TT BLOG

Dom Roman – @DomRoman

The Editor’s blog as featured in Where’s the Bar? magazine

TT BLOG

If Torquay United were to choose a club motto to represent what the club is all about – ‘There’s always next year’ would be a decent shout. Other options could be ‘Hope for the best, expect the worst’, ‘Life is a rollercoaster’, ‘More thin than thick’ and ‘We’re not in this for the glory…

This could have been our year. The National League South play-off final between us and Hornchurch edged into the 92^nd second minute with the Gulls leading 2-1 thanks to Deon Moore, and supporters around me had been singing about Going Up and pushing closer towards Exeter City, but I watched in nervous apprehension because so often glory has been snatched from our grasps in the final embers of games.

And then a Yellows midfielder failed to track a run, a cross came over and rebounded agonisingly between our young keeper Seb Stacey and the Hornchurch attacker Henry Hearn, looping over the line in slow motion and giving them the lifeline of an equaliser that would drag a horribly scrappy game to extra time. Torquay had been holding on and getting deeper and deeper, inviting pressure in classic England World Cup fashion.

In extra time, with both team knackered and kicking the ball hopelessly up and down the pitch, it was Hornchurch who pushed a bit harder and a volleyed cross was tapped in by Sam Ling (son of ex-Torquay manager Martin). The home team and crowd sent into raptures in the 117^th minute, the Yellow Army disconsolate as another chance of promotion went down the pan, and the players and manager Jimmy Ball left wondering what might and could have been.

The opposition goals had come on the 45th, 92^nd and 117^th minutes – arrrrrghhhhh!

The season itself had promised so much. Paul Wotton had overseen a very strong 2024-25, assembling together a squad from scratch (with some help from a volunteering Neil Warnock) and taking the title race to the last day of the season, before being defeated by a strong Boreham Wood team in the play-off semi-final. During the summer the club had recruited well-known pros such as Louis Dennis, Matt Worthington and Callum Dolan, and the squad looked stronger and ready to take the next step.

United started the campaign well enough and were scoring goals for fun at Plainmoor, but on our travels the team struggled and those struggles would continue for most of the season. Often the same team who oozed belief and confidence in Torquay, looked nervy and hesitant at away grounds around the South of England, falling behind and having to dig themselves out of trouble. Before very long the team had suffered more defeats than the whole of 2024-25, and many of our battling qualities had been lost. This left Paul Wotton doing an awful lot of head scratching.

Meanwhile there was also controversy as Callum Dolan and Matt Worthington (club captain) were involved in a dust up on a night out, with Worthington suffering a jaw injury and both players suspended by the club for a period. The harmonious dressing room from the previous season seemed to be a thing of the past.

But in a division where everyone beats everyone week after week, we still managed to climb to the top of the table at the end of January with an away win at Hornchurch, Jordan Young scoring a pearler with his beautiful left foot. We were top, now could we build on it and do the business?

From there on the team fell to pieces in February, conceding silly goals, suffering numerous injuries that left us with a non-existent subs bench and dropping out of a wide open title race, a race that Worthing would eventually win with 84 points (5 less than we earned in 2024-25!).

Unsurprisingly much of the pressure and criticism fell onto Paul Wotton’s shoulders, and after a 0-5 home drubbing by Chelmsford at Plainmoor the Bryn Consortium (who own and run the club) decided to make a change. Just over 4 weeks after the club had been top of the table and Wotton had been given the manager of the month award (cursed), he was out of a job. A month is truly a long time in football!

I liked Paul, he was thoroughly committed to the cause, always had time to chat to supporters and was so desperate to succeed at Plainmoor, so it was sad to see it end this way for him – I wish him well for future. However, the decision felt like the right one for the club and the next man up (after Neil Warnock briefly took charge, fitting us in between after dinner speaking events!) would be Totton’s top dog Jimmy Ball.

And it worked. Ball, helped by players returning from injury, galvanised the squad into action and suddenly joy returned to the Yellow Army’s away days and with the likes of Dorking and Worthing struggling to maintain consistency at the top, we became the form team and it felt like it was our time.

But there will be a 4^th successive season in the NLS for the Yellows. With attendances averaging around 3500, we are easily the best supported team in the division and I’m sure many would love to see us return to the National League or League Two, so they can enjoy a trip down to the Riviera!

Unfortunately we have to prove ourselves good enough on the pitch, and Jimmy Ball seems determined to toughen the group up and work on our fragile mentality, which appeared to be a real problem during 2025-26.

Other teams will stake a claim by 2026-27 and I can’t imagine 84 points will win the league again, but despite all the disappointments they suffer, the Yellow Army feel optimistic and we will bounce back again by pre-season with our tails up ready to go again.

That’s football for you, plenty of heartbreak, but always a chance to reset and have another go. Wish us luck won’t you, our silly club and it’s loyal supporters need it.

“Semper annus alter erit”