Ten Torquay United greats

In a new series for the Torbay Weekly, our apprentice James Clune is taking on the world of listicles, starting with Torquay United managers.

As any historical football club's record books will show, United have had a rich history of managers walking through their doors and writing their own piece of Gulls' history. So, we’ve decided to put together who we think are the 10 great Torquay United managers. 

In no particular order, the managers we have picked in this list are: 

Eric Webber – 14 Years at Plainmoor (longest serving of any manager), led them to promotion from Division 4 in 1960. 

Neil Warnock – Big name in the game and came in as a ‘consultant’ but ended up taking charge of Torquay United for one season in 1993, guiding them to safety from relegation. 

Frank O’Farrell - Three spells in charge of the Gulls (65-68, 76-77, 81-82) and took Torquay to promotion with his first season in charge. He would follow that up with seventh and fourth place third division finishes respectively. 

Percy Mackrill – Helped Torquay apply to the Football League Third Division by winning their first league title since 1912. Also helped the Gulls reach the FA Cup First Round proper for the first time in their history. 

Paul Buckle – Helped promote Torquay League back to the Football League in 2009, led them to the FA Trophy Final in 2008. Bucks also got them into the FA Cup Fourth Round twice and holds highest win-rate of any Torquay United Manager in the club's history during his four years in charge from 2007-2011. 

Stuart Morgan – Was the manager who led Torquay United to safety from relegation on the final day in the famous ‘Great Escape’ game of 1987. 

Cyril Knowles – Manager famed for introducing future Manchester United and England player Lee Sharpe to Torquay United, who holds the record for the second largest player sale in Gulls’ history.  

Leroy Rosenior – Manager who helped Torquay United to automatic promotion into the third tier of English football (only the third time in the club's history they had achieved automatic promotion at that point). 

Fred Mortimer – Torquay United’s noted first ever manager. 

Gary Johnson – Current tied second longest serving Gulls’ manager with Frank Brown (Only Eric Webber ahead of him), who helped Torquay United to their first title since 1927 and their first promotion since 2009 by going four months unbeaten at the start of the season and then picking up 32 of 39 available points after their first loss under Johnson’s management in mid-January.   

Disclaimer: * = Jimmy Hargreaves had a win rate of 50% as Torquay United caretaker manager from Jan 16 – Feb 4, 1984 but this was because he only managed two games (L1 W1). This metric has been deemed too short to measure win rate as the career span of a manager is usually set to last far longer than two games.

(*) = Crad Evans & Harry Raymond had taken charge of Torquay United before Mortimer, but this was in a player-manager style role. We have counted Mortimer due to most clubs not currently employing a player-manager on the touchline as well.