TT BLOG

Clive Hayward – @Byehorse

Clive discusses the Gulls

FA CUP

One of the joys/pains (delete as you see fit) of Torquay United operating at NLS level is very early entry to the FA Cup. The old girl will never grace our trophy cabinet but the highs and lows we have had over the years are always worth a natter.

Spurs in 1965 with Stubbsy’s late miracles; Davie Caldwell’s diving header at Bristol City in 1987 which led to us giving holders Coventry City a big fright after Christmas. Blackpool (a) in 1990; Blackpool (h) in 2008. A 7-0 win at Lymington in 2018 (a game that got me back onboard after being an Owers Refusenik). Losing a 53 goal thriller v Crawley in the Plague Years. Yes, it’s all stored away in our memory banks.

This year’s edition sees us drawn away either to Bishops Cleeve or Laverstock and Ford. At least we haven’t got Norfolk and Chance! Both ties look as though they should be routine for Paul Wotton’s no-messing-Yellows, and we will be travelling either to darkest Gloucestershire or the wilds of Wiltshire on Saturday week as we continue our love affair with qualifying rounds that would be played last season if they fell any earlier in the calendar!

AUSTEN BOOTH

The FA today (Monday) released its reasons for banning our player for 9 months.

It’s a 9 page, straightforward document, and I have read it so you don’t have to.

Austen’s defence was that during the 4 years in which he was placing “illegal” bets on football, he hadn’t been aware of the rules prohibiting players from doing so. The FA document doesn’t comment on whether they accepted that. I was a little surprised about that. It might have been reasonable for the FA to ask for Truro City’s comments (particularly in light of the fact that several of their players have fallen foul of the rules.

The main reason Austen got what many have felt was a long ban was that his offending fell squarely in the category where the minimum suspension was 6 month and the maximum was “life” (gulp). In April 2019 he placed an “acca” (an accumulator, a bet on multiple games). One of the legs of the acca was for Truro to be beaten by Slough Town, This was a game Austen played in (for 77 minutes before being substituted). It was a belter! When Austen was substituted Truro were losing 3-1. Without him, they rallied and scored 2 in injury time to salvage a 3-3 draw.

On a personal level, feel sorry for Austen, but he is bang to rights and the FA have actually given him a sanction towards the bottom end of the range for the biggest offence which he committed.

OMAR MUSSA

The enigma continues. Another half an hour for the Burundi Yaya on Saturday. He picked out long and short passes aplenty, and generally tried to sprinkle some stardust.

But he is clearly a still a long way from being able to give us 90 minutes. Doubtless Lirak Hasani will also have something to say about that, but Omar’s fitness is an issue which keeps bubbling under. He has apparently sacked off international duty to work on it, which is good to hear.

It would be interesting to get Paul Wotton’s thoughts on how things are going for the player who could yet prove to be a marquee signing. Watch this space.

TT – THE LIVE SHOW!

My good friend Sam Swann has had time on his hands this summer, and he has used it to devastating effect. From launching the “It’s All Gone South” podcast, to appearing with me on THAT Fanhub video, to herding the cool cats that are Tom (trolley dolly) Kelly, Dom (tennis coach) Roman, Chris (coo choo Surrey) and me on Gulls Eye View, he’s had lots to do.

One of his braver ideas was to email some ideas to the Gulls’ bright young Chief Exec Joe Lovell. To cut a long story short, Joe saw something he liked, and Swanny and I have now been given a gig helping to entertain diners pre-match in The Cove. If you’ve been living under a rock recently, The Cove is the brightly renovated hospitality room upstairs from Boots and Laces.

We made our debut on Saturday, and it went ok! Russell Musker was a classy if perhaps sometimes under-rated midfielder in the Cyril glory days, and he did a great job of compering proceedings. We got to ask a couple of questions to our legendary left back Tom (the real one) Kelly. He reminisced about Stuart Morgan, Cyril, police dogs and Mark Loram’s wayward genius. Nobody booed, the microphones worked and I managed to stay on my bar stool until the end.

I’m looking forward to using new Torquay Talk deckchairs for the next instalment (Chippenham (h)) although hopefully I won’t need to adjust them (I’m all fingers and thumbs) and a crane will be unnecessary to extract me when the show is over!