Learning lessons fast at Plainmoor

Torquay United’s players must forget their pre-season favourites rating and ‘respect’ the National League South, if they’re to stand any chance of repeating the club’s 2019 championship in this division.
That’s the view of manager Gary Johnson in the wake of a poor start, which prompted frustrated and angry scenes at Plainmoor after Saturday’s 3-0 defeat at the hands of Worthing.
Speaking before last night’s home game against Chippenham Town, Johnson said: “The lads have had a lesson and a half, with Worthing and also Dover (2-2) the week before.
“They’ve got to learn to respect this division, and that’s the whole club.
“If you don’t, you’re not going to do anything.
“We know they’ve got the ability – we saw that at the end of last season and in this pre-season.
“Maybe subconsciously, because we were 2-0 up at Dover, they thought that was enough.”
United have missed four players who were key to the run which nearly kept them up in the Spring. They’ve not so far been able to replace impressive young Southampton loanee Nico Lawrence at centre-back.
And the opening games of this season have seen experienced trio Dean Moxey, Kevin Dawson and Tom Lapslie either sidelined or recovering from injuries. Midfielder Dawson, 32, is not expected back from a hamstring operation until mid-October.
“You never want to blame injuries, because other people have got to step up to the plate, which they didn’t on Saturday,” said Johnson before issuing a rallying call before the Chippenham match.
Torquay also made a bad start after relegation to the NL South under Gary Owers in 2018, and it took the arrival of Johnson, who had just been sacked at Cheltenham Town, to shake things up and take them on a record-breaking run to the title, spearheaded by 32 goals from Jamie Reid.
Five years on, no matter what the result last night, the current squad can be under no illusions about what will be required to bounce back again.
Three of United’s next four games are away from home. St Albans City (A) this Saturday is followed by Slough Town (A) and Braintree Town (H) over the August Bank Holiday weekend (Aug 26/28) and then Aveley (A) in Essex on September 2.