Torquay United Fans Forum

Good luck to him. A bit of a shame as I thought he looked like a promising young lad a times and certainly a reasonable reserve option.

From his point of view, I understand it. You only get one life and he doesn't want to waste it sat on the bench. Quite how the life of an Estate Agent is a step up is beyond me, but each to their own! A sensible decision, made with the head and not the heart. As someone else said, you've got to admire him for spending his day off learning another trade. I dread to think what the rest of the squad are up to.

ferrarilover wrote:That he's been fined for it is perfectly ok, provided that anyone from the other side of the coin identified by the club as being involved is similarly punished.

Matt.

I'd go along with that. The amount of stick he was getting was ridiculous and I genuinely felt ashamed to be stood near some of the fools who were getting involved. You expect it from away fans, but your own supporters? Madness.

Hello everyone,

I just wanted to let you know that Issue 4 of our TUFC fanzine is out now. You can buy it from www.highwaytohele.bigcartel.com for just £1 (£2.20 with postage). I will also be attending a couple of games - follow @highwaytohele on Twitter for details.

This time around, we have interviews with NEVILLE SOUTHALL, JASON FOWLER & TULFC Ladies Captain VICKI FANNON. Plus there are the usual features, previews, matchday journals and more.

Subscribers don't need to do anything. I am busily writing out the envelopes as we speak, so most of them if not all should get in tomorrow's post. Thank you to those of who have contributed or picked up a copy.

Rob.

A frustrating game yesterday, won by one magnificent pass, run and finish. FCUM frustrated us and forged more than a few chances of their own, and my heart sank when they hit the bar - but I thought that move, with Richards (who had a good game) and Bowman (who did not, but showed he only needs one chance even on an off day) was the highlight of the afternoon. Lovely to watch.

Chappell should have been on much earlier, we looked better when we went 4-4-2 and brought him on shortly afterwards. Harsh that McQuilkin was the man to go though because he worked hard and quietly had a decent game. But there you go. CH will say it worked, although I am amazed that Briscoe lasted 90 minutes. The man looks in worse shape than when he signed!

Atmosphere in Boots before kick off was great. I did feel a little bit like an away fan though. A strange feeling. The FCUM fans were excellent throughout, and to add to that I thought the FCUM players applauding the home fans at the end was a classy touch.

I'm just pleased we stuck our noses in front and held on through a frustrating and ugly game. A good effort from several of our players (although for the remaining few, it has to be said that effort was sorely lacking). In particular I thought MacDonald, Ives, McQuilkin, Richards, Pearce had good games and Rice was as commanding as I have seen him in the box. Kicking was poor though. Chappell and Downes also were good while they were on the pitch. Luke Young had a quiet game by his standards but did his best. One or two others I was not so sure about (ducking out of headers, lots of whinging etc).

For anyone who is interested, I did a little interview about Highway to Hele with the lovely chaps at the Western Morning News and here is the result.

http://www.westernmorningnews.co.uk/Set ... story.html

Work on Issue 4 will be gathering pace shortly.

taxilady wrote:he's on a week's trial, but I don't know his name !

Guy Branston tweeted something about this as it came through his website.

http://www.torquayunited.com/news/artic ... 86165.aspx

Our small squad just got a little smaller.

Are all these players heading for the exit door (Thompson, Sullivan, Benyon, and now Hutchings) freeing up money for a January loan?

brooker wrote:I feel for the club on this one. Social media marketing is a large part of my job, and it's something that people assume can be knocked up in seconds, but actually does take both time, and creativity to do well.

You're right, I have a bit of experience in similar areas and I know the people who do this at my company (national) very well. It does take time, more than people might think. With that being said, look at our programme - since the revamp 4 or 5 years ago (?), it's been a good read and was even nominated for an award. It's also a very slick, contemporary design. I think some of the people involved in doing that need to get on the social media team (assuming it is not already the same person!), because somebody obviously knows what they're doing.

Maybe I am in the minority, but I thought in the first half we were okay. We kept possession well, moved the ball around the pitch nicely and asked plenty of questions of the opposition, particularly down the wings. Good half from Chappell and Ajala. Where we were struggling was up top, for some reason. Bowman and Duane were very quiet and played like they'd never met each other.

I fully expected us to use that uneventful but solid half as a base and kick up a gear in the second half, because Alfreton didn't look a great side and were happy to let us have the ball. The win, at that stage, was there for the taking. Whatever was said at half time evidently did not work.

I thought the substitutions were strange. Briscoe had a go but I would have liekd to see Yeoman come on much earlier. Richards for Harding was a weird one. Harding did okay and they are reasonably similar players. If anything Richards is more combative.

Another thought - Seabright's kicking is very full-on, in the end it led to a goal but clearly the defenders felt that a short pass was a better option as Downes and Pearce consistently loitered around the edge of the box at goal kicks. Unless that was tactical, I can't imagine that behaviour will do Seabright's confidence much good.

And finally - I think the media is blowing the Ajala comment up a bit, although I have to say CH is very quick to name and shame. I just hope that he is as quick to praise the players when they do something right.

Chappell (by a mile)
Pearce (solid)
Berry (ditto)
Ajala (for his first half)
Young (for his industry)

I'm interested to hear what you all think of our club's online/social media presence, or lack thereof? I feel like I may explore this a little in the next issue of the zine because it's a topic I have been thinking about lately (and posted elsewhere about it this afternoon).

No disrespect to those who run it, because I know they must be under enormous pressure and it's probably 5th or 6th on someone's priority list, but I think in general it is quite poor. We can and should do better, it's an important tool that's here to stay, and a valuable (not to mention cheap) way of engaging with fans and communities.

I mention it now because Plymouth Argyle have just topped the League Two 'table' of social media usage. Their Twitter posts, for example, are more frequent, more personal and ultimately more engaging than our official account.

http://www.pafc.co.uk/news/article/topo ... 73695.aspx

I think we're missing a trick and I wonder if I'm not alone? If Mr Candy or anyone else from the club is browsing the forum and reads this, it would be nice to hear how this sort of thing works at TUFC and if there are any plans to take better advantage of the platform?

I'm not sure if anyone will read this as we're a few pages in.

We've moved away from focusing on the actual game here but there are some really interesting points in this thread. I think Andy speaks a lot of truth, particularly with regard to marketing etc.

I understand that those at the club must be incredibly stretched professionally and most of us will know what that is like. I sympathise. With that said, however, I think the way we as a club project ourselves and engage with supporters is pretty poor. There is certainly room for improvement and it's something I have been thinking a bit about lately. For example, if you take a look at the social media accounts of most clubs like us (particularly the likes of Plymouth), we are really lagging behind in that respect. I'm not saying that something as simple as tweeting more often is going to win us more supporters, but the way other clubs interact with their fans is often much more informal, creative, funny and human than us - but still professional. We need to be looking at this sort of thing as an example and trying to have more of a presence in the local community. Like it or not, things like social media are now an extension of the club and go some way to contributing to people's perception of the atmosphere and experience at TUFC. By putting more effort into this area - and others - we can give off the right impression and encourage people to engage with the club a bit more.

Thanks everyone who has subscribed or bought a copy. Please do let me know either on here or via Twitter/Facebook what you think. I think this issue is another belter, but maybe I'm biased!



New contributors are more than welcome RussianGull, it would be great if you have something to share. There will be two more issues this season.

Really pleased that everyone seems to be enjoying it. It makes the 2am writing sessions worth it!

Hi folks,

Just a quick one. Issue 3 is out now and includes interviews with Guy Branston, Tony Bedeau and TULFC manager Ant Roach. All great interviews.

Elsewhere, 'Where are they now?' returns, plus features on the youth setup, what makes Gulls fans special, some matchday journals from the Aldershot and Grimsby games, plus two historical match reports - one from Carlise 2006 and one from Wolves 1989!

Plenty more too.

All for just £1, available from http://www.highwaytohele.bigcartel.com. Previous issues and part-subscription deal also available.

Thanks.

Young
Bowman
Berry
Downes
Pearce

The 'official' choice of Louis Briscoe was very odd. He had a quiet game, I thought.