Dean Moxey: ‘We were lucky to have him’

The retained List meeting that Torquay United manager Paul Wotton was looking forward to the least was the one to tell Dean Moxey, 39, that he was being released.

Not because it was going to be especially emotional. The two men, both of whom have all the T- shirts that go with long careers in the game, are not like that.

But from Wotton’s point of view at least, it was simply the business of saying goodbye to a respected kindred spirit.

A few days before, Moxey had risen off the subs’ bench to make his 709th senior appearance and the 156th of his five-year spell with the Gulls, in the Play-Off Semi-Final defeat by Boreham Wood.

He was already 34 and had played in every division from the Premier League downwards when former Gulls boss Gary Johnson signed him, along with fellow Exeter City defender Gary Warren and centre-forward Danny Wright, in the summer of 2020.

The trio, all in their 30s, instantly turned United from a decent National League side into one that should have won the title, and was then the victim of some head-shaking refereeing on that still-painful afternoon at Ashton Gate 12 months later.

The easy assumption with players of Moxey’s vintage is that ‘their legs have gone’.

Well, tell that to all the opponents who tried to get past him, or the teammates he beat in training sprints.

Of course, he wasn’t as quick as the 17-year-old who had made his debut on Exeter City’s left wing in 2003.

But he was still no slouch, and his exceptional fitness, anticipation and reading of the game kept him a step ahead.

And then there was that left foot – a wand one moment, a hammer the next.

Week in and out Moxey kept delivering quality performances, even as standards slid around him, until he finally won United’s 2023-2024 Player Of The Year award, not quite by a landslide but not far off it.

Seldom has the trophy gone to a more deserving contender.

In a desperate campaign, would United have survived as a National League South club without Moxey and his fellow ‘vet’ Asa Hall at the back?

Just in the last few weeks at the other end of the table, chasing vital goals under huge pressure, Wotton had turned again to his senior pro, even as a makeshift left-winger.

And a pretty good job he made of it too.

‘Moxe’ has always been a man of few words, but his meeting with Wotton was as dignified as you’d expect. It was finally time to move on.

No classier player has pulled on a Torquay shirt for a very long time.