Truro Trophy reunion for Paul Wotton

There will be a sprinkle of added spice for Torquay United manager Paul Wotton this weekend, as he welcomes former club Truro City to Plainmoor in the FA Trophy.

Wotton led the White Tigers for five seasons, earning huge praise for steering the club through a turbulent period that saw Truro effectively homeless for much of his time in charge, playing ‘home’ fixtures at a range of venues in the south-west.

He took charge at Truro with the club back in the Southern Premier Division and, as well as venue issues, Wotton guided Truro through two Covid-impacted campaigns.

When things finally settled down off the pitch, Wotton led his team to promotion back into the National League South and kept them in the sixth tier. He departed Truro with the rare satisfaction of knowing he will always be awarded a warm reception by supporters of his former club.

Now that Truro City have finally settled into a permanent home, the Cornish outfit has emerged as one of the surprise packages over the first three months of the National League South campaign, sitting in the top three of the table and two points above Torquay before the midweek games.

The FA Trophy, however, is a competition notorious for throwing up unexpected results and the Gulls will be understandably keen to mount a proper cup run after bowing out of the FA Cup at Bishops Cleeve earlier this season.

The Trophy was not particularly kind to United last season. After negotiating the first two rounds, the Gulls were dumped out by a 2-0 defeat at Hereford in January, a result that came just weeks before the chaos of former chairman Clarke Osborne plunging the club into administration.

Thankfully, the drama this season is reserved for on the pitch, and not in the Boardroom.