Money on the line for Torquay United

The £9,375 prize-money that Torquay United will collect, plus whatever the First Round Proper draw might bring them if they beat Maidstone United in the FA Cup this Saturday, might cheer up the Gulls owner Clarke Osborne and CEO George Edwards.
And since Osborne has covered losses of nearly £6 million over the last seven years, no one should make light of any bonus that helps him to pay a few more bills.
You can even mention, as manager Gary Johnson did after last weekend’s 1-0 defeat to Maidstone, that there’s plenty of time to retrieve those lost league points.
But nobody with TUFC at heart should be in any doubt that an FA Cup run still comes a poor second to the business of winning promotion.
Last Saturday’s defeat was worrying on several levels.
It came after a previous league loss at Hemel Hempstead (2-3) where, as we all remember only too painfully, United threw away a 2-1 lead with six minutes of normal time to go – and with it the NLS leadership.
It also followed the Gulls’ failure to add to a 5-0 half-time lead against an outclassed Hungerford Town team in the Cup.
Johnson was quick to acknowledge publicly how poor his side was in the first half against Maidstone.
So we can only imagine what he might have told his players behind a firmly shut dressing room door.
The 29th minute sending-off of Ross Marshall, and the build-up to it, just about summed up the level of decision making which ran through most of United’s play.
How Maidstone weren’t at least a couple of goals up by the interval was down to Mark Halstead’s brilliant penalty save, some last-ditch defending and some pretty inept finishing by the visitors.
By the way, the loss of Marshall for three matches, after the departures of loanees Will Jenkins Davies and Luke Pearce, deepens United’s availability issues.
Jenkins Davies may be only 18, but the Plymouth Argyle prospect had been playing regularly in midfield, improving with every game and he looks a big miss in current circumstances.
A half-fit Asa Hall may be back, thank goodness, but Kevin Dawson, Dan Martin and Dillon De Silva are all injured, and Johnson regularly takes the still-classy Dean Moxey off in the closing stages to save his 37-year-old legs.
The Gulls’ subs last Saturday were Hall, reserve goalkeeper Rhys Lovett, Ryan Hanson and young defenders Finley Craske and rookie pro Calum Thomas.
Some supporters took a little comfort from United’s efforts with ten men, but you have to factor in that Maidstone also made very hard work of making their advantage count.
The Stones may have moved above Torquay (7th) with their win, but on that evidence they are nothing special and United have every chance of reversing the result this weekend – fingers crossed.
Seventh, especially as their Westcountry rivals Yeovil Town went top of the table on Saturday, is not where any Gulls fan expects United to be.
And that’s the big point.
United MUST win promotion this season. Just as they had to do it after they’d been relegated to this level the last time.
Anything less and the road ahead will start to look very worrying indeed..
By all means stay in the Cup. By all means win a few more quid. But it’s the league that counts – first, second and every which way...