Asa Hall departure marks end of an era

‘End of an era’ is probably not an overstatement at the news that Asa Hall is leaving Torquay United.

The 37-year-old midfielder and captain, signed by former Gulls manager Gary Owers in the summer of 2018, departs Plainmoor after 192 appearances and 46 goals.

They are just the latest stats in a career that’s taken Hall from his hometown Birmingham City, to Oxford United, Shrewsbury Town, Cheltenham Town, Barrow and Torquay, with several other loan spells along the way, boasting 577 senior games and 91 goals.

He almost certainly hasn’t finished yet, as other clubs are interested in signing him, especially after he moved from midfield to centre-back near the end of last season.

For the last six years Hall has been a talismanic figure at Plainmoor.

Even when it seemed as if injuries were sure to end his effectiveness, he kept bouncing back to deliver his brand of leadership, know-how and goals.

To have scored at the rate he did from midfield was remarkable enough, but it was often the timing and importance of them that will linger long in the memory.

None was more vital than his last, nor more typical of him.

A perfectly-timed set-piece run and volley to give United the most precious of 2-0 leads when it mattered most of all, at Taunton Town in the final week of that perilous 2023-2024 campaign.

Behind the scenes, Hall was also an influence for good in the Torquay dressing-room, a manager’s dream, as they say.

New United manager Paul Wotton is charged with building a new, forward-looking team – something that that the Plainmoor crowd also want.

Thankfully, we don’t have to make the sort of difficult decisions that go with it.

But you can be sure that Wotton thought long and hard before letting Hall, perhaps more than most of his released team-mates, go.