Torquay United will end this year in an infinitely stronger position than where they started it, sitting top of the National League South table with dreams of promotion in the spring.
Supporters have become reacquainted with forgotten feelings of hope and optimism for their club having previously been gripped by despair and anguish. From January until April numerous milestones were hit, none of which were positive.
In February, Torquay entered administration. In March, they were docked 10 points for doing so. In April, they recorded their lowest league finish in 97 years, 18th out of 24 in the sixth level of the pyramid.
A proud, historic club, which had spent 79 consecutive years in the English Football League had tumbled to the bottom of the well. There were legitimate fears that they would never escape the darkness.
“We were all desperately worried that if no white knight in shining armour came along, that padlocks would be put on the gates at Plainmoor and we would have to form a phoenix club restarting in a south Devon league playing on a park somewhere,” Nick Brodrick, chairman of the Torquay United Supporters Trust (TUST), tells The i Paper.
Thankfully, things have markedly improved since May when a new ownership group took charge of the club. The long climb back to the EFL has begun.
Collaboration is at the heart of Torquay’s transformation, as it has to be. Under the previous owner, they were plunged first into a deep malaise and then almost to extinction. Clarke Osborne, a self-confessed “petrolhead”, was driven by plans to relocate the club to a multi-purpose venue in Torbay.
It was an unpopular and ultimately unsuccessful venture.
Now, every decision made is taken with the interests of the club and wider community at the forefront. Torquay United is “run by fans, for fans”.
Bryn Consortium, named after the famous police dog that bit ex-player Jim McNichol on the final day of the 1986-87 season when Torquay miraculously escaped relegation from the fourth tier, were the symbolic white knight.
Michael Westcott, a Torquay fan and now one of two co-chairs of the club with Mark Bowes-Cavanagh, led the charge. He contacted Brodrick within four days of the administration announcement to assess what could be done and how he could help.
Members of the TUST board, including Brodrick, met with Westcott in a pub before a game against Weymouth in late February to discuss how to save Torquay from its stupor.
“When you meet somebody for the first time you either get a vibe that this person is genuine or they are trying to cause you problems,” Brodrick says.
“My gut instinct was that this guy was for real and had the ideas. The previous day he had spent several hours at Exeter City talking with their Trust people who run the club there, and he had a little black notebook that was filled with pages and pages of notes that he’d taken learning how the Trust ran the football club.”
TUST were contacted by other businessmen eager to lend a hand and put them in touch with Westcott.
“Basically, six of them in the end got together and formed what is known as the Bryn Consortium,” Westcott says.
Mercifully for supporters, the transfer of power occurred quickly. Torquay went from being in administration to under new management in just 78 days, with the takeover officially completed on 10 May.
Significantly, all six members of the Bryn Consortium are Torquay supporters.
“They don’t refer to themselves as owners. They are the custodians of Torquay United football club because eventually as the years go by the plan is that the club will be fully run by fans like the Exeter City model which is one that we sort of aspire to,” Brodrick says.
The club has a seventh director: Torquay United Supporters Trust.
In August, the club announced that it had updated its Articles of Association to ensure that there will always be fan representation in the boardroom. TUST secured a “permanent and protected” seat on it after acquiring £50,000 worth of club shares via its Forever Yellow fund and Brodrick was appointed as their first representative.
Soon after, TUST launched a community share issue to further safeguard the club’s future. They set a fundraising target of £100,000 which if met would give them a second seat on the board and trigger certain “heritage rights” giving fans a veto on any plans to change the club’s name and nickname, badge, kit colours, and move away from Plainmoor.
The target was reached after just four days, raising £222,251 in total after contributions from 536 separate investors. Danni Wyatt, captain of Torquay’s Women’s team was elected as TUST’s second non-executive director on the club’s board.
“It just shows how many people out there actually follow Torquay United and love it so much that they are prepared to delve deep into their pockets to support the club,” Brodrick says. “It has just been absolutely fantastic and we can’t thank them enough.”
Earlier this month, Torquay released a new third kit for the season which paid homage to the individuals who invested by printing their names on the shirt.
It was a subtle detail that means the world to many and is an indicator of how the club and its community have become realigned.
For years, Torquay fans felt they were treated as customers; now their loyalty is finally being recognised and appreciated.
“It’s back to what the club used to be when I was first started following it. It’s a proper family-friendly club with community at its heart and the wellbeing and welfare of fans being paramount,” Brodrick says. “It’s a fantastic feeling. You go into the ground feeling upbeat.”
The team’s performances and results have helped the good vibes. Waves of positivity are being bounced from the stands to the pitch and back again. A unified club off the pitch and a successful team on it makes for a heady mix.
There was a major overhaul in the summer, which began the appointment of Paul Wotton, from promotion rivals Truro City, as manager just four days after the takeover had been agreed.
By the end of the transfer window, Wotton had been joined by 22 players, signed either on free transfers or on loan. Only four members of the current squad were at Torquay last season.
Torquay’s pedigree helped them attract good players for the sixth-tier, with their recruits sourced from divisional rivals, the National League or Premier League and Championship academies. But Wotton deserves credit for moulding them into a cohesive unit so quickly, as do the players for adapting to the challenge.
Legendary manager Neil Warnock was the most high-profile addition, though, joining in an advisory role after retiring from management. Warnock saved the club from relegation into non-league in the early 90s after a brief spell in charge.
“He’s very popular. He’s a huge attraction, everyone wants to know ‘Is Neil Warnock here?’ The number of people who want selfies with him… he’s a great ambassador for Torquay United and brings great publicity to the club and the area,” Brodrick says.
Nobody is getting carried away by their position as league leaders. There is just one automatic promotion slot to the National League and another via the play-offs. The table is incredibly congested with just four points separating Torquay in first to Eastbourne Borough in eighth.
There is plenty of work to be done on and off the pitch to get the club back to where the consortium and supporters want it to be. But there is no shortage of people willing to contribute.
A TUST initiative, Paint Up Plainmoor which aimed to spruce up a stadium that had gone “five, six, seven years without much money spent on it”, proved to be very popular.
Steps were cleaned and repainted, creaking doors and turnstiles were replaced and companies large and small donated materials to the effort. A successful football club is good for the area and people are taking pride in it once more.
So much so that fans are returning to Plainmoor in their droves. An average attendance of 3,361 is their highest since the 2004-05 season when the club was in League One. There were 3,706 home fans in attendance for the final home game of this year, a 1-0 win over Hemel Hempstead just before Christmas.
Torquay fans have their club back. They are no longer powerless and will be involved in the drive to return to the EFL. “It’s a dream come true, really,” says Brodrick, relieved that the nightmare is over.
