Torquay United Fans Forum

Anyway, this is not a discussion about anything other than the fact I would like to offer free programmes to Torquay fans so if you'd cease being obnoxious for a moment then you may wish to take advantage?

Don't support Derby mate. I went to see if I'd like it but I didn't. That's the end of that. If I do go to footy next season i'll be going back to my roots and who I used to support before I wasted 6 or 7 years following a club who I could never hope to feel that affinity with inside. I'm a Yorkshireman and I feel comfortable around the area I know and the time to stop pretending that I'm anything but has come. It's as simple as that. Therefore I'm giving my programmes away because I've always been a decent and genuine and generous bloke. That do ya?

Hi all.

I have a load of Torquay programmes from the last 5 seasons, a couple that are older that I am getting shut of. I am happy to send them out free of charge if you could cover postage. If anyone wants them as a job lot then let me know and i'll virtually give you them so long as you cover postage.

Most of the programmes are in exceptional condition mainly because when I get to a ground I buy one then take it back to the car so it doesn't get damaged or rained on. It's a autistic thing.

Nearly all are away programmes though covering the last 5 years.

I have the Hull City one when we won 1-0 Gritton at the KC, the play off final one at Old Trafford, Barnsley away in our league 1 season, Kettering away in our conference years, also the Fleetwood away game two seasons back when we became their first ever league opponents, Mansfield away relegation game, Shrewsbury away play off semi

plus

Grimsby, Morecambe, Chesterfield, Sheff U FA CUP, Scunny, Wycombe, Oxford, Northampton, Burton, Accy, Bry, Rochdale, Stockport FA Cup played at Macc, Macc Town, Rotherham (Don Valley & New York), Lincoln, Port Vale, Hartlepool, Darlington, Hereford, Bradford, Crewe, and some home games V Newport, Accy this season and Crewe and Vale in our play off season under Ling.

If you are interested let me know and I can get them to you. Thanks all.

Oh and I also have a lot of ticket stubs from a lot of the games mentioned so let me know and i'll chuck them in free of charge.

Well it could be that hardly anybody turns up. Is it all ticket? It seems the club has lost interest in it's fans and vice versa.

Nearly a month and a half since we were relegated and nothing has happened, started to be addressed or even been talked about. If you think that this exercise will change any of that then good luck to you. Formulaic answers already prepared waiting to answer banal questions no doubt. Any of the more serious, passionate and determined questioners will be ejected under the assumption that they are aggressive troublemakers which makes it handy as they won't then have to answer the question asked of them. This also makes it easy for the media team as the planned 'edited highlights' to go up on the O/S will not have to be bothered with after all because there won't be any.

A Fan's Forum is a superb idea for the club to listen to the fans concerns and grievances. It only becomes productive if they act on these and make changes for the better so it's a white elephant in that respect. If they haven't already got a really good grasp of what the fans are concerned about considering all that these past 6 months have offered fans then telling them seems like we're taking the piss out of them to their faces. Bless 'em.

Too little too late I'm afraid. Those at the club have had plenty of time now to get things moving and get everyone together as a unit fighting for one cause so we can move forward. We are STILL all left in the dark though and as confused, annoyed and fragmented as ever. It's so unprofessional and unbusinesslike that TUFC could become the new Hereford. Having said that, I see that local businessmen can join the 'Breakfast Club' at Plainmoor to discuss business. Hopefully they will be discuss the importance of exemplary customer service, focus, communication and valuing and respecting their client base and someone from the TUFC boardroom will be earwigging to get some tips. Hey! Maybe they will be even serving the coffee and croissants?!!

I popped into Tesco on Saturday night and had a walk round the ProAct Stadium to get to Ladbrokes. Tom Jones was performing there that night and the place was heaving. Last year Elton John sang (badly I may add). The day after the wrinkled old welsh crooner had strutted his stuff, Tiny Tempah headlined another gig with loads of well know acts on the bill including Ms Dynamite. They have wrestling and allsorts and we get pig racing and tribute acts. We are the Phoenix Club. All we need now is Jerry the Berry to do a kids fun day and we've got the whole package. Sod all this 'little Torquay' stuff. That attitude will lead us down the same path that leads to Edgar Street. If you don't ask you don't get. We probably won't get but if we can't do better than an ELO tribute band then they perfectly reflect our predicament. Settle for what we can get.

Why settle for what we can get?!! Get out there and sell this club to people, change it's identity and focus, rebrand it, make it dynamic and exciting, make Torquay a destination for away fans, tap into the meathead away followings and offer them packages including tickets for the game and local offers in pubs clubs and shops, beer, programmes, entertainment, incentivise things for people, take advantage of the location, fans LOVE coming to Torquay for the weekend and so why aren't we bending over backwards to help take their money off their hands?

This club needs a drastic and radical shift in direction, leadership and dynamic or it will eventually fold. It is simply unsustainable now to have a business model which is effectively to keep fleecing the fans in the hope that things improve. Eventually the fans will run out of patience or cash (or both) and there is only so much The Strawbs and a few businessmen quaffing earl grey can do then.

Tell them tonight and they will say you are being ridiculously excessively negative and unreasonable. CH has no idea what he is letting himself in for next season. Next season is the most important in the club's history because if he gets it wrong then at least the positive is that you lot won't have to make any more trips to northern shitholes anymore.

Anyway,i've just seen the 'news' on the O/S saying if you renew or buy a season ticket in June then you get three free meals in the restaurant. Now we're being treated like schoolkids whose parents are on the dole!

WOW! I SIMPLY MUST HAVE THE SEASON TICKET NOW!!

See. Amateurism at it's finest. I am fully aware I have been crying out for little schemes and incentives for fans and as Matt rightly highlighted on another thread, the club do something positive and what I have been asking for but still get stick and to a certain extent I agree with him but if we take this offer in isolation.

This is supposed to be the USP for June in selling season tickets. Buy one and you get 3 free meals in the restaurant. What if you're a loner like myself and prefer some chips at half time amongst your own company. To be honest, going into the club restaurant on my own to sit down and take up my free meal doesn't sound like my idea of fun. So for me it's a not an incentive. For many people it won't be either.

Take a step back and read this: THE CLUB ARE OFFERING FANS 3 FREE MEALS IF THEY BUY A SEASON TICKET WHICH COULD BE AS MUCH AS £415 FOR CONFERENCE FOOTBALL.

It's insane. It is really, really embarrassing and presumably this is the most attractive offer that anybody behind the scenes could devise which is really, really scary too. Somebody actually thinks that this offer will help to improve season ticket sales. The offer is so tragically tin pot that it has actually helped me with my closure so thanks.

This is the point I've been making for ages - when we've needed a leader to come out and rally us all round in a time of great despondency we've had nobody but Thea doing her best but failing miserably (not her fault I may add). When we've had fans travelling the length and breadth of the country to watch circa £70k a year Dale Tonge defend like a dragonfly that's just had half of it's appendages cruelly ripped off it by a sicko 8 year old we get the offer of free pint. NOTHING ELSE. These fans went to York for a midweek game. They set off at about midday and didn't get home until probably 4 in the morning. These fans went to Hartlepool for an even longer journey, these fans went to Morecambe and Fleetwood. These fans went to Mansfield on the last day even though we were doomed already and all we get in return are the most expensive ticket prices in the conference, an arrogant director assuming we will all pug the deficit without telling us what the **** hell their role was in this bloody carnage, and I should continue but what's the point.

All we are is a fishing boat damaged at sea, drifting in the dark, just trying to keep afloat with fans as crew members frantically trying to scoop out the incoming water whilst the skippers sit there and decide the next move. Sadly it won't be to muck in, get the boat to shore and get it fixed ready to go again but to assume the crew members won't give up so that they then can sit back and have a backgammon night with guest music from Chaka Demus and Pliers. Errrr sorry, that should have been Chaka Demus and Pliers the tribute act.

Gordon bloody Bennett.

Neal wrote:Ricey hasn't been quick to sign has he. obviously looking around

Can't blame him. Dropped by the master clown Alan Knill whose thinking amounted to "it can't get any worse - I know, i'll drop Rice when he has in fact been arguably the player of the season and stick Poke back in in the desperate hope it will see an upturn in results".

Knill's logic.

Then hero Hargreaves comes in and keeps with Poke despite him actually performing worse than Rice only to stick Ricey in when Poke got injured at Hartlepool I think it was.

Ricey has been **** about by both managers and has shown nothing but admirable professional dignity for himself, his profession and his club and to be quite honest Martin. Torquay don't deserve such commitment.

Get the best deal for yourself and your family and go somewhere you will be wanted and appreciated.

A man who visits a prostitute is not a man, he's an embarrassment and should be pitied. If you are in a relationship and are unhappy or not 'getting any' then discuss the problems. Don't just visit a whore then proclaim to the other half that they don't understand you just because you've been found out. If you are still not happy then tell her you are leaving and go and find somebody else. If you wish to remain in a relationship that is barren then masturbate. Simple as that. There are no excuses for visiting prostitutes IMO. It's the last bastion of male tragedy. Visiting a prostitute means your respect for women is zero. Well done big man.

That is my thought of the day and I made it all up by myself.

WTF is this shit?!

This site is constantly being disrupted on my PC by Malicious file download 12 blocked messages. It's annoying when I navigate the site. Can anything be done lads or is it a problem my end. (I know - it's me, it's bound to be )

In the club shop.

Poke has been immense for us but if Ricey were to be our number 1 next season I would fear no-one. I have the utmost respect for Martin as a person and a professional, showing total commitment and dedication to the club and to his profession often in the face of some unfair decisions and criticisms against him. He is the one player this season who I have got inspiration from by the way he approaches life and his job despite setbacks.

I say thank you for the music to Michael Poke but Ricey is now just about as reliable and what we can afford.

Oh yeah, Nathan.

Technically superb at set pieces but sadly he can't play football. If he could he would have done so by now. Like mustard says, he has not had many opportunites but the ones he HAS had he has been appalling therefore he can have little complaint. Time for a new career I think for the lad and maybe part time footy somewhere as a bonus.

A tad harsh? You decide.

gullintwoplaces wrote:I want England to do well, I think they will do better than most expect.

And I don't like the Argies, that goes back a long way. Dirty, cheating, scumbags. I would support anybody against the Argies, and that means anybody, even North Korea if they ever get to play them. Simeone (remember him? got Beckham sent off) showed the great Argentine spirit of fair play in the Champions League final, running on the field before the end to have a go. I remember the 1966 game, the handball from the cheating dwarf Maradona in 1986 and the years of dirty play that they have shown the world.

There is a moral story in this. Cheat, lie and do whatever it takes to win and guess what? YOU WIN!!

Play fair and honest and guess what? You lose.

Football is no different to life itself.

I prefer the latter tbh but i'll be telling my little one to do the former. Life has changed and society has changed immeasurably for the worst these past 15 years or so and there is a new culture out there. Embrace it or lose. Do whatever it takes to get ahead, the ones that don't bleat about unfairness and the crumbling of the fabric of our whole society whilst popping off down the food bank.

Well done the Argies. If Terry Butcher could have got away with the Hand of God then he would have taken it, not owned up and said it was no goal. Most people are the same ultimately if success depended on it. Why pillory Diego?

Bailey's Bus apparently received 9 months of 'fame' last season. I am not lying when I say I have honestly never heard of them OR seen any sort of logo or advertisement for them anywhere.

As for the new striker and sponsor?



I fully expect a big announcement later this week...........................informing us that Kajagoogoo are to play Boots in their first leg of their comeback tour. Sadly no sponsor which is already lined up apparently or no new additions to the playing staff. (The latter I can understand).

No long now! Saturday will be a laugh - up until 4am watching Ivory Coast v Japan! Can't wait!

England disappointed me the other night because I was waiting on them to win to get up my accumulator. Honduras were brutal at times in their approach but the predictability of England in failing to break down 10 men was a little disturbing if you're an England fan. I'm not so it isn't. That said I have to disagree with GS and I think the chances of Italy, Uruguay and England in getting out of the group are equal.

The weak link IMO is England's defence and their test will be keeping the likes of Cavani and Suarez quiet as well as the partisan hordes of travelling Uruguayans. I don't think the rest of the Uruguay squad can be feared in quite the same way. They have some workmanlike battlers in the middle and defensively are pretty solid but I believe England should just go all out attack and use their young inexperienced players to that effect. It will be tough in the heat but sit back and it's a group stage exit IMO.

Italy have had some shocking results in the past few years and I cannot see them getting out of this group. In fact it wouldn't surprise me to see them finish bottom. The one thing I can't understand though is when people refer to Italy as the team who keep it tight and try and nick one. Prandelli is a more offensive manager and this isn't really the case anymore.

Costa Rica could get a shock result.

England could actually win the group if they approach games in the right manner and I think the new found sense of youth and togetherness can take them at least to the quarters. If Roy plays it safe then I think the football will be poor, nervousness will kick in and it will be a struggle to get any momentum and get out of the group. I like the young players like Lallana, Sterling, Sturridge, Chamberlain et al. They are danger men and England don't want to just be relying on Rooney to spark something. They can all cause problems if given the licence. If not then the England defence will have the problems and it's an early plane back home.

Scott Brehaut wrote:Andy, there is a difference between having f*** all money because you've not been sensible and taken advantage of the second chance given to you (putting other businesses out of business at the same time), and having little money because the Board are reluctant to get into the above scenario.

Yes I know Scott, I wasn't referring to that but just the irony that we are gloating that they are a mess when in fact it is us who also have no cash, no direction and have the added bonus of being a league below.