by hector » 02 Mar 2013, 14:14
Having been a Torquay fan for so many years 30+, at least, you can often predict how things are going to go. Not because of any necessarily rational reasoning but simply because that is what happens when you support Torquay - a bit like watching England. You expect the worst and you usually get it. Perhaps it is a self-fulfilling prophecy but I am sure that I was not alone when fearing the worst for this season when we imploded so badly last year.
When this time last year, when we couldn't lose and seemed secure in the promotion places, I did start to dare to dream about League 1 football. And here we are a year later looking at non-league football again. But when our form deserted us around march time it would have been typical of Torquay to squander promotion and then struggle against relegation. Even though that scenario did worry me, not even the most pessimistic part of me would imagine ti could turn out to be so awful.
I fear the worst because of the ramifications of another relegation to non-league football. At least last time it marked a sense of renewal from the era of Bateson and Roberts. Being in non-league football with a progressive outlook backed by a lottery winner was preferable to the years of stifling penny-pinching that marked the Bateson era.
Two years in the Conference, the trips to Wembley, promotion chasing, cup runs, followed by two play-off campaigns set us up as a club on the up. The new stand, training ground, the infrastruture being built up, youth scheme etc...everything had improved and was better than it had been for years, This is the real tragedy of a possible relegation.
At least with Plymouth you can reason that it is the natural consequence (and deserved one as well) of their over-spending and living beyond their means. For us it will be squandering all that good work to get us back as an established and steady league club and the waste of it is almost heartbraking because the next spell in the conference won't be the almost 'exciting' time it was before.
The way it leaves me feeling is that it almost adds anxiety into your life. I can do without it. We all have problems in our lives that football should be an escape from but when the football club you have followed for over three decades has just rolled over and died, then you start to get to a stage where you are past caring. I look at the website each day - and have been since the transfer window opened in January - in the vain hope that they may have done something to arrest a slide which was blatantly obvious even then. But each day I look I am disappointed. Greeted on the official site by some glib and pointless headline, usually two words, which say **** all as usual.
The site is trying to put the positive slant that there is still 'over quarter of a season to go' as if to say 'don't worry, there are loads of games left'...well 12 quickly becomes 9, then 6 and then 3 and then too late. Also, every other club has 12 games left and are in better form than us and they only need the 12/13 points or whatever it is to get to that 'safety' margin. WE are less likely to achieve it than the other clubs.
I have bought a season ticket for the last 6 years. I will not be renewing it in the Conference. I, like so many others, will probably pick and choose my games because if we go down it is more likely that we will struggle like Lincoln, than storm the division like we did last time.
It could be that someone feeling like me would be accused of lack of loyalty or being fickle but it is just I have had enough. Watching the club throw away all it has achieved just makes me too angry and disappointed to feel like caring.
So an element of me has given up hope because I just do not see us winning enough points, especially if today goes wrong. The lack of reinforcements is utterly disappointing and it leaves me wondering if it is all talk coming out of the club as they have been promising players since January and other than Benyon (who is a waste of space anyway) there has not been a sniff of a new player, so we are left with the same squad who before the 7 defeats on the trot had a spell of around 6 games chucking games away in the 85th minute.
What possible reason is there for any supporter to have any faith in this bunch of players? There is none and with the club seemingly unable to rise from its slumber and wake up and see what is going on, there is little reason to hope and reasonably think we are likely to get out of this mess.
Such a terrible waste and there will be no coming back from it this time.
Having been a Torquay fan for so many years 30+, at least, you can often predict how things are going to go. Not because of any necessarily rational reasoning but simply because that is what happens when you support Torquay - a bit like watching England. You expect the worst and you usually get it. Perhaps it is a self-fulfilling prophecy but I am sure that I was not alone when fearing the worst for this season when we imploded so badly last year.
When this time last year, when we couldn't lose and seemed secure in the promotion places, I did start to dare to dream about League 1 football. And here we are a year later looking at non-league football again. But when our form deserted us around march time it would have been typical of Torquay to squander promotion and then struggle against relegation. Even though that scenario did worry me, not even the most pessimistic part of me would imagine ti could turn out to be so awful.
I fear the worst because of the ramifications of another relegation to non-league football. At least last time it marked a sense of renewal from the era of Bateson and Roberts. Being in non-league football with a progressive outlook backed by a lottery winner was preferable to the years of stifling penny-pinching that marked the Bateson era.
Two years in the Conference, the trips to Wembley, promotion chasing, cup runs, followed by two play-off campaigns set us up as a club on the up. The new stand, training ground, the infrastruture being built up, youth scheme etc...everything had improved and was better than it had been for years, This is the real tragedy of a possible relegation.
At least with Plymouth you can reason that it is the natural consequence (and deserved one as well) of their over-spending and living beyond their means. For us it will be squandering all that good work to get us back as an established and steady league club and the waste of it is almost heartbraking because the next spell in the conference won't be the almost 'exciting' time it was before.
The way it leaves me feeling is that it almost adds anxiety into your life. I can do without it. We all have problems in our lives that football should be an escape from but when the football club you have followed for over three decades has just rolled over and died, then you start to get to a stage where you are past caring. I look at the website each day - and have been since the transfer window opened in January - in the vain hope that they may have done something to arrest a slide which was blatantly obvious even then. But each day I look I am disappointed. Greeted on the official site by some glib and pointless headline, usually two words, which say **** all as usual.
The site is trying to put the positive slant that there is still 'over quarter of a season to go' as if to say 'don't worry, there are loads of games left'...well 12 quickly becomes 9, then 6 and then 3 and then too late. Also, every other club has 12 games left and are in better form than us and they only need the 12/13 points or whatever it is to get to that 'safety' margin. WE are less likely to achieve it than the other clubs.
I have bought a season ticket for the last 6 years. I will not be renewing it in the Conference. I, like so many others, will probably pick and choose my games because if we go down it is more likely that we will struggle like Lincoln, than storm the division like we did last time.
It could be that someone feeling like me would be accused of lack of loyalty or being fickle but it is just I have had enough. Watching the club throw away all it has achieved just makes me too angry and disappointed to feel like caring.
So an element of me has given up hope because I just do not see us winning enough points, especially if today goes wrong. The lack of reinforcements is utterly disappointing and it leaves me wondering if it is all talk coming out of the club as they have been promising players since January and other than Benyon (who is a waste of space anyway) there has not been a sniff of a new player, so we are left with the same squad who before the 7 defeats on the trot had a spell of around 6 games chucking games away in the 85th minute.
What possible reason is there for any supporter to have any faith in this bunch of players? There is none and with the club seemingly unable to rise from its slumber and wake up and see what is going on, there is little reason to hope and reasonably think we are likely to get out of this mess.
Such a terrible waste and there will be no coming back from it this time.
