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I have been an exiled convert since about 1998 so forgive my ignorance

I have just receive the latest Backpass magazine to which I subscribe ( fantastic retro football magazine)

They are reviewing the 91-92 season

Torquay were relegated from Division 3 with a record of

Home Won13 Drew 3 Lost 7 - a record comparable with the promoted and play off sides

Away Won 0 ( YES NONE) Drew 5 Lost 18

What the hell happened

Did they all get nosebleeds/vertigo when they crossed over Telegraph Hill and left Devon

Could they not stand the colder climes as they went north

Did they cycle to all away games and were therefore knackered when they got to the ground

NO/NIL/ZERO/Buggerall/Nothing/Zilch wins away from home in a whole season - that is crap/unbelievable

Anyone care to enlighten me

We had a cursed purple away kit (which I owned).

Can't provide any insight, but was the season I went to my first Torquay game, a 3-0 win (at Plainmoor obviously) over Darlington, who I believe were the only team we finished above. I could be corrected on this, as I was only 10/11.

I seem to recall we beat Hartlepool 3-1 in the first game and was that the season we also beat Birmingham 3-0 in the cup when they won the division as we got relegated? That was also the season Justin Fashuna played most of his games, but other we were pretty much relegation fodder from September and were relegated a few games before the end - only Darlo were below us by a few points as I recall.

As to the away form - that year was the same year Leeds won the league. The season following their championship, Leeds also achieved our feat of going a season without a single away win, although they narrowly avoided relegation.

DevonYellow wrote:We had a cursed purple away kit (which I owned).

Still have the purple warmup top somewhere. Alas it no longer fits. Must have shrunk in the wash I guess

DevonYellow wrote:We had a cursed purple away kit (which I owned).

ive still got my purple shirt stored in the loft in a box with various others, bloody material on it snagged a lot. i loved that shirt though.

i used to wear it a lot with my adidas shell suit. well it was the early 90's you know.


it was better than the home one.

not mine, but i like it.

Sunnysideup wrote: Still have the purple warmup top somewhere. Alas it no longer fits. Must have shrunk in the wash I guess

are you related to chunkygull??? :}

Bateson didn't spend any money.

well lets hope that purple kit dosent make a return!!!

That season was our first at the 3rd tier since 1972. We gained promotion - perhaps fortuitously after finishing 7th and sneaking through the play-offs on penalties.

We were woefully under-prepared for that season at that level in a division that contained teams like West Brom, Stoke and Birmingham. John Impey was manager after being groomed for the role by Mike Bateson who was setting in place a template he would unsuccessfully follow for the rest of his tenure - namely, appointing cheap yes-men from within, who were better suited to the local leagues.

Impey had been appointed after joining the club as youth coach during the season before and according to Bateson 'set for big things'. From then on, Dave Smith's (who built the promotion team) days were numbered. The team during 90/91 had got off to an amazing start. By November were something like 10 points clear at the top of the league and it took until a November Friday night for them to lose their first game. Then came a winter collapse which saw Smith go and Impey come into his place.

The dead-cat bounce effect, saw Impey's team sneak a late play-off place.

So for that 91/92 season, with - as mentioned before - the original incarnation of yellow and white stripes and a purple away kit - the team signed players who were not up to and a management team of John Impey and John Turner was more suited to Waldon Athletic than a professional football club in that league. Even Paul Compton came back. And played. Paul Compton playing against the likes of Stoke and Mark Stein. It was a joke.

After that opening win we lost something like ten games on the trot and Impey was sacked after a defeat against Bolton, I think.

Bateson had acted and then did nothing. Wes Saunders was caretaker manager for something like half a season that saw us lose live on TV to Farnborough in the cup, sign Justin Fashanu and Bet Lynch. But somehow we managed to beat West Brom at home but by the time Ivan Golac was appointed as manager, we were as good as already down.

I saw us play Reading at the old Elm Park ground and get stuffed 6-1 but our team was full of kids. Surely Bateson would never make those mistakes again?

Oh, but yes, he appointed Wes Saunders and again, after getting promoted in 2004, our single season in 2004/5 saw us competing against clubs like Sheffield Wednesday with a team woefully under-strength for that division and yet we almost stayed up.

Our two seasons since 1972 at that level have both been characterised by dreadful teams that the following season nearly got relegated from the Football League.

wivelgull wrote:Bateson didn't spend any money.

While I'm sure this is true, it doesn't seem to explain the predicament. As is mentioned in the OP, we had a home record to rival those of the promoted sides. If it had been a simple case of having a squad bereft of sufficient quality for the want of a few quid.
Or was it something else on which we didn't splash the requisite cash?

Matt.

ferrarilover wrote: While I'm sure this is true, it doesn't seem to explain the predicament. As is mentioned in the OP, we had a home record to rival those of the promoted sides. If it had been a simple case of having a squad bereft of sufficient quality for the want of a few quid.
Or was it something else on which we didn't splash the requisite cash?

Matt.

Poor management. Bit like this season.

Again, how can something so broad be responsible for such a specific problem? Poor management manifests itself both home and away, because it is common to both those places (unless we had different managers for home and away matches?) We must be looking for something unique to away matches, surely?

Matt.

That said, I don't disagree about this season, Hector. It's nothing like too late for Knill to turn it around, it's more a case that he needs to do it on Saturday and no later. There is no excuse for picking that team yet again.

SkyBlueGull wrote:All

I have been an exiled convert since about 1998 so forgive my ignorance

I have just receive the latest Backpass magazine to which I subscribe ( fantastic retro football magazine)

They are reviewing the 91-92 season

Torquay were relegated from Division 3 with a record of

Home Won13 Drew 3 Lost 7 - a record comparable with the promoted and play off sides

Away Won 0 ( YES NONE) Drew 5 Lost 18

What the hell happened

Did they all get nosebleeds/vertigo when they crossed over Telegraph Hill and left Devon

Could they not stand the colder climes as they went north

Did they cycle to all away games and were therefore knackered when they got to the ground

NO/NIL/ZERO/Buggerall/Nothing/Zilch wins away from home in a whole season - that is crap/unbelievable

Anyone care to enlighten me

We where shit, but still went to watch

ferrarilover wrote:Again, how can something so broad be responsible for such a specific problem? Poor management manifests itself both home and away, because it is common to both those places (unless we had different managers for home and away matches?) We must be looking for something unique to away matches, surely?

Matt.

That said, I don't disagree about this season, Hector. It's nothing like too late for Knill to turn it around, it's more a case that he needs to do it on Saturday and no later. There is no excuse for picking that team yet again.

I suspect it is easier to manage at home, to set up a team that is more offensive with the crowd behind them. Probably harder to set up a team that is so well organised that it can frustrate teams like Stoke away, unless you have some tactical nous about you.

But then it is a mental thing isn't as well? That team obviously travelled beaten before they started. The team of Cyril in 1988 and Ling in 2012 both played rather sterile football but were well organised and were probably better than the sum of their parts. They seemed to be able to grind out results away from home.

In all honesty, why should it make any difference whether a team is away or at home, unless there are quirks of the pitch that the home team get used to. It is surely all in the mind that it is tougher to get a result away from home.

Sometime in the 50s when teams played each other on Christmas Day and then again on Boxing Day, Torquay beat Exeter something like 5-1 on Christmas Day and then lost 4-0 to them the NEXT day. To the SAME team. (those results may not be entirely accurate and it might be the other way around, as I cannot be bothered to look it up) but the whole home and away thing has probably become so ingrained in the psyche of players, managers and indeed fans that it is now 'real'.