United mission to restore faith

Torquay United face six games in 18 days – four at home and all but one of them Westcountry derbies – to save their season and restore the faith of their worried supporters.
Monday’s Isuzu FA Trophy draw handed Gary Johnson’s much-criticised Gulls the tie of the Second Round – against his old club Yeovil Town at Plainmoor (Nov 18).
It will come only 12 days after the NL South leaders come here in the league.
And it sets up a forthcoming schedule which reads: Saturday (Nov 4) Bath City (H), 7 – Yeovil (H), 11 – Havant & Waterlooville (A), 14 – Weymouth (H), 18 – Yeovil FAT (H), 21 – Taunton Town (A).
Last Saturday’s 3-1 defeat at Hampton & Richmond, which followed a 3-2 loss at struggling Weston- super-Mare four days before, dropped Torquay to ninth place in the NLS.
It was their fifth defeat in seven league and cup matches, and it has provoked the angriest reaction yet from the club’s fans.
Many of them are deeply unhappy at the way things have gone recently, and they will see the Bath (3rd) and Yeovil league games as much more important than the Trophy tie.
Yeovil are already ten points ahead of the Gulls, and that gap cannot be allowed to grow if Torquay are to have any realistic chance of winning the NLS title and the single automatic promotion place that goes with it.
But if United can stall the Glovers next Tuesday, then the Trophy tie is also an opportunity to strike another psychological blow against them.
United have got to haul themselves out of their current rut as soon as possible, and they might as well do it against their biggest rivals.
The Gulls’ chairman Clarke Osborne and CEO George Edwards continue to keep faith with Johnson, and they even seem ready to back him with funds in the transfer market.
With leading scorer Aaron Jarvis out – he injured a knee colliding with the perimeter fence at Weston – Johnson revealed: “We’ve got an offer in for a striker.”
And that comes after midfielder Callum Dolan, 23, made a lively debut at Hampton on loan from League One Fleetwood Town, who are managed by Johnson’s son Lee.
Hampton’s opener at the weekend was reported as a Dolan own-goal in some quarters, but replays showed that it actually went in off teammate Brett McGavin.