Torquay United Fans Forum

Yes I have a few great memories about this match, it was indeed a belting hot day, and there was a great turnout from torquay - good going given the holiday traffic on a Saturday in August must have been shocking.

Strangely though I'm pretty convinced that we'd had a terrible pre-season and that we went into this match as fans thinking we'd get thumped by a team favourites for promotion, and that we might be relegation material. To add to this I'm also fairly sure that David Woozley was played as an emergency centre forward as David Graham wasn't fully fit - not sure where Gritton was at that stage. The bench certainly looks limited too.

But we did outplay them. Seeing Matt Hockley in there reminds me how important he was that season alongside Russell. Not the most gifted player but his job was to just win the ball and get it to the likes of Russell and Fowler. Anyway this was a really good day...

Every single one.... Every single player showed huge pride and passion.

But if I have to choose 5.....

Racchi
Butler
Berry
Blissett
Angus

Well yes, when he got the ball with space and was able to run at people. In the first half in particular he didn't see much of it and was feeding off scraps.

I saw the game fairly similar to Burnhamgull although didn't quite see Nico roasted as much as he did, I thought both sides were poor at getting behind the other teams defence. We had a solid enough shape, Angus and Nathan were excellent and I was impressed with Danny Racchi, he gives himself time on the ball and can pick a pass.

Creatively, as I expected before the game with that line-up, we offered very little and Will Hancox, as hard as he tried, couldn't get in the game. When Marsh had chances to run at defenders he did look dangerous, especially when there were gaps late in the game. One of the things that has constantly frustrated me this year is our poor delivery from set pieces, and generally it was poor again tonight - finally when Racchi hit the ball in with a bit of venom we scored,

So a slightly strange night with only 1 stand open and an odd atmosphere, the 2nd strange game I've had there with that Stockport FA cup replay a few years back. Macclesfield were pretty terrible, and other than a spell at the end of the 1st half / beginning of the 2nd where we rode our luck we weren't threatened that much.

The biggest relief of the night though was the we didnt have Extra Time. It was freezing.

This is obviously all really worrying. The sad thing is that whilst the board may have announced an immediate meeting to discuss 'how they will improve things on the pitch', the reality is that most of that meeting will probably end up discussing the claims from the Roberts family and what they do about it. The priority is actually how do we find the cash to get 3-4 decent players in that will save us from relegation - and real players too.

Whilst the current board have continued to make some pretty hapless mistakes, I'm pretty astonished at the insinuation that they are there to make money for themselves. It's certainly not the Steve Breed I (vaguely) know. Or does power really corrupt that quickly? And whilst in the longer term, the 'hand grenade' thrown in by the Roberts family might turn out to be a good thing, it's time for absolute transparency and openness, and some questions need to be answered by each party. I'm no expert and may miss something fundamental but mine are:

To the existing board
What is the current financial situation. Honestly? Tell us the facts. What is the new 'break even' attendance we need. Something, just tell us the truth.
In the spirit of openness, how much money have you invested in the club?
What is all this about a 'proposal to strike off' the club at Companies House? is this 'just' because we didn't submit our accounts in time. Please tell all.
Please explain the current ownership of the club in %s and is it true that Dean Edwards did or does still own 40%?
Please can we have clarity on the Masters deal, and is it true that the son just been given 20% ownership in return for £36k from his dad? If not, what is the truth.
Please can we have more openness about the Truro ground share deal, so have they paid £60k already in advance of next years ground share?
Did you really ask for £2million for the club from the Roberts family? And was that revised £220k figure set because that's the money you've invested?

To the Roberts family
I think I'm grateful for your intervention, but your statement is slightly vague. What do you mean about the existing boards 'different direction'? And 'lining others pockets'? Please tell, because it might be important.
So how much would you be planning on investing? I'm sure you're doing this with the best of intention but handing over control of the club from one board with little or no money, to another with little or no money probably doesn't help us much does it?
Did you get your investment back when you resigned from the original board, and in the spirit of openness, how much was that?
Most importantly, any chance you lot can all get together as true fans, make up, sort things out and you reinvest your money so we can sign 3-4 decent players? Cos that's more important than anything right?

Anyway apologies for the long mail, I will email my questions to the current board, and apologies if I've asked something answered elsewhere. Maybe I am getting too sucked in, and should be imploring everyone to concentrate on matters on the pitch. But i think we urgently need transparency and then everyone can concentrate on the important issues, and saving ourselves from part time oblivion in the Conference South.

He's a big target man type centre forward, who signed for Vale just over a year ago but hasn't featured that much. Vale fans are slightly split on whether he's good enough at that level, but the season ticket holder I spoke to rates him quite highly and feels he probably just needs match fitness and confidence.

When Vale signed him they appeared to beat a few other clubs to his signature, so am surprised that he hasn't gone on loan in Division 2, but of course the issue is almost certainly fitness, he might have turned up out of shape. He's definitely worth us looking at, can score goals, and the Vale fans think a good spell here could result in him forcing his way back into the 1st team.

Coincidentally the Smurthwaite connection here is that Campion appears to have been his personal signing, for his then manager Mickey Adams who I think left about 3 weeks later (if I have my timings right), and the new manager never seems to have taken to him. But that surely will be a coincidence, Vale recognise how well young Smith is developing at Torquay, and will want to see Campion match fit and scoring goals.

On the wider subject of Dean Edwards, my concern is twofold. Apologies if this covered in detail elsewhere, I don't post often.

Firstly why do we actually need a Director of Football? There are normally three reasons why a DoF are in place, to oversee transfer dealings and scouting, to be responsible for wider club footballing matters such as Youth and Academy structures as well as Senior football matters, and then to be a very experienced senior football figure in circumstances where there is a young coach. Now it looks pretty obvious to me that we had Cox signings before he went, a mixture of ex Mansfield players and trial players that Cox assessed, we do not have a Youth system to oversee and we do not either have a DoF / Coach set up with a young inexperienced coach. I'd be interested to know which other Conference clubs have a Manager, Assistant Manager AND a Director of Football - especially a club in a desperate financial situation struggling to maintain its existence at all.

Secondly If the board deem that we do need a full time paid Director of Football, then i would expect that appointment to be based on experience in football, or someone who has taken a club successfully through a similar perilous situation. I fail to see what experience Edwards had to make him a suitable candidate. He managed Hednesford for just over 1 year before leaving just after they were dumped out out of the 1st qualifying round of the FA Cup, he's been out of a pure footballing role for a few years, has way fewer footballing contacts than the ex-manager and his performance as Commercial Manager wasn't exacrly a success - my limited contact with him certainly didn't impress me at all.

I'm sure that I read that when Cox resigned he asked for a meeting with Steve Breed, not Edwards, which implies Breed was Coxs 'boss'. So I have no idea what the DoF job description is, I don't see why this role is needed alongside an experienced manager - and if we do, Edwards is in no way the suitable person for this role anyway.

We all know that the board came in with the best of intentions, and Edwards seems to have played a role bringing people together. I thank him if he did that. But the Board are the shareholders, in business terms they decide the structure of the club, the governance and the operating model, and need to make the tough decisions about what roles are needed along with the Chief Executive they appoint. They need to seriously ask themselves if they've got that right with the DoF. Edwards to me is the wrong man in the wrong role, and he needs to be kept out of the way before he causes even more damage.

The midfield triaists possibly could have been youngsters Jamie Horgan, an attacking midfielder released by Bristol City, and Jaye Bowen, a young midfielder released by Cardiff (and son of Jason Bowen).

Pure speculation, just released with little experience and maybe explains why we were overrun in midfield.

i originally thought about that same ex Welsh international, as he was also at loan at Mansfield, I didn't know he'd been mentioned on another forum. I guess it's possible, I just thought the wage drop for a guy on a 3 year contract at Crystal Palace down to us would be way too big.

How about Lenny Pidgeley, 31year old goalkeeper just released by Newport? Played for England up to U20 level and previously at loan at Mansfield as well. Spent a year at Exeter too.

MKGull has it fairly spot on. I know it's not much consolation to say we were ok in the 1st half, but we were solid enough, some shape with an extra man in midfield and a fair amount of possession. But we didn't have any clear cut chances, it was all a bit dour, reminded me of the last couple of seasons under another manager...

The 2nd half was so bad, so clueless, and so tactically Inept. It started with Bodins injury, he brought on McCallum and seemed to get utterly confused as to what formation he wanted to play. Firstly Craig was put on the right midfield with 2 up front. Then bizarrely Hawley was up on the left wing for most of the 2nd half with Craig playing 'in the hole'. The 3 forward players, all strangers to each other, some out of position, simply didn't link up.

I really don't think the back 4 did too much wrong, and Rice made some good saves, but despite all the attacking options we're accumulating, we're not able to hold the ball up front and keep possession. And I can't think of any times we got behind the Burton defence, or broke into the channels. It was one of the worst halves of football I've seen us play away from home.

I don't think Knill is even close to working out who is best team is or what formation he wants to play. And I don't doubt the young loanees have talent, but just throwing them in to the mix just seems desperate.

Sounds more like Alan Hay, a verteran Scottish left back I think we signed from York many years back. Constantly out with a succession of vague injuries he managed about 5 pretty bad games over a 2 year period.

Steve will probably articulate it better, but a Supporters consortium who took it over a few years let power go to their heads and haven't been willing to sell their stake on to anyone despite having no money to invest and with the club obviously already in debt. A couple of attempts to oust them failed, and when the Chairman eventually resigned last year the reigns were taken over by some of his allies, with board members elected using some allegedly dubious share issues which the local press seem clear in saying were never paid for.

A deal with an American company fell over with claims of the board exaggerating the terms of the sponsorship, and then the new board started crumbling when it became clear that loans had been taken out by someone at the club with a number of different parties, including a company in Gibralter, which the new Chairman claimed he new nothing about.

The whole thing has been a shambles, and whilst I know there are some idiots at Vale and the Starve them out' campaign aimed at the original board was misguided in my view, I've got some good Vale friends who've seen their team suffer and some of the board antics have been fairly outrageous.

Well today they haven't been able to pay the wages, HMRC have apparently issued up a winding up order for a reported 750k unpaid tax bill and administration is now almost certain. Apparently they can't put themselves into administration though as another Director has resigned leaving them short of the legal number of Directors to make decisions.

I still don't like to see any club faced with liquidation, but Vale are now almost certainly out of the Play off frame.

Apologies if this is reported elsewhere on here but local media in Stoke are reporting that Port Vale are in danger of going into administration. I'd be surprised if that happened immediately, but they have huge problems off the pitch, and some of the board antics are 'Robertsesque'. The taxman appears to be circling, they've defaulted on a loan from the council and apparently their shirt sponsor, and there's some very dodgy share purchases being discussed.

Whilst I didn't agree with some of the vale fan tactics earlier in the year, I have sympathy with what they're going through now after what we went through a few years back. The obvious other point is that if they do go into a administration it helps cement a play off place, as they're the club chasing Oxford.