hector
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Post by hector on Jan 2, 2022 8:37:07 GMT
Ten years ago today we completed the double over Plymouth Argyle in front of 13,000 at Home Park. (Hopefully, we can do something similar today). One of those days that will live forever in the memory.
Eight years ago today the hapless Alan Knill was sacked for building a team so unfit for purpose he couldn’t buy a win and after losing to Exeter and Plymouth in two games running he was thankfully gone but not before the damage had already been done.
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rjdgull
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Post by rjdgull on Jan 2, 2022 8:45:57 GMT
Ten years ago today we completed the double over Plymouth Argyle in front of 13,000 at Home Park. (Hopefully, we can do something similar today). One of those days that will live forever in the memory. Eight years ago today the hapless Alan Knill was sacked for building a team so unfit for purpose he couldn’t buy a win and after losing to Exeter and Plymouth in two games running he was thankfully gone but not before the damage had already been done. Remember the home park game well! Not sure why Knill was appointed after taking a mid-table team with the outside chance of the play-offs down to the bottom of the table where we only just ensured survival. Not a great template to start the new season…… Torquay beat Argyle match thread |
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hector
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Post by hector on Jan 2, 2022 9:27:15 GMT
Ten years ago today we completed the double over Plymouth Argyle in front of 13,000 at Home Park. (Hopefully, we can do something similar today). One of those days that will live forever in the memory. Eight years ago today the hapless Alan Knill was sacked for building a team so unfit for purpose he couldn’t buy a win and after losing to Exeter and Plymouth in two games running he was thankfully gone but not before the damage had already been done. Remember the home park game well! Not sure why Knill was appointed after taking a mid-table team with the outside chance of the play-offs down to the bottom of the table where we only just ensured survival. Not a great template to start the new season…… Torquay beat Argyle match threadWhilst I was never a fan of Knill, I think he was appointed after we’d lost something like 9 games on the trot while Shaun Taylor was looking after things, so I think we were already in trouble. However, form wasn’t amazing under him. I don’t subscribe to the view that he saved us from relegation as we weren’t bottom when he was appointed and it was certainly not Lazarus type revival in the way it had been under Warnock and Colin Lee previously. It was just that other teams were even worse. |
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Post by plainmoorpete on Jan 2, 2022 10:59:40 GMT
Whilst I was never a fan of Knill, I think he was appointed after we’d lost something like 9 games on the trot while Shaun Taylor was looking after things, so I think we were already in trouble. However, form wasn’t amazing under him. I don’t subscribe to the view that he saved us from relegation as we weren’t bottom when he was appointed and it was certainly not Lazarus type revival in the way it had been under Warnock and Colin Lee previously. It was just that other teams were even worse. Totalling agree with your analysis of Knill, although we weren't in a great position when he took over I didn't think we would still be battling for survival on the last day of the season. When he was appointed full time in the close season I just knew the following season was going to be desperate, and then the nail on the coffin when he was sacked of appointing a totally inexperienced rooky when we really needed a tried and trusted fire fighter; the consequences of which we are still living with today. Your opening post illustrating two events just two years apart show how badly the club was run during the period it was under the sole control of Thea Bristow. And yet perversely she is regarded as a saint by fans whilst the consortium under Dave Philips who took on the mess she left are regarded as pariahs by the fan base despite the fact that there wouldn't be a club left if they hadn't stepped in. |
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Post by stefano on Jan 2, 2022 11:29:44 GMT
You are right plainmoorpete in that we were that season still under threat of relegation on the last day of the season. It was though a very unusual season. In most seasons on the final day it is between 2 or 3 clubs who could go down. That season as the final day games kicked off there were TEN clubs who could have been relegated. We of course had a cracking 3-3 draw with Bristol Rovers. The ten included Argyle who lost their final game, finishing below us but one point above the relegation places as other results went for them. ⚽️
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hector
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Post by hector on Jan 2, 2022 13:58:55 GMT
We were quite nicely tucked just below the play-off places when Martin Ling became ill. We had just been on a tricky run where we went about 6 games running throwing the game away in something like the last 5 minutes, either drawing games we were winning or losing those we were drawing but under Ling we rarely got hammered. There were plenty of fans moaning about the style of football the team were playing and the run stopped ironically in the first game along was ill for, the 1-0 televised win away at Exeter.
I suspect had Martin Ling remained well, we would have finished around 11th and whilst we might have struggled the season afterwards, it would not likely have been the horror show we suffered with that awful side stuffed full of journeymen like Karl Hawley.
Thea Bristow is probably held in some affection because of the vast sums of money her family spent on the football club and improving it from what the Batesons had left behind. I suspect her problem was that she was too trusting, too kind and too naive. The appointment of Chris Hargreaves was one that no doubt came from the heart and on the face of it, could have been a decent appointment at the right time but I would agree a fire-fighter was required and I remember hoping that a Sturrock/Hargreaves partnership could have been appointed. Chris Hargreaves actually did a lot better with Alan Knill’s team than Alan Knill did and a promising start back in the National League then faltered. I never saw the sense in placing him on gardening leave and in effect having to pay two managers and the chaos that ensued once Cox quickly resigned, Dean Edwards showing how hopeless he is and then appointing an even less experienced manager in Kevin Nicholson are probably things that are held against the Phillips board.
They may as well have just left Hargreaves in charge.
One can argue there wouldn’t have been a club without them but it would seem there wasn’t going to be one anyway and that’s why they sold out to Osborne, listening to the Truro chairman at every opportunity and sidelining any potential role for TUST. Likewise, without the Bristow’s money, the same could be said, especially considering Thea Bristow basically gave the club away at the end. Not for her was appointing an old manager for ten minutes to leverage even more money out of the new prospective owners.
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