TT BLOG

Clive Hayward – @Byehorse

Clive blogs about the supporter event at Plainmoor

I’ve just got back tonight’s Meet the Manager event at Boots and Laces. It was an enjoyable evening, featuring Q & A appearances by Paul Wotton & Neil Warnock, a launch of the new away shirt and an interesting panel of new Chief Executive Mark Thomas, Bryn Consortium member Simon Robinson and Co-Chair Michael Westcott, who was as thoughtful as ever about our club and occasionally used some of the colourful language which endears him to many- myself included!

I’m going to go with bullet points and paraphrases, because it’s 10pm already, I’m tired and I’m not a proper journalist.

PAUL WOTTON:

· Delighted by his signings this summer. He has pretty much got everyone he wanted.

· Players were much keener to come down this summer than last. The chance to play in front of 4000 crowds is now a big selling point for the club.

· The players he has brought in will offer bite, aggression and leadership. Sometimes they may overstep the line a bit, but that’s a chance you have to take.

· Yes, the league is going to be tough this year. He doesn’t know where some of the money being thrown around by other clubs can be coming from.

· He’s a big fan of having players in contract for the following season because of the stability and certainty that brings. (It’s so good that this is being acted on. At this point I turned to my mate and said: “It’s not rocket science.” It isn’t, but it’s also not been practised much over the past few years. This summer the club has been able to keep its better players and try to recruit even better ones- from higher levels, as Paul said).

· Ideally he won’t want to use the loan market very much because you are largely only going to get 18 & 19 year-olds, but if it can improve the squad he will do it, and it’s useful to cover injuries.

NEIL WARNOCK:

· Resplendent in his shorts. Made a point of confirming he’d not been paid for tonight, other than a Boots & Laces pepperoni pizza!

· Told the story of how he had broken Cyril Knowles’ heart in 1987. We had just beaten Spurs in the League Cup, but he brought his Scarboro side to Plainmoor and spent most of the game kicking balls into Marnham Rd either side of scoring the only goal.

· There was a running gag where he called out Michael Westcott: “As long as you sign that player tomorrow, we’ll be fine. Today saw the announcement of Sunny Blu Lo-Everton’s signing. But Neil obviously thinks or hopes there’s another biggun’ on the way.

· He made quite a good gag when someone mentioned Lirak Hasani, pretending to mishear and saying “I thought you were offering to get me a sarnie.”

NEW AWAY KIT:

· Very positive reaction to the unveiling of the 429th kit of the Bryn era. It’s a white number with- I think- black collars and- definitely- a vertical yellow stripe from left shoulder to shorts. It is based on a similar kit I can just about recall from our Fourth Division days in the 1970s. Sam Dreyer- classy centre back, emerging leader and Torquay’s premier clothes horse- modelled the new outfit, ably accompanied by Danni Wyatt, Lucy Palmer and the lesser-spotted Dylan Morgan. Welcome back, Sir!

MARK THOMAS:

· Impressive. He’s been described to me as “a game changer” for the club. Clearly a serious man with an impressive record in the business of sport, but he did bring a bit of humour too. He reported good progress in meetings with Torbay Council. The officer he met with is very empathetic to the club as a huge community asset (perhaps the Bay’s biggest) but he cannily said that Councils are ultimately run by politicians and that there will be an election soon. He pointed out that in China- where he worked for 20 years- they don’t have those, “and it makes life much easier.” Mind you, we don’t run students over with tanks here, so you win some you lose some, I guess.

· He has got a wishlist of infrastructure improvements, and very high up on that is the replacement of the current floodlights with an LED system. Apart from being much greener, it will avoid having to pay out £800 every time a bulb goes. This happened 16 times last season, so that‘s £12,800 we’ll never see again.

· He sees the 3 weeks between the end of the season and the pitch renovations as a crucial opportunity for the club to raise much-needed revenue, and he has plans for 2 big events in 2026. Firstly there will be a Football Festival, followed by a Music Festival: he wants them to be branded and get name recognition to become annual events.

SIMON ROBINSON:

· Most away fans will know Simon. He pops up at most games, often making his own way by train and chatting to everyone he comes across. He’s great company. Tonight, he told us more of his own story. He’s from West Brom, and after a cruciate injury put paid to a promising pro football career he worked as a teacher before running a family business. Like so many Torquay fans, his first introduction had been as a holidaymaker and having clearly fallen in love with Shaldon he bought a flat there in the 1980s. His wife Karen was gracious enough to come along for the evening too- and she smiled at about 200 Torquay fans as we sang Happy Birthday in voices that all need some work before the season starts!

· When the excrement hit the ventilation system last February, he knew he needed to try to help the club. He said he would have been devastated to see United disappear. He recalled going to Weston in torrential rain to watch an awful performance in Gary Johnson’s last season. Despite the dreadful fare being served up at that time, the away end was sold out, and he had to go in undercover as a “home” fan. That was one of the things that made him realise the club couldn’t be allowed to die.

MICHAEL WESTCOTT:

· Michael always fronts up. He was apologetic about the way they had launched the “Plainmoor Pass” season tickets, acknowledging that there should have been a Chairman’s Chat to explain the commercial decisions made. But he was unrepentant about the substance, setting out in forthright terms why it had been decided to incentivise families to use the Family Stand rather than

Bristows. He said that towards the end of the season we could probably have sold Bristows out twice over, but that some seats were yielding only £1.30 per game. The incredible increase in attendances had not really fed through into higher revenue in the way that it needs to, and to make the club sustainable it is necessary to be getting more than £1.30 per seat.

· Despite the adverse reaction from many, he revealed that overall season ticket sales are up on last season by between 120 and 130.

· Michael paid tribute to the hard work of David McNair and his “paint Up Plainmoor” volunteers, and said that the club is being run by fans for fans. The two Trust-Appointed Board Members, Nick Brodrick and Danni Wyatt, bring significant and different talents to he boardroom, being an active voice for supporters. He said they have acted with sensitivity but have been strident when necessary.

Matt Gorman closed the night with heartfelt thanks to TUST Secretary Rick Williams, the “Two Robbies” (Burkitt & Dickinson), Bob Cole and Michel Thomas for their tireless work in helping the various investors’ events run smoothly (if anyone should be on this list but is missing, that’s very much the fault of my memory rather than Matt’s). He also paid tribute to the Bryn Consortium for their now countless hours of time & expertise given to the club they love.

Finally, a plug for what should be another fun evening on August 5th. United will be taking a team to play cricket at Stoke Gabriel. It starts at 6pm. There will be food and fun, fours and sixes, and if you’ve never seen the sun set over Aish you haven’t lived. Paul told me he is definitely going to play, and I would encourage everyone to get over there if you can.