How Torquay United restored Neil Warnock’s ‘faith’ in football

When Neil Warnock walked into Plainmoor in the last week of January 1993, he was a man still reeling from his sacking at Notts County.

After leading Scarborough into the Football League for the first time, he had taken Notts on a heady journey from the Third to the old First Division.

Punching above their weight, the Magpies had been relegated back to Division Two, but the decision to dismiss Warnock, after everything he’d done at Meadow Lane, was harsh in the extreme.

He later admitted that he seriously considered giving up on management and returning to his original career as a chiropodist.

Then Torquay United chairman Mike Bateson called.

The Gulls, promoted at Wembley in 1991 but relegated back to the Fourth Division 12 months later, were in trouble again.

Their inexperienced manager Paul Compton was struggling to cope, even with the assistance of the high-profile but mercurial Justin Fashanu as his player-coach.

Warnock agreed to ‘help’.

Fashanu, never likely to prosper under Warnock, took the hint and left. But Compton willingly stepped aside and reverted to Youth Coach.

Warnock was still acting as a ‘consultant’, and things did not immediately go well.

But after a couple more defeats, at home to Crewe (1-2) and away to Cardiff (0-4), Warnock had a ‘home truths’ meeting with Bateson, offered to walk away but made it clear that he reckoned that United had a better chance of staying up with him on board than without.

Bateson agreed and gave the go-ahead to make a series of new signings.

They included two from Notts, goalkeeper Kevin Blackwell and former Derby County and Eire midfielder Don O’Riordan, defenders Lee Barrow (Scarborough) and Tom Kelly (back from Exeter City) and 6ft 5in centre-forward Mark Sale from Birmingham City for £10,000.

The fightback was on.

Warnock galvanised a young squad, which contained several products of the club’s Youth Training Scheme, but the players also lifted him. In his own words, they ‘restored my faith and enthusiasm for the game’.

United still had the odd setback, but they weren’t pushovers anymore and they started picking up points, especially away from home.

The fans responded, gates increasing from 1,700 to more than 4,000.

By the time they went to Carlisle for the penultimate game of the season, Torquay had a real chance of staying up, especially if other results went their way.

They fought every minute of a long and tense afternoon at Brunton Park and a goal by young striker Duane Darby gave United a 1-0 win.

Moments later the news came through that Halifax Town had lost, and the Gulls had pulled off another Great Escape.

Warnock is an emotional man, but his reaction that afternoon spoke volumes about how he felt.

He had to be dragged away from celebrating with the couple of hundred fans who had made the long trip to Cumbria, and he was still holding back tears when he threw his arms around your correspondent before trying to pull himself together for the post-match interviews.

It’s a long way home from Carlisle to Torquay, but Warnock persuaded Bateson to pay for the whole party to pull off the M6 at Lancaster and head for an Italian restaurant there.

Nobody cared what time we got home.

Seven days later, nearly 5,000 were at Plainmoor for a last-match party against Gillingham, who had also stayed up the previous weekend.

United won 2-1, with goals by Adrian Foster and Kelly (pen), before Warnock made the Player of the Year presentations from the old grandstand balcony.

The Young Player award went to 19-year-old centre-half Darren Moore, who had turned from boy to man during those testing few months.

For a week or two, it seemed as if Warnock might stay to carry on his good work, but keeping Torquay up had re-established his reputation and his phone was busy again.

He eventually joined Huddersfield Town, taking Blackwell with him, and the rest is history – a record eight promotions in a remarkable 1,626-game career that has taken them to Plymouth, Oldham, Bury, Sheffield United, Crystal Palace twice, QPR, Leeds. Rotherham, Cardiff, Middlesbrough and recently Aberdeen.

But Warnock hadn’t just kept Torquay up, he had laid the foundations for better times.

O’Riordan took over as player-manager. Barrow, Sale and Kelly all stayed, and a year later O’Riordan’s new side, including fleet-footed Barbadian winger Gregory Goodridge, reached the Play- Offs before losing an epic Semi-Final 4-3 on aggregate to Preston North End.

Warnock’s stay in charge at Plainmoor lasted just over three months, but he’s always insisted that keeping Torquay in the League in 1993 is one of the best achievements of his career and the intervening three decades have done nothing to diminish his affection for the club.

He’s tried to help with loan signings down the years, has come back to watch matches in between his other commitments and now, at the age of 75, might he be poised to lend a hand again, in an even bigger crisis than the one he walked into 31 years ago..?