Soul searching at Plainmoor after cup loss

‘Humiliation’, ‘embarrassment’, ‘disgrace’ – there’s a long list of angry words just waiting to describe the sort of FA Cup defeat that Torquay United suffered at Bishop’s Cleeve on Saturday (writes Dave Thomas).

Several of them were used by manager Paul Wotton in his as-always honest interview after a 3-0 loss to Southern League Division One opponents.

Wotton also readily admitted that the Gulls might easily have lost by a bigger margin, so poor were they on the day.

Was it the ‘worst’ or most humiliating result in United’s history? Probably not, actually.

It’s worth remembering, however painful it might be, the level that the Gulls have found themselves in these last few years.

And the club has a back-catalogue of Cup defeats it would rather forget.

Veteran United fan Paul Bastard, who was among more than 400 travelling supporters at Kayte Lane on Saturday, also witnessed at least two statistically even worse defeats.

In 1969, a promotion-chasing Third Division (League One) Torquay team, including some of the best players ever to represent the club, lost a First Round tie 1-2 at Tamworth, who were in the West Midlands League at the time.

It felt like a footballing disaster. Manager Allan Brown kept his job then.

And seven years later, in November 1976, Fourth Division (League Two) United went down 1-2 at Plainmoor against Southern League Hillingdon Borough. Malcolm Musgrove wasn’t so lucky.

There have been several other banana-skin days since then, but let’s not list them all.

Whenever these sort of desperate occasions come along, the manager is the first one in line for the flak that follows.

This is, of course, a significant test for Wotton. Nobody feels that more than him.

But let’s hope that the vast majority of United fans get behind him now. Fans who have been so galvanised by what’s happened on and off the pitch at Plainmoor since those perilous days at the end of last season.

It’s easy to forget that Wotton’s budget, as he tried to sign so many players in only a couple of months, did not allow him to shop in football’s equivalent of Waitrose. Far from it.

Yet in the build-up to last Saturday’s match, even after a 2-0 defeat at Welling United, most supporters were pretty happy with 16 points from the first eight games of the National League South season.

Before that loss the Gulls stood second in the table. They’re still fifth.

Wotton, who had repeatedly warned his players what they could expect at Bishop’s Cleeve, was without centre-forward Cody Cooke – what a big miss he proved to be – and injured trio Jordan Dyer, Jay Foulston and Dan Hayfield.

United ended up fielding a team without, as it turned out, enough ‘men’ in it.

That’s something, among other weaknesses, that Wotton, and United’s football consultant Neil Warnock, have been well aware of since the first day of the campaign.

It’s why Wotton has been so measured in his post-match verdicts, even after the better performances.

They’ve been working hard to line up some reinforcements, with possibly two on their way this week.

Wotton had hoped they would arrive on the back of a Cup win. Instead, it will be ahead of what now feels like a very important home game against St Albans City this Saturday.

Everyone will be waiting with interest, first to find out what the attendance is this weekend and also to see what sort of performance the team produces.

For all the work that the Bryn Consortium, now denied any hope of some useful Cup revenue, Wotton and Warnock have put in, let’s hope that they get another 3,000 gate and a win to consign Bishop’s Cleeve to the bad-memory bank.

Twenty-one years ago, all but a month, League Two United lost 2-1 at home to Conference side Burton Albion in the FA Cup First Round. It was their third defeat on the trot.

Few then would have predicted that six months later they would win automatic promotion on that memorable last day of the season at Southend.

United 2024 may not be a patch on the Class Of 2003-2004, but they still need those fans to stick with them at a moment like this.