The Ultimate Torquay United team: Centre-backs

Plainmoor’s chief reporter for over 50 years, Dave Thomas, continues his countdown to the ultimate Torquay United team:

Quality left-sided centre-backs have always been precious commodities, and even some of the best teams in history have ended up shoehorning right-footers into the role.

Let’s face it, Bobby Moore’s left foot was mostly for standing on. But he didn’t do too badly, did he?

Torquay United have done their share of adapting right-footers to play on the left, and many of them have made a success of it.

But the Gulls have also boasted plenty of excellent ‘lefties’ to provide that all-important balance at the back.

In the late Sixties and Seventies Bill Kitchener and Dave Stocks both started as left-backs, where they’ve already been lauded in this series, before playing just as well in the middle.

But you’d go a long way to see a better left centre-back than Mike Green.

Green had already enjoyed a fine career with his hometown Carlisle, Gillingham, Bristol Rovers and Plymouth before he moved to Plainmoor as player-manager in March 1977.

He was still only 30, but he’d played more than 350 games and captained Rovers and Plymouth to promotion from the old Third Division (League One).

Appearances could be deceptive with Green.

He may have been quietly spoken and cut a cultured figure on the pitch, but he was as tough as the next man and a superb defensive organiser.

He put together one of United’s most exciting attacking teams, which lost only 13 home league games in three years (1977-80).

But once Green had stopped playing (1979), he could never quite replace himself with similar quality and know-how at the back.

Money was also tight, but no one who saw Green play could doubt how good he was.

Phil Lloyd’s right foot may have better than his left, but it didn’t stop the brave, determined and always-focused Yorkshireman from an extraordinary stint on the left of United’s back-three in the late 1980s.

Having followed manager Cyril Knowles from Darlington in 1987, Lloyd proceeded to make 203 consecutive appearances.

Lloyd was an automatic choice during some thrilling years, eventually giving 216 consistent performances.

He was, and remains, a man for whom actions always counted more than words.

Lloyd was eventually succeeded by someone who arrived as a £60,000 midfielder from Dundee, but ended as a promotion-winning centre-back and captain – Wes Saunders.

Saunders, who’d been rated up alongside fellow Geordie teenagers Paul Gascoigne and Chris Waddle at Newcastle, had played nearly 150 games for Carlisle and Dundee before following Smith to new United owner Mike Bateson’s Torquay for that record fee in 1990.

Saunders was hampered by a succession of niggling injuries, but he had loads of ability, was built for the job at well over 6ft and, on his best days, could be inspired.

It was when he finally switched to left centre-back, alongside his friend Matt Elliott, that United saw the best of him.

He was mountainous during the Gulls’ run to the 1991 Fourth Division Play-Off Final and saved his best for Wembley.

Has any United player ever given a better or more important performance than the one Saunders produced in that epic victory over Blackpool (2-2: 3-2 on pens)?

Apart from the considerable matter of keeping United in the Football League only two years later, Neil Warnock also left the club with a manager and a top-quality player.

Don O’Riordan directed operations from the back alongside a young Darren Moore as United reached the Play-Offs in 1994, and then with Lee Barrow.

Former Derby, Notts County and Eire star O’Riordan’s right foot was stronger than his left, but he read the game so well that it didn’t matter.

It was back to 3-5-2 under Kevin Hodges (1996-98), and the unsung hero of his back-three was Jamie Robinson.

Jon Gittens on the right and Alex Watson in the middle were formidable enough, but Liverpool-born Robinson, signed from Carlisle, lost little by comparison with those two.

He was an instinctive defender, had a good left foot and was nearly as big an influence on wing-back Paul Gibbs on his side as Gittens was with Andy Gurney on the right.

Robinson had a short spell with Exeter after more than 90 games here – an often underrated player.

The same could be said of Lee Russell.

Hampshire man Russell had played 140 games for Portsmouth before he joined United late in the 1998-99 season under Wes Saunders.

The next three years were hardly heady ones at Plainmoor, but Russell was always a dependable figure over 90 appearances, some at left-back but most of them at left centre-back.

Caretaker boss Colin Lee was thankful for Russell’s experience during the 2001 relegation battle, and nobody played better in the last-day 3-2 win at Barnet than Russell did.

Ex-Crystal Palace centre-back David Woozley, one of several astute signings by Roy McFarland in 2001, would certainly have played more than the 79 games he did over the next three years were it not for the arrival of Craig Taylor from Plymouth Argyle in February 2003.

Taylor, followed eight months later by his former Home Park teammate Brian McGlinchey at left- back, topped off an already talent-laden squad which won that memorable promotion under Leroy Rosenior.

Taylor combined calm authority with often unnoticed physical bravery and, after skippering United to promotion, he was even better in League One and then during a draining relegation ‘great escape’ under Ian Atkins in 2005-2006.

Injuries eventually forced his retirement in May 2007, but not before he’d given his all in 138 appearances.

None of those displays was better than at Brunton Park on the last Saturday of April 2006, when Taylor and his defence held out under non-stop pressure from champions-elect Carlisle to earn a 2-1 win which clinched safety with a game to go.

Both Chris Robertson and Mark Ellis made a pretty good fist of being right-footers on the left in the years under Paul Buckle and Martin Ling.

Ling’s decision to swap Ellis and Brian Saah, who started the season on the left, paid dividends during the 2011-2012 Play-Off campaign.

But the next fully paid-up left centre-back was Aussie Aaron Downes.

Downes had already logged 194 games for Chesterfield, overcoming a couple of pretty serious knee injuries, before Ling brought him to Plainmoor.

Downes knew his position inside out, he was formidable in the air and it was hardly his fault that United went through relegation and a lean time as he played another 115 matches for the Gulls.

He underlined that impression by leaving to captain Cheltenham Town’s charge to the National League title under Gary Johnson in 2016 and then, of course, returned to Plainmoor for six years as Johnson’s No.2.

You could argue that the way Downes held things together after Johnson’s resignation last February, eventually keeping United in the NL South, was even more valuable than his efforts back in 2012-2015.

But that would be to overlook what a solid player he’d been.

Downes’ natural successor was Kyle Cameron, who was signed by Gary Owers and then flourished during the first three exciting years under Johnson.

With Downes’ help, Cameron turned himself into a tougher, more seasoned version of the young Geordie who’d failed to make it at Newcastle.

He was a fixture in the Torquay side for three years before moving on to win promotion back to the EFL as captain of Notts County, and he’s now in the Scottish Premiership with St Johnstone – quite a journey.

So, my shortlist of four of the best left centre-backs I’ve seen play for the Gulls reads: MIKE GREEN, PHIL LLOYD, WES SAUNDERS and CRAIG TAYLOR.

Tickets for the Dave Thomas Team of a Lifetime event at Plainmoor on Friday, December 13 are available to purchase from https://www.tickettailor.com/events/clearskypublishing/1440324

Centre-Back Shorts

Broken legs are always tough to beat, but the one that Phil Lloyd sustained at Maidstone in December 1990 was more cruel than most.

Not only did it halt Lloyd’s run of 203 consecutive appearances, it took him out of a side which won promotion at Wembley five months later.

Manager Martin Ling’s decision to switch centre-backs Mark Ellis, who started the 2011-2012 season on the right, and Brian Saah paid big dividends.

Ellis played so well there, in a side that made the Play-Offs, that Crewe Alexandra paid £75,000 for him.

Defender Kyle Cameron took some persuading to get his eyes tested, after manager Gary Johnson spotted that he was mistiming some of his headers in 2020.

Sure enough, Cameron never looked back after being prescribed with contact lenses, and he then urged his goalkeeping mate Shaun MacDonald to follow suit – same result.

Captain Wes Saunders led United out at Wembley in 1991 with stitches and a bandage over his left eye, after a hotel spat involving teammate Tommy Tynan and a kettle.

It didn’t stop him heading a crucial equaliser against Blackpool – he also converted a penalty – before leading the victorious Gulls up the steps to the old Royal Box after winning the Shoot-out.

The Shortlist So Far

Goalkeeper – Mike Mahoney (1970-75), John Turner (1978-80/1983-84), Neville Southall (1998-2000), Bobby Olejnik (2011-12).

Right Back – John Bond (1966-69), Jim McNichol (1986-89/1991), Paul Holmes (1988-92/1999-2003), Andy Gurney (1997-99).

Left Back – Tom Kelly (1986-89/1992-95), John Uzzell (1989-91), Brian McGlinchey (2003-06), Kevin Nicholson (2007-14/2015-17).

Right Centre Back – Dick Edwards (1970-73), Matt Elliott (1989-92), Alex Watson (1995-2001), Steve Woods (2001-2009).

Left Centre Back – Mike Green (1977-79), Phil Lloyd (1987-92), Wes Saunders (1990-93), Craig Taylor (2003-2007).