Was this the plan all along?

[lucy6lucy]

What an absolute car crash of a season this has been. Thinking back to the first day of the season, watching the Tranmere game with my wife, and the Gulls were easily matching the promotion favourites (but couldn't score against 9 men of course!). I said to her at the end 'We've nothing to fear this season' - how wrong can you be!

Just look at the various disasters which have befallen the club this season (in no particular order):

• New signing Liam Davis injured before the season even starts (Sam Chaney fills in at left back)
• New captain Gowling injured in the first match, misses a number of important games
• Klukowski, Gosling and Pittman all join the injured list in quick succession
• Gulls beaten 2-4 at home by the mighty Boreham Wood (I couldn't go but my mate on the Pop Side says 'we're not going to stay up this season' - how right HE was!)
• Ryan Clarke gets injured, replaced by Gulls 'old boy' Dan Lavercombe on loan from Wigan who also gets injured and is then replaced by Vincent Dorel
• The Torquay United team coach is burnt to a cinder overnight (the vehicle, not the person!)
• Kevin Nicholson sacked after 4 games - the first managerial casualty of the season in the top 5 divisions (no replacement lined up)
• It takes 4 WEEKS to find a new management team
• A whole host of possible replacements are mooted by the press and social media, Graham Westley, Kevin Wilkin, Mark Yates. The eventual replacements are complete unknowns (to me anyway) but they 'tick all the boxes'.
• Torquay fail to even get to the first round in the F A Cup yet again beaten 0-4 at home by the fearsome Maidstone United
• Gary Owers says 'We're not rubbish' any more
• Ryan Higgins has to retire due to a medical condition
• Damon Lathrope suffers an horrific career-ending leg break for his new club Woking - not Torquay's fault but our bad luck seems to follow ex-players as well. Get well soon Damon.
• Gary Owers goes up to Maidenhead to look at the opposition for the next match only to find that the game had been postponed when he got there
• Torquay fail to win more than 2 matches in succession at any time in the season
• Gallifuoco plays a blinder in Dover's easy 0-2 victory against Torquay at Plainmoor - why did we let him go exactly?
• Pathetic 1-3 home loss against Fylde which virtuially seals our relagation
• Relegation confirmed after the 1-1 draw against Harlepool - lowest league position since the 1920's
• Dreadful home loss 3-4 against Guiseley against 10 men, a team we have never beaten in 3 years.

I may have missed out some of the other low-points of the season but feel better now that I have got those out of my system and set it all out on paper. SURELY next season cannot be as bad as this one - can it??!!

You're correct in that we haven't beaten guiseley in 3 years, but I don't think we had played them previous to that, So in effect we've never beaten them. Hats off though a very good analysis of this season. Maybe contact John Cleese to chose Torquayunited for a new series