sherpa van trophy 1989

westyorkshiregull · Post by **westyorkshiregull** » 02 Oct 2015, 20:52

for anyone interested I've put on 2 videos of the 1989 trophy game. One is the original tsw highlight programme and other is a amateur Bolton fans recording with commentry. The 2nd part is missing for the moment of the amateur recording as for some reason I can't upload but I will. Please note for younger fans the commentry on Bolton version says wrong names for players as they went by the match programme which was incorrect for names and numbers. also anyone know how I put pictures on here as still got original match ticket and bits and pieces from the big day.
Thought this might be uplifting for us fans as this is how we want to get back and we had massive support back then. I've a load for stuff to add which i will do over weekend. Full match videos from the 1980s to follow...starting with 1988 Scunthorpe playoff game with a packed out plain moor. ......

Dazza · Post by **Dazza** » 02 Oct 2015, 20:59

Excellent well done and thanks for doing that. Great memories.

westyorkshiregull · Post by **westyorkshiregull** » 02 Oct 2015, 21:03

more to come went down my dad's house last weekend and found lots in attic...original match ticket cost 8 quid....rosette. ..remember them t shirts with club logo on front and all the games on way to final wrote on back. ..inflatable seagull...got the lot...I tell any fan watch first 10 mins of the tsw production and that is what being a gulls fan is all about...I know we got to look forward but looking back this was for me the best time in my 30 years of supporting...It really meant a lot back then

S4fedr1ve · Post by **S4fedr1ve** » 02 Oct 2015, 21:17

I was there. Such happy memories and such a good team. I know the football is poor in comparison now but where have all these fans gone now that the club really needs them more than ever.

Mike

PlainmoorB0b · Post by **PlainmoorB0b** » 02 Oct 2015, 21:21

Aww mate - that's made my day!

Get uploading those 80s videos!!! Need to reminisce big time!

westyorkshiregull · Post by **westyorkshiregull** » 02 Oct 2015, 21:22

I don't know we took 20000 plus to Wembley then...pre sky days so perhaps people's football fix involved a bit more effort. ..back in 1989 prob lucky to see 20 games on tv...love seeing loram play...what we could do with that talent now

Post by **Dave** » 02 Oct 2015, 21:53

Yep that was a great day out, went on to Wimbledon banger racing after the game, got accosted by some Arsenal fans thinking we were Wimbledon supporters with our yellow/blue colours on, when they realised we were TUFC they seem to lose the will.

chunkygull · Post by **chunkygull** » 02 Oct 2015, 22:50

Awesome, I still have my flags, cap, jumper, scarf, rosettes and inflatable seagull from then, was actually having a scan through some old programmes the other day for a TUFC christmas present project I am working on, trying to gather a lot of momentous pictures, we have quite a few programmes from that season and I had a good read of the wembley one. I did have a load of newspaper clips but cant find them, be gutted if my Dad has checked them out.

Anyway, coincidence, I did a little bit on this along with a vid from youtube a few weeks back on a nostalgic thread that got started, I think its great having a little look back and reminisce, it doesnt hurt to revisit where we have been to give us a bit of hope that we can have those sort of times again, nobody thought it was possible then. Who knows, keep the faith.

Ne plus ultra
Postby chunkygull Â» 11 Sep 2015, 20:39

Here's another one from me and its probably no surprise (an obvious one), its another one I look back on with great fondness and reminisce of days like this when our current problems and dark days depress me, it shows our great little club does have its moments and hopefully one day we can have moments like this again.

It had been a decidedly average season in comparison to the previous year, a few key players and real fan favorites from our near promotion winning side had departed, Paul Dobson, Dave Caldwell our top strikers notably. Nobody really gave much of a toss about the Sherpa Van Trophy until we reached the 2 legged southern area final vs Wolves who were div 4 champs the previous season and current runaway leaders of div 3. Plainmoor was well attended but not quite full, a hell of a lot of Wolves fans there though. The atmosphere from TUFC fans was good but calm as if not expecting much. Against the run of play and all the odds we took the lead through the hard working Dean Edwards and held on for most of the match until Steve Bull the countries top scorer from the previous few seasons and a future England player a few months later struck twice in the dying minutes.

All hope for a trip to wembley had gone but against all odds and thanks to a combination of Wolves top defender Floyd Streete being suspended, an early goal again from Edwards, a stunning greatest free kick of all time from the magician Mark Loram, an inspired one off brought out of retirement Kenny Allen performance in goal, a stoic, battling reargaurd defensive shutout. The Gulls reached the Wembly final going through 3-2 on aggregate and were due to meet Bolton Wanderers who had just pipped us to promotion the previous season. Unbelievable!

On to that wonderful day that just went by in a blur. A boiling hot May Sunday morning trudging to Garfield road coach stop with my Dad, Uncle and neighbour (the Wolves fan), decked out all in yellow and blue with my TUFC hat, jumper, wristbands, scarf on and waving my 2 wembley flags (still got it all), already excited and fit to burst in anticipation for the 3 o'clock kick off. Garfield road was a sea of yellow and blue with many supporters primed to make the trip. The atmosphere all the way to London was really positive but just very glad and grateful to be there, Cyril Knowles was a God in our eyes at that moment for how he had turned our club around so much in just two short seasons.

Outside of wembley the atmosphere was electric, and there was a friendly feel to the day with the Bolton and TUFC fans mingling and sharing banter and generally having a laugh.

Inside the ground I was blown away by how many of our fans were there, never seen anything like it before or since, over 20,000 was the figure given, Cyril Knowles later commented it was a shame we didnt see a few more of them on a Saturday afternoon, my sentiments too, but these moments are usually once or twice a lifetime for clubs our size. The time went by in a flash, there was a charity match between former Gulls and Bolton players with a few famous guests intermingled,Torquay legend Robin stubbs pulling on the yellow once more, playing alongside was the great George Best (really strange seeing him in a TUFC kit. Guest of honour Elton John came out (oo er missus) onto the pitch to greet the coaching staff and players, then before long we were underway, the atmosphere was electric and pulsating, never have I ever experienced anything like it. I was surprised by the quality of passing football by both teams on a bigger, top standard pitch, a lot different to what was on show at Plainmoor some weeks, I had often watched us train and practice passing on the deck instead of our more direct long ball game at the Clennon Valley astroturf near my house in the previous weeks, and you could see why it was neccessary on a pitch like wembley, plus it was so damned hot and keeping possesion was vital.

A few close scares for the Gulls defence early on but then, history was made and rapturous unbridled, indescribable joy as from a Loram corner, Elliott flick on, Deano headed in a carbon copy goal of the first against Wolves at Plainmoor and became the first Torquay player to score at wembley, "christ" the release of emotion from the 20,000 plus was like thunder, lightning and an earthquake all at once, again never felt anything like it before or since, despite my view being a bit crap it was one of the greatest moments of my life.

The rest of the game and the day went in a flash, Bolton scored 4 goals, probably 2 more than Torquay really deserved to concede, poor Kenny Allen had been unsighted on a couple of soft hopeful shots and unlucky young pro John Morrison deflected an speculative ball into his own net. Many fans werent too disappointed, realising the score didnt reflect the match, TUFC had gave them moments to be proud of and they enjoyed their historical day out. Even when the coaches rolled back into Garfield Rd late that night and a weird feeling of being back in Paignton after all we had been through that day, the yellow and blue flags were still being waved with pride.

Didnt think we would ever have a day out at wembley again, how wrong I was,but as great as the next 4 visits were, despite the scoreline, none of the other times were as great as that first one, maybe due to the lot less amount of fans in attendance or the kick off times since, but again, it would be incredible to go there one more time at least, keep the faith, keep supporting, keep believing and you never know, one day...... one day!

Oops, silly me, meant to add this earlier, a great video whoever made it, love the music, you will all no doubt know it well. Enjoy this, its brilliant in places. Aaaahhh memories.....

[youtube]RiOh77TiXT4[/youtube]

westyorkshiregull · Post by **westyorkshiregull** » 02 Oct 2015, 22:58

Yes well that's my video I made years ago on my YouTube channel....I've all the newspapers from that time and the special hearld pull out with Don mills and Eric webber into. ...anyone interested I can scan it all in

Added in 5 minutes 37 seconds:
Your right chunky that team was watered down from previous season...missing was Paul dobson , dave Caldwell, gardiner..Sharpe. ..gibbens

chunkygull · Post by **chunkygull** » 02 Oct 2015, 23:32

Brilliant video, I have watched it a few times to cheer myself up. I would love it if you uploaded your clippings and pics etc.

I am getting to a point with my christmas present project where I was going to ask on the forum if anyone has pictures or newspaper clippings they wouldnt mind uploading. Dad has all of ours stashed away and its tough getting some of them as I dont want to alert him to what I am doing. I have 4 books which I have scanned some pics from and have quite a few from online, I am putting together a collage of TUFC historical moments, players and teams then having it printed onto a huge box canvas frame. I have done a few of these before with family members etc and dad is a bit of an old film buff so I did one of golden age hollywood stars and British actors etc from 30's to 70's. It takes hours of sourcing, web searches, scanning, editing etc. The canvas itself is dirt cheap with a brilliant person on ebay. I will post a pic of it when finished.

budleigh · Post by **budleigh** » 02 Oct 2015, 23:59

A picture of my Cyril Knowles runners-up medal you can use for your montage if you would like...

stefano · Post by **stefano** » 03 Oct 2015, 00:58

westyorkshiregull wrote:
Thought this might be uplifting for us fans as this is how we want to get back and we had massive support back then.

Excellent nostalgic stuff wyg but it is just not true that we had massive support back then. For one game maybe, but not at Plainmoor.

In 1989 our home crowd was normally about 2300, but a couple of times in the season fell to around 1600. Yes a little better than now. But not much.

Only 3 seasons earlier during those dark dismal days of being rooted to the bottom of the table before automatic promotion became operative home crowds fell to not much more than 1000 and sometimes as low as 850. Far worse than today, and by quite a bit but it should be a warning of what could happen.

It was in the late 1960's that we had 'massive' support, when the club were consistently challenging for a place in the 2nd tier of English Football (strangely called the Second Division - how novel!). Crowds at home league games were regularly 7000 to 10000 and sometimes getting as high as 14000 to 15500, and in the FA Cup there was of course a 20,000 crowd (repeated also in 1971 in the League Cup).

In 1989 after those dark days of the 1980's there was a little bit of a revival in attendances and when Torquay got to Wembley for the very first time (most would have thought then it would be the only time as promotion play-offs were not played there) it was not at all surprising that 17,000 to 18,000 fans from the 60's came out of the woodwork dragging along their children and grandchildren for a one off occasion.

As Wembley became less of a novelty we never again took such numbers to the twin towers, and sadly a large number of those who boosted the numbers at Wembley when they had not tasted a Plainmoor Bovril for nearly 20 years are now dead.

It is an excellent piece of nostalgia mind .... and being of a certain age nostalgia sometimes is the thing that get me through the day!

westyorkshiregull · Post by **westyorkshiregull** » 03 Oct 2015, 06:39

budleigh wrote:A picture of my Cyril Knowles runners-up medal you can use for your montage if you would like...

Cyril Knowles Medal.jpg

y
that's brill......also reply to the attendance thing. ..yea your right on that. ..guess certain games stick in your head
..remember the 88 play off game v Scunthorpe. ...day after the cup final Liverpool v Wimbledon. ...The ground was rocking...remember before game the chanting and noise. ...I know this was not every game and remember the blue shirt games when less we have now a few years before. ...guess Nicho is right give people a reason to come back ...when you get the atmosphere people will continue to come back I know...

he's fat ...He's round ...His name is ????????
complete this chant from the 1980s anyone ....who was it

hector · Post by **hector** » 03 Oct 2015, 10:35

I really enjoyed watching those videos, which remind me of a time when I felt very different about TUFC than I do today - it's very sad to see what we have become. I still have my Sherpa Van 1989 Final mug - it has been with me away to Uni, living wherever I have lived and survived a lot better than the football club.

Lew Pope was a bit of a clown as a chairman but to his credit, he appointed Cyril Knowles and Dave Smith as managers. Proper managers.

westyorkshiregull · Post by **westyorkshiregull** » 03 Oct 2015, 12:20

2 questions as I love history. ....what happened to Lee pope...and how do I put pictures on here ...I upload it but does not appear....more videos to come this weekend...got torquay Crewe 1987 full match ...One v Cardiff ....A couple v scunny....have few news reports aswell aswell as some other games ....got some footage of dave Webb in a interview aswell

Torquay United Fans Forum