FL2: Torquay United vs Rochdale - 11th March 2014

The novelty of a home win? As someone who hasn't been to Plainmoor this season I was starting to feel guilty about the number of away wins I've seen. I'm relieved you're catching up. Save one for me please when I visit on Good Friday.



I'm glad to hear this because some of the criticism I've read about our home support has disappointed and angered me. Fortunately one or two people have now reassured me that there is still life and even hope (see below).

On a wider matter I've spoken before about the artificiality of following events through the Internet from afar. That may be less of an issue for me in future as I anticipate being back in Devon next season. Nonetheless, on the 25th anniversary of the World Wide Web, I find myself contemplating its' effect on being a football supporter. Absolutely fantastic, isn't it? Take one small example from last night when at 7.25, in a gathering crowd of 48 about to watch Hallam v Knaresborough, I was able to access the Torquay line-up on my phone. Good grief, what's more amazing: the fact I can do that or how it's now almost taken for granted?

Access to constantly refreshed and expanded comment about our club and team is also a rather incredible concept. It's over twenty-five years since I was fortunate enough to have my first article on Torquay United published in a magazine. But I'm now in my seventeenth year of reading message boards such as this and it's easy to write as much in a couple of days as I managed in a dozen articles over those twenty-five years. That surely represents a heightening of the senses should you care to follow a football club through this medium.

Yet today, in light of the WWW anniversary, we are being reminded of some of the so-called "perils" of the web. And, when it comes to a football club, these probably become more apparent when things are going badly. The amount that has been written about Torquay United recently has been truly astonishing. That's possibly human nature in the face of adversity and what has been expressed has been an incredibly rich and interesting mix.

Indeed, the amount of "information" alone - much of it conflicting and subjective - is astounding. There's also the identification of the perceived culpability of a host of club personalities and the precise level of blame we appear eager to attach to each. That, to a degree, is understandable (although not necessarily justifiable); anybody - absolutely everybody it appears - entering football these days is forced to appreciate they will be in the public spotlight and subject to scrutiny. Yet much of what I've read recently isn't too far removed from one of Alpine Joe's North Korean show trials. And, of course, there are unpleasant levels of personal abuse. If you think it's informed comment to imply in print (for effectively that's what it amounts to) that a club employee is "a ****ing moron" please think again or find yourself another hobby.

But it's intriguing the way people rally around a particular theory or outlook (I know because I've been there). You - and a few others - may favour theory A (which quickly metamorphoses into established fact) that casts individual X as the villain and Y as the hero. Then there's the B theorists who vilify Y and champion X. Next the third outlook which puts Z in the dock. Help! I want to get off but, naturally, it all makes Plainmoor - if not the world - go round and round. It's compelling but try passing on some of these contrasting theories to supporters who don't partake of the internet. That was certainly one way of spending the journey back from Portsmouth to Surrey and bemusing an old friend in the process. By Guildford much of what I'd told him either resembled a form of internet gangsterism or good old-fashioned factional politics. You wonder if each group of theorists should be identified by a three-letter acronym (TLA).

On a personal level I'll certainly confess to having had problems with some of the content - and a few individuals - throughout this season together with concerns about my own level of internet usage. As a result I've probably slashed my contributions (in all places) by 75% in recent months although mobile technology, and too much free time, still renders me prone to over-avid reading. I guess a sub-plot to my own season is that I've been genuinely disappointed and appalled by the bile, venom and frequently libellous material that I've been reading online both on twitter and the various internet forums. I should only be interested in the club, team and maintaining friendships but, regretfully, I've ended up losing respect for a number of fellow supporters. That rather saddens me.



Exactly! Hope, as I'm sure somebody influential once said, can be a tricky bugger. This time yesterday I had all but abandoned hope. Now I may still have done so but I'm not entirely sure. Hope can confuse and it rarely runs in a straight line. So who is for Cheltenham? The place will be full of anti-climax after the Festival. Hopefully, that word again, we'll not add to it.