Email
Print
Digg This
By Neil Maidment
LONDON, Nov 30 (Reuters) - Torquay United, a name perennially associated with the lower reaches of English professional soccer, have shown that relegation from the Football League does not always spell disaster.
Flying high in the Conference, the pride of the "English Riviera" are enjoying their most successful season in years, playing in front of their biggest crowds for ages and revelling in their new identity as FA Cup giant-killers.
The "giants" in question might only have been League One Yeovil, a minor league club themselves until four years ago, but the televised 4-1 first-round victory was a real fillip for the long-suffering Plainmoor regulars.
Torquay host Brighton, also of the third division, on Saturday for a shot at the third-round big boys and if the seaside holiday town is not exactly abuzz at having a winning team, the locals are at least taking the club seriously again.
In less than two years Torquay have got through seven managers and seven chairmen, their 80-year Football League status finally slipping away last May.
The writing had been on the wall since the club escaped that fate in the first season of automatic relegation 20 years ago, doing so in bizarre circumstances.
Torquay trailed Crewe 2-1 at home with seven minutes remaining knowing defeat would send them down.
Cue a police dog named Bryn, who decided Gulls' centre-back Jim McNichol was threatening his owner and sunk its teeth into his thigh.
In the resulting four minutes of injury time, Torquay grabbed an equaliser and condemned Lincoln to the drop instead.
NARROW ESCAPES
After that it was a white-knuckle ride of a couple ofpromotions, some pretty quick relegations and several narrow escapes from what was always feared to be non-league oblivion.
In 1996 they did, finally, finish bottom but escaped the drop because Conference champions Stevenage's ground was ruled not to meet league standards.
Last season was a trauma on and off the pitch, sparked when long-serving chairman Mike Bateson sold the club to a consortium in October 2006.
In the next six months three managers, four chairmen and almost 50 players, passed through the club that finished a hopeless 11 points adrift.
In a period of utter chaos following relegation, former boss Leroy Rosenior was reappointed manager only for the club to be sold within 10 minutes, leading to his removal four days later.
They faced life in a new division with only three contracted players but a new ownership consortium plus a new chief executive in Colin Lee and a new manager, Paul Buckle -- both former players -- conspired to revive the club.
"When I arrived I said I wanted to make this a proper football club. In order to do that we have to become professional in all that we do," Lee told Reuters.
"We found the right man in Paul (Buckle) and we have tried our hardest to give him the personnel he requires," added the former Tottenham Hotspur and Chelsea striker.
"I believe we have the capability to reach the first division (Championship). We are a long way from achieving what we set out to do but it is already a lot better than before."
