Torquay United’s 15-year attendance high

The attendance for last weekend’s pre-season friendly against Plymouth Argyle (0-2) has taken a little while to be confirmed, because of a problem with some turnstile scanners.

It was a ‘sell-out’ for a stadium which has an official capacity of 6,200.

But, because of the scanner issue, United have been delayed in marrying up the number of people who actually passed through the turnstiles against the tickets sold.

It was almost certainly the first time that the 6,000-mark had been broken for more than 15 years.

It was on January 24, 2009, that 6,018 saw United meet Coventry City (0-1) in the FA Cup Fourth Round.

That was precisely three more than saw the second leg of the Conference Play-Off Semi-Final against Exeter City in May 2008.

But the biggest gate since Plainmoor’s current conformation is still the 6,156 who saw the 2-2 league draw with Yeovil Town as Liam Rosenior’s Gulls closed in on promotion from ‘League Two’ at Easter 2004.

Of course, the ‘old’ Plainmoor held a lot more, especially before the demise of the original Ellacombe and Babbacombe End terraces.

Three times crowds of 20,000 and more crammed into the place, and the record gate is still the 21,908 who saw the FA Cup Fourth Round tie against Huddersfield Town (0-1) in January 1955.

They really did squeeze people in tight in those days. Not like last Saturday.