth etc . Their problem is that they probably have a higher amount of population ('Grockles') who have in their wisdom relocated to Torbaydos but retain loyalty to their home town teams and only a passing interest in what's happening at Plain Moor


5) If by some miracle Torquay were to do well, From Dawlish in the East , to Totnes in the South , an seagull sh!t stained curtain could still descend across the county .

Most people in Dawlish interested in local football follow City, not Torquay.