The recent A-Z of Torquay United

With Torquay United visiting Sincil Bank on Saturday afternoon, we figured we'd take a closer look at the Gulls, their times in the non-league and their relationship with Lincoln City, including a definitive list of all players to represent both clubs.

A is for A lot of managers. After Leroy Resenior lasted just under four years at the club, the club had five different managers in the 16 months after he left (before Buckle was appointed). The other managers included John Cornforth, Ian Atkins, Lubos Kubik, Keith Curle.....and Leroy Resenior....more on that second appointment later.

B is for Bryn. Bryn I hear you ask?? Bryn was the name of a dog that bit Torquay United player, Jim McNichol on the final day of the 1986/7 season. Torquay, Burnley, Tranmere and Lincoln were all in danger of relegation, but despite the Imps being in the best position, that dog's involvement  allowed Torquay to score deep into injury time and with Tranmere and Burnley both winning, Lincoln were the first team to be automatically relegated to the non-League.

C is for Connections. There haven't been many players to have played for both the Imps and Torquay United. The only player currently at Torquay who has played for the Imps is Tyrone Thompson, a loanee at the Imps during the 2002/3 season. Aaron Brown once had a loan spell at Plainmoor from Queen's Park Rangers.

The last player to go directly between the two was Simon Rayner, joining Torquay on loan from City in the 2006/7 season, failing to keep Torquay in the League. Rayner then left the Imps during the summer and joined the Gulls permanently, helping them to a Playoff Semi Final against Exeter, where he conceded four times in twenty second leg minutes before moving onto Crawley.

The full list, other than the aforementioned, is Ted Colland, David Carr, Dean Chandler, Paul Dobson, Jackie Gallagher, David Graham, Martin Gritton, David McVay, Tommy Northcott, Charlie Oatway, Graham Parker, Paul Pettinger, Gary Richards, David Rodgers, Lee Thorpe, Tommy Tynan, Peter Wakeham and Clive Wiggington.

D is for disappointing. Torquay's season has started in very disappointing fashion and they haven't won since a 2-0 win over Burton, their third win over Burton in the space of four months. They have won 2-0 on the opening day and other than a 5-3 defeat at Dagenham, their start could be considered good, it's gone a bit downhill since then though, but tey have drawn their last four League geames.

E is for Elliot Benyon. Elliot is a striker who has a record of nearly a goal every three games for the Gulls. He joined from Bristol City in 2007 and has recently put pen to paper on a new one year contract, he'll no doubt be hoping to secure a regular first team place.

F is for Final. Torquay United's portion of the crowd was dwarfed by Cambridge's support at Wembley Stadium in May's Blue Square Playoff Final. However, that mattered little as Cambridge put in a very poor performance and Torquay, despite not creating a lot of chances, ran out 2-0 winners thanks to goals from Chris Hargreaves and Tim Sills.

G is for Ground move. Before Chris Roberts left as Chairman several years back, he had announced that the club were interested in building a new complex on Torquay Recreation Ground that would have catered for football, rugby and athletics. Plans haven't been mentioned since.

H is for Helen Chamberlain, arguably Torquay United's best known fan. The former Nickelodeon presenter is now famed for his part in the success of Soccer AM. She has presented the show since it's creation in 1995 and has been a near ever present during it's 541 episodes.

I is for Incredible. Torquay United hit a lot of goals in their first season in the Blue Square Premier. They hit three goals on eleven occasions, four on four occasions and give goals twice. Infact, both of the games where they scored five games came after each other. A 5-4 win at Histon was followed four days later by a 5-2 victory at Kidderminster Harriers.

J is for Joyce, as 20 year old striker who is currently at Torquay, but has yet to make an appearance for the first team. He was in the youth team at Villa, Plymouth and Swindon, joining Torquay from the latter.

K is for Kevin Hill, a man who made over 500 appearances for Torquay between 1997 and 2008. Whereas some players would get a commemorative plague, official club shirt with the number of appearances on it......Kevin made his 400^th League appearance ..... and got a football with 400 written on in felt tip pen.

L is for Leon Constantine, Torquay's record buy back in December 2004. He joined from Peterborough United for £75,000. That was £5,000 more than the previous record, buying Eifion Williams from Barry Town.

The record transfer out saw Rodney Jack go to Crewe Alexandra for £650,000 in May 1998. Other notable transfers include David Graham going to Wigan in 2004 for £215,000 and Lee Sharpe leaving to go to Manchester United for £180,000 in May 1988.

M is for Martin Gritton, one of the men mentioned earlier for playing for both the Gulls and the Imps. He scored 23 goals in 93 appearances for Torquay, including a goal that almost knocked the Imps out of their first ever Playoff campaign before it had even got started. After a two year spell with Grimsby, he joined the Imps but could only score three times in 27 appearances before leaving for Macclesfield. Having played for nine clubs, Gritton has failed to hit double figures for all teams except for Torquay and Macclefield, also the only two teams he's played more than 50 games for.

N is for Ninety + Four, this indicates the amount of time that was supposed to be played the last time that the Imps visited Plainmoor. City entered added on time 1-0 down, then Paul Morgan equalised and in the fifth minute of the four, Martin Gritton, who looked suspiciously offside, smashed home the winning goal and the Imps had sealed a very dramatic comeback.

O is for Oxford. At the Kassam Stadium in 2007/8, Torquay United found themselves 3-0 down to Oxford United, only for the Gulls to spark a remarkable comeback and secure a point thanks to a 3-3 draw. Walsh pulled one back in the 58^th minute, Zebroski pulled another back with 10 minutes to go before Sills scored the final goal to evel.

P is for Plainmoor, the home of Torquay United.  A ground that holds 6,104, consisting of seating on two sides and terracing on two sides. The land is still owned by the council and there has been regular talk of the club buying the land, but plans have never become concrete.

Q is for Quite a distance. Torquay, along with Darlington, find themselves quite a far way from any of the other sides in the division, ironic consider they are the furthest game apart in League Two. The minimum journey for a Torquay fan driving at the speed limits is at Cheltenham, a journey clocked on MULTIMAP as a journey of 2 hours 36 minutes, 6 minutes shorter than a trip to Bournemouth, that despite Bournemouth being 30 miles closer.

R is for Rivals. Torquay's main local rivals are Exeter City and Plymouth Argyle.

Their record against Plymouth Argyle isn't great, winning just 9 of the 45 meetings between the sides, compared to Plymouth's 24 wins. Torquay's last League win against Argyle came in 1971, a 2-1 win at Plainmoor. Torquay's only ever League double over Plymouth came in 1970/1, winning both games 2-1.

Torquay vs Exeter matches are considerably more even, but Exeter do have the slightly better record with 45 wins from the 117 matches, compared to 37 for Torquay. The teams played each other four times in the 2007/8 season, both sides gaining two wins, both of Exeter's wins seeing them score four goals. Torquay's last double over Exeter came in 2002/3.

S is for Second Leg of the Playoffs. Torquay lost both second leg fixtures in both of their Conference seasons. The first was a 4-1 defeat to rivals Exeter after winning the first leg 2-1, and last season's 1-0 defeat at Histon mattered little as Torquay had won the first leg 2-0. The last Second Leg they won came in 1997/8 when they completed a romp over Scarborough with a 4-1 win at Plainmoor after a 3-1 win up at the McCain Stadium.

T is for ten minutes. Quite possibly the shortest EVER management spell started and ended on May 17^th 2007 and involved Leroy Resenior. He was returning to Torquay after guiding them to promotion a few years earlier, he then left when a consortium brought the club within 10 minutes of Leroy's hiring, sacking him. Leroy was eventually replaced by current manager, Paul Buckley.

U is for unwanted record. Torquay United are currently struggling against the drop, relegation would make them the first ever team to be relegated back to the top tier of non-League at the first attempt. Dagenham were the closest ever team to get that unwanted record, only surviving their first season because Mansfield Town lost during the week leading up to their vital clash against Dagenham, the game would have otherwise been a relegation decider.

W is for Wembley, the site of Torquay United's promotion back to the Football League back in May. Myself and a friend went to the final and although the crowd from Torquay could be described as small compared to the Cambridge fans, it was Torquay fans who went home laughing.

V is for victories. The Imps have won the last three meetings between the sides, whereas Torquay United won the three games before that. The 1-1 draw at the end of 2002/3 was the last draw that the clubs shared.

X is extremely impressive. Paul Buckle has an excellent record as Torquay manager. He has won 54 of his 102 games in charge, better than a win every two games. He also has 22 draws and 26 defeats to his name.

Y is for Yellow, the colour (with a hint of blue) of Torquay United's home kit.

Z is for Zebroski, as in Chris. The loanee from Millwall was a huge part of their 2007/8 Playoff campaign, scoring eighteen goals in forty-six games. He now plays for Wycombe but has yet to have the same impact as he had at Torquay.