Torquay United ready to land Fish in a starting role at Farnborough

The biggest ‘unknown’ in Torquay United’s summer transfer business was young centre-forward Sonny Fish.

The records of Louis Dennis, Callum Dolan, Munashe Sundire, Sonny Blu Lo-Everton and Matt Worthington were easy to check and clear for all to see (writes Dave Thomas).

But with 21-year-old Fish, it was all about the ‘P’ word.

The Southend-born striker hadn’t quite made it at Leyton Orient and then Crawley Town, and his fledgling reputation was based mainly on loans with the likes of Worthing, Tonbridge Angels, Welling and Gateshead.

A couple had been interrupted by injuries, including a spell at Solihull Moors last season.

But the ‘grapevine’ still reported that Fish was a 6ft 2in tall forward of potential, especially after he’d scored six goals in ten games to haul Welling out of NLS relegation trouble two years ago.

So, what happens when he arrives at Plainmoor? He suffers another injury.

A cartilage problem that required surgery knocked him out of United’s pre-season, forcing him into three months of recovery and ‘rehab’ work.

Such a period can be a huge test of any player’s mental strength, especially for one desperate to make an impact at a new club.

For week after week, Fish kept an outward smile on his face, in between long hours in the gym under physio Regan Miles and watching his new teammates running around at the Gulls’ South Devon College training centre.

Midfielder Sundire is now going through the same frustrating regime after his hamstring operation.

Fish finally made his debut with half-an-hour at Chesham last month.

In recent games against Chippenham, Dorking and Hornchurch, he’s increased his ‘game time’ with similar spells off the bench.

But it was in 20 minutes in last Saturday’s 2-1 defeat to leaders Hornchurch that Fish finally looked as if he was able to do himself justice.

The big question now is when manager Paul Wotton decides that substitute appearances should be turned into a starting spot.

Fish is probably still short of being able to sustain 90 minutes of first-team action, but he ran with pace and power last Saturday, and he looked confident driving at the Hornchurch defence with the ball at his feet.

The fact that resident centre-forward Cody Cooke is currently injured, and is being missed, only ups the ante for Fish’s return.

In the comparatively small-sprint of their latest ‘Co-Chairmen’s Chat’ last week, Mike Westcott and Mark Bowes-Cavanagh stressed their ongoing commitment to not risking the future security and direction of the club with unnecessary or injudicious spending.

Lashing out on a replacement for Cooke now almost certainly falls into that bracket, especially as last season’s leading scorer will hopefully return from his pelvic injury in a few weeks – and Fish is back too.

Keep an eye on the United team sheets at Farnborough tonight and Maidenhead on Saturday...

Footnote: It’s never much consolation to receive a pat on the back after you’ve just lost, but there was one after the defeat to Hornchurch.

After a thoroughly entertaining game, which United probably deserved to draw against the league leaders, your correspondent sought out the visitors’ midfielder Josh Rees.

Rees, who spent an impressive six months on loan here as a Nottingham Forest youngster ten years ago, has always been ‘one that got away’, because he nearly stayed here back in 2016.

Without any prompting, Rees reckoned that Torquay were the best team that Hornchurch had played so far.

Not much comfort, maybe, but...