Encyclopedia
Torquay United Football Club, nicknamed the Gulls, are an
English association football club based in the seaside resort town of
Torquay,
Devon. They currently play in Football League Two, after having been relegated from Football League One at the end of the 2004-5 season. The club plays in a distinctive
yellow and navy strip. Its local rivals are the other two professional
Devon clubs,
Exeter City and
Plymouth Argyle, and Somerset's
Yeovil Town. However, local derbies are currently rare because Plymouth, Exeter and Yeovil are all in different divisions from Torquay United.
Torquay United pride themselves on being one of the few clubs in the lower English football leagues to remain debt free despite the debacle of the
ITV Digital collapse. Some consider that this financial security is created through careful financial management while others believe it to be via a lack of ambition that has seen countless cheap and poor players play for the club. 'Penny-wise and pound-foolish' is an oft repeated observation of things at Plainmoor.
A Football League One team for the 2004-2005 season, they were relegated that very season to Football League Two. In the 2005-2006 season they narrowly avoided dropping again into the
Nationwide Conference after winning four of their last five games including beating eventual league champions
Carlisle.
The club is run by Mike Bateson who many feel should move on. His policies of promoting members of his own family to key positions in the club despite lack of appropriate qualifications, has alienated a lot of fans, as has his views of supporters in general. The clubs official website messageboard was closed down due to supporters posting criticisms of the way the club was run. Too often the club has sailed too close to the wind when its lack of regard for footballing matters nearly resulted in relegation once again.
History
Founding to World War Two
The history of Torquay United is the history of three separate clubs. Torquay United were formed in 1899 by a group of school-leavers under the guidance of Sergeant-Major Edward Tomney. After a season of friendlies the club joined the East Devon League and moved into the Recreation Ground, their home for the next four years.
Having won their first ever honour in 1909, the Torquay and District League title, the club merged with local rivals Ellacombe in 1910 and adopted the name Torquay Town.
In 1910, Torquay Town moved into a new base at
Plainmoor a ground they shared with Babbacombe. Both sides were playing in the same league, the Plymouth and District League, which Torquay Town won in 1911-12.
The two Torquay clubs didn't get on at all until matters finally came to a head in 1921. Torquay Town FC was desperate to join
Exeter City and
Plymouth Argyle as professional clubs after many discussions Babbacombe at last agreed to a merger in 1921, enabling the new club to become professional and so Torquay United was born.
Their first year as a pro outfit in 1921-22 was in the Western League, where United finished 5th. They then entered the Southern League, where they finished a creditable 6th in 1922-23.
One of the best years in United's history was 1926-27 when they won the
Southern League and gained entry to the Football League. United had the same number of points as
Bristol City Reserves, but their 3-1 win on the final day of the season helped them to win the league on goal difference. They gained entry into the Football League at the expense of Aberdare Athletic F.C., who dropped out after failing to be re-elected to the league.
Back in those days, United wore black and white stripe shirts and were known as The Magpies just like
Newcastle United. United played in the Third Division South, and their first match on 27th August 1927 was against
Exeter City at
Plainmoor. The side for that first game was Millsom; Cook, Smith; Wellock, Wragge, Conner, Mackie, Turner, Jones, McGovern, Thomson. A crowd of 11,625 watched a 1-1 draw, Torquay's goal coming from Bert Turner, but at the end of the season they finished bottom of the league in their first season and had to win re-election.
Throughout the 1930s Torquay struggled against financial problems, such as having to replace the stadium roof when it was blown off in 1930. They also failed to finish higher than 10th in twelve seasons. In the last few seasons before league football was suspended during the Second World War, Torquay struggled in Division Three South, finishing 20th, 20th and 19th out of 22 teams.
After War Period
When league football was resumed in 1946, Torquay United continued to struggle and finished 19th. However, thanks partly to the goals of their new striker record goalscorer Sammy Collins , the club broke the top ten barrier in 1949 by finishing 9th. The following season they finished 5th.
In 1955 Torquay United changed their strip colours. Their old black and white strip was changed to the current colours of gold and blue to reflect the resort's sun, sand and sea image.
With the change of strip came a change in fortunes. In the 1956/57 season Torquay missed out on promotion due to goal difference and ended up second in Third Division South. Sadly the change in fortune didn't last and after the next season Torquay were placed in the newly formed Division Four
After a season in Division Four Torquay United claimed promotion for their very first time, finishing third. However their winning form didn't last and after only two seasons in the Third Division they were relegated on the last day of the campaign, with a 4-2 away defeat at
Barnsley. Torquay didn't flounder in Division Four and came 6th in each of their first two seasons.
In 1963, manager Eric Webber signed striker Robin Stubbs for a club record fee of £6,000 from Birmingham City. Stubbs was recently voted by Torquay fans as the club's best ever player. It was Stubbs who starred in United's amazing 3-3 draw against Tottenham in the third round of the FA Cup in 1964-5. The game at Plainmoor was watched by over 20,000 - and what a game it was. United took the lead through a Bill Atkinson penalty, before Spurs went into a 3-1 lead. But two late strikes by Stubbs set up a replay in front of 55,000 people at White Hart Lane - Spurs won 5-1.
When Torquay finished 12th in the 1964/5 season Eric Webber, Torquay manager for 15 years was sacked. Webber had taken Torquay to their first promotion and to the
FA Cup 4th round whilst assembling arguably the best ever Torquay squad.
Replacing Eric Webber was
Frank O'Farrell who, in his first season in charge, oversaw Torquay's second promotion when they finished third in Division Four. With Torquay leading the table at Easter in 1968 Torquay United got their first ever coverage on
Match of the Day. This was United's best ever season just missing out on promotion to Division Two, they finished fourth, but in those days only the top three went up.
This period coincided with the club's fans being voted the "Best Behaved Supporters In The League". They always liked to get behind the Gulls and that is why they changed ends at half time.
The O'Farrell era ended in 1968/69, when he left to manage First Division
Leicester City. He later went on to manage the mighty
Manchester United.
Torquay once again got relegated to Division Four in the 1971/72 season after three mid table finishes in the Third Division. This led to a relatively uneventful decade with consistently mid-table finishes.
And there they stayed for a very long time. Eventually, after several disappointing seasons, Frank O'Farrell was brought back in 1976 on a caretaker basis.
In January 1977 Pat Kruse, a centre-half for Torquay, created a world record by scoring an own goal after just six seconds in a league match against
Cambridge United at Plainmoor. However during the 1977/78 season a Devon born striker, Colin Lee was bought from
Bristol City.
In the 1978-79 season, local boy Colin Lee was sold to
Tottenham Hotspur for £60,000, a club record at that time.
1980's to 2000
Frank O'Farrell had a third spell at Plainmoor in the early 80s, before former Scotland international Bruce Rioch took over.
During the 1982/83 season Torquay United beat
Hartlepool United 3-2 in Plainmoor in a match remembered because Hartlepool finished the match with just 8 players. Two Hartlepool players were sent-off for throwing lumps of mud at each other in a most strange match.
In February 1984, Rioch left the club following claims of an altercation between him and one of the players, Colin Anderson. The man brought in to replace him was former Chelsea star, Dave Webb.
Some of the darkest years in Torquay United's history began in the 1983/84 season, by the end of the season on 2nd May 1984 only 967 spectators watch the 1-0 victory over
Chester City at
Plainmoor.
At the end of the 1984/85 season Torquay United finished bottom of Division Four and had to apply for re-election to stay in
the Football League for the first time since their inaugural year in the league, 1927-28, luckily they were re-elected. To further emphasise the problems the team was going through a "suspicious" fire destroyed half of the grandstand on May 17, [[1985]]. This together with the away end being turned into a used car lot slashed the capacity of Plainmoor to just 4,999.
Webb decided to concentrate all his efforts on being the club's first ever managing director in 1985, so he appointed a new manager Stuart Morgan but little changed. For the second successive year Torquay United finish bottom of Division Four and had to apply for re-election during the 1985/86 season.
During November 1986 riot police were assigned for the first time in Torquay following the visit of
Wolverhampton Wanderers and disturbances around the stadium and town.
The 1986/87 season introduced automatic relegation into the
Nationwide Conference for the first time. With the final game of the season to go, Torquay were second from bottom on 47 points, below them was
Burnley on 46 points.
Lincoln City had 48 points and seemed in least danger.
The final game of the season was against Crewe Alexandra at Plainmoor. At half-time Crewe were leading 2-0 and things looked bad for Torquay, two minutes into the second-half Torquay's centre-half, Jim McNichol, scored from a free kick but despite an all-out attack, Torquay seem unable to get the equaliser even hitting the crossbar.
Seven minutes from time a piece of football folklore was created. A Police dog by the name of Bryn appeared to think that Jim McNichol was running to attack his handler, and sank his teeth into the centre-half's thigh. It was from the resultant four minutes of injury time that
Paul Dobson scored possibly the most important goal in the clubs history, and kept them in the Football League, with
Lincoln City dropping into the Nationwide Conference.
The start of the 1987/88 season marked the dawn of a new era in Torquay United's history. Cyril Knowles became manager, and began one of the most successful periods in the Club's history. The season started with a 6-1 victory over
Wrexham at Plainmoor, and ended with Torquay just missing out on automatic promotion but earning a Play-Off place, losing in the Play-Off Final to
Swansea City . In between, Torquay United beat
Tottenham Hotspur 1-0 at Plainmoor, Derek 'The Dude' Dawkins scoring the important goal in the first leg of a League Cup game. The team also reached the southern semi-final of the Freight Rover Trophy.
In May 1988
Lee Sharpe transferred to
Manchester United for £180,000 in one of the biggest transfers of Torquay United's history at that time. Sharpe would later play for
Leeds United,
Sampdoria,
Bradford City and had a short period at Torquay's local rivals
Exeter City towards the end of his career.
Nearly a year later in May 1989 Torquay United made their first appearance at Wembley in the final of the Sherpa Van Trophy . Torquay had disposed of
Swansea and
Cardiff in the group stages before beating
Gillingham,
Bristol Rovers,
Hereford United and finally
Wolverhampton Wanderers in the Southern final to reach the final. A crowd of 46,513 saw
Dean Edwards put Torquay 1-0 up against
Bolton Wanderers but Bolton won 4-1.
Torquay won promotion once more on May 31st 1991, winning a play-off final during the club's secod visit to
Wembley against higher placed
Blackpool. Goals from Wes Saunders and
Dean Edwards earned Torquay a 2-2 draw in normal time. No further goals in extra time resulted in a penalty shoot-out. Successful penalties by Mick Holmes, Wes Saunders, Paul Holmes, Chris Myers and Gareth Howells made Torquay winners 5-4 on penalties. The Gulls were promoted to Division Three due to this victory.
Their trip to the then Division Three did not last long despite the signing of Justin Fashanu enlisting the coaching assistance of Ivan Golac, after finishing 23rd and being relegated however the introduction of the
FA Premier League at the end of the season meant they were relegated from division three,
to division three.
In the 1993/94 season Torquay finish sixth and once again qualified for the Play-Offs. Unfortunately the team missed out on a third trip to Wembley after an ill-tempered Play-Off semi-final against
Preston North End. 2-0 up after the First Leg, Torquay United lost 4-1 at Deepdale in the final match played on their artificial pitch and tumble out of the play-offs to remain in the Third division for at least another year.
At the end of the 1995/96 season Torquay fished bottom of Division Three after a disastrous campaign and were threatened with relegation to the
Nationwide Conference and out of the football league for the first time since they joined in 1927. They are saved from relegation when
Stevenage Borough's ground was deemed unfit for League football.
In the 1997/98 season after finishing fifth at the end of the league season, Torquay United were once again in the promotion Play-Offs. Had the team won a point in their final game of the season at
Leyton Orient, they would have gone up automatically, but they lost the game 2-1. An emphatic 7-2 victory over
Scarborough in the semi-final, inculding 4 goals from star striker Rodney Jack, resulted in Torquay United's third appearance at Wembley. However, United lost 1-0 to
Colchester United in the Wembley final .
Shortly after the play-off final defeat, Rodney Jack was transferred to
Crewe Alexandra for £500,000 a club record which stands to this day.
World famous footballer Chris Waddle arrived from
Burnley at the beginning of the 1998/99 season, hoping to finish his career at the club, but eventually the stress of travelling from his Yorkshire residence to the south coast regularly became too much and he left in early November 1998.
In March 1999 Eifion Williams was bought from Barry Town for a then club record fee of £70,000, however the club suffered another disappointing season and didn't even qualify for the play-offs.
2000 to Present Day
During an Third Division League game against Blackpool, on the 28 August 2000 there was the recorded sighting of a streaker at Plainmoor, an away supporter anticipating a victory over Torquay United, streaked across the Plainmor pitch. During the 4 minutes of extra time added on as a result of the disturbance, the Gulls scored twice to beat Blackpool 3-2.
During March 2001, Following an unsuccessful season, Colin Lee is brought in as a consultant for Wes Saunders. Weeks later, Saunders was sacked and Colin Lee became caretaker manager.
On the 5 May 2001, the final game of the 2000/2001 season was Torquay United away at
Barnet. Before the start of the game Barnet were bottom of the Third Division, and one point ahead of them was Torquay United. The Gulls needed to avoid defeat to keep their League status, Barnet needed to win.
Thousands of fans were locked outside the tiny Underhill ground as amazingly, United stormed to a 3-0 lead, with goals from
Kevin Hill, Jason Rees, and David Graham.
Barnet fought back to 3-2, but United held on for the win to condemn Barnet to the
Nationwide Conference while the Gulls lived to fight another day.
Roy McFarland came and went as manager and new coach Leroy Rosenior was appointed.
The end of the 2003/2004 season saw them winning automatic promotion for the third time in their history, against all odds in a nail-biting finale at
Southend. However their stay in the upper echelon of the football pyramid was again only to last for one season, as a final day defeat against
Colchester United condemned the Gulls to a return to the basement division of the leagues after narrowly being edged out by
Milton Keynes Dons for safety in Football League One.
In the 2005/2006 FA Cup 3rd round Torquay managed to pull off a 0 - 0 draw with Premiership strugglers
Birmingham City. However they lost the replay at
St Andrews 2-0. Despite this achievement Rosenior left the club after a mutual contractual termination, after the club fell into the relegation places of League Two. Former Exeter City manager John Cornforth took over as caretaker manager and soon after was appointed as manager until the end of the season. The decision was greeted with horror by many of the clubs fans even though such an appointment was typical of chairman, Mike Bateson's casual approach to the football side of the club. The side's form worsened however, and Ian Atkins replaced Cornforth in April. Against all odds, Atkins managed to rescue the side and lift them a comfortable three points from relegation.
Stadia
United played their very first game, a friendly, against an Upton Cricket Club XI on one of farmer John Wright’s fields, which was situated at the top of Penny’s Hill, on Teignmouth Road.
After a season of friendlies the club joined the East Devon League and moved to the Recreation Ground, which was to be their home for the following four years. In 1904 Torquay Athletic Rugby Football Club secured the lease of the Recreation Ground and United
moved back to the Teignmouth Road site, but again was forced to move when the field was sold to developers to build Parkhurst Road. At the time Torquay
Cricket Club were located nearby in Cricketfield Road, and so this site was United’s next home.
The club remained in Cricketfield Road for four years. In 1910 United merged with Ellacombe to become Torquay Town. Ellacombe’s
Plainmoor ground became the home of the new club, and the shared home of local rivals Babbacombe.
Torquay Town and Babbacome finally merged and became Torquay United in 1921. The club will remain at Plainmoor for the forseeable future.
Current squad
Managerial History
| Number | Years in charge | Nationality | Manager name |
|---|
| 1 | 1927-1929 | | Percy Mackrill |
|---|
| 2 | 1929-1932 | | Frank Womack |
|---|
| 3 | 1932-1938 | | Frank Brown |
|---|
| 4 | 1938-1940 | | Alf Steward |
|---|
| 5 | 1945-1946 | | Billy Butler |
|---|
| 6 | 1946-1947 | | Jack Butler |
|---|
| 7 | 1947-1950 | | John McNeil |
|---|
| 8 | 1950 | | Bob John |
|---|
| 9 | 1950-1951 | | Alex Massie |
|---|
| 10 | 1951-1965 | | Eric Webber |
|---|
| 11 | 1965-1968 | | Frank O'Farrell |
|---|
| 12 | 1969-1971 | | Allan Brown |
|---|
| 13 | 1971-1973 | | Jack Edwards |
|---|
| 14 | 1973-1976 | | Malcolm Musgrove |
|---|
| 15 | 1977-1981 | | Mike Green |
|---|
| 16 | 1981-1982 | | Frank O'Farrell |
|---|
| 17 | 1982-1984 | | Bruce Rioch |
|---|
| 18 | 1984-1985 | | Dave Webb |
|---|
| 19 | 1985 | | John Sims |
|---|
| 20 | 1985-1987 | | Stuart Morgan |
|---|
| 21 | 1987-1989 | | Cyril Knowles |
|---|
| 22 | 1989-1991 | | Dave Smith |
|---|
| 23 | 1991-1992 | | John Impey |
|---|
| 24 | 1992 | | Ivan Golac |
|---|
| 25 | 1992-1993 | | Paul Compton |
|---|
| 26 | 1993 | | Neil Warnock |
|---|
| 27 | 1993-1995 | | Don O'Riordan |
|---|
| 28 | 1995-1996 | | Eddie May |
|---|
| 29 | 1996-1998 | | Kevin Hodges |
|---|
| 30 | 1998-2001 | | Wes Saunders |
|---|
| 31 | 2001 | | Colin Lee |
|---|
| 32 | 2001-2002 | | Roy McFarland |
|---|
| 33 | 2002-2006 | | Leroy Rosenior |
|---|
| 34 | 2006 | | John Cornforth |
|---|
| 35 | 2006-present | | Ian Atkins |
|---|
|
Achievements
- League Two
- Third Place: 1959/60, 1965/66, 2003/04
- Plymouth and District League
- Torquay and District League
- Devon Senior Cup
- Winners: 1910/11 and 1921/22
Club Records
Victory...
, Third Division South, 8th March 1952
Defeat- 2-10 v Fulham, Third Division South, 7th September 1931
AttendanceBest Ever League Finish
- Fourth in the Third Division 1967/68
Best League Points Total
- 60 pts, Division Four, 1959/1960 season
- 81 pts, Division Three, 2003/04 season
Player Records
Record League Appearances
- Dennis Lewis 443 appearances
Record Goal Scorer
Record Goal Scorer in a Season
- Sammy Collins 40 goals, Division Three ,1955/1956 season
Record Goal Scorer in a Single Match
- Robin Stubbs, 5 goals against Newport County, Division Four, 19th October 1963
Most Internationally Capped Player
- Rodney Jack for St. Vincent and the Grenadines
Youngest League Player
- David Byng, aged 16 years and 36 days old
Transfer Records
Record Purchase
Record Sale
Other Notable Purchases
Other Notable Sales
Notable Players and Fans
Notable Players
- Robin Stubbs
- John Bond
- Colin Lee
- Justin Fashanu
- Lee Sharpe
- Neville Southall
- Chris Waddle
- Garry Nelson
- David Graham
- Jo Kuffour
Notable Fans
Club Information
Club address: Plainmoor Stadium, Plainmoor, Torquay, Devon, TQ1 3PS
Telephone Number: 01803 328 666
Fax Number: 01803 323 976
External links
