My
"Best Ever Team" as a side in their own right in their own era would have to be the side of 66-7 & 67-8 for the simple fact that they established themselves at the highest level we have
EVER been successful at.
My
"Best Ever XL" on an
All Time Great basis at their best and from 1959~present day is thus: (4-4-2)
Mike Mahoney.
John Bond, Bill Kitchener, Jimmy Dunne, Bobby Baxter.
Doug Clarke, John Benson, Tommy Mitchinson, Tony Scott
Robin Stubbs, Jim Fryatt.
Slightly-belated reply but I'd say that - viewed over a
forty-year period - Merse's line-up would take a lot of beating.
As for the team of
1966-68 en bloc, it has to be remembered that it performed as one of the
top 50 teams in English football. And those players had
pedigree - not just in where they came from but also, in many cases, where they went afterwards as players and/or managers. The team also had
celebrity around the town of a kind we've not seen since.
I hate being over-nostalgic about that time but - up to now - it's a simple fact that those were the finest days in this club's history (with the possible exception of the mid 1950s). I'm just a little rueful that it was all in decline by the time I reached the age of fifteen. Anyway,
c'est la vie and I'm happy to say that - for all the ups and downs - I've continued to enjoy being a Torquay United supporter ever since.
And, to be honest, it's probably been more enjoyable since
That Day in 1987. That's partly because I lost touch a bit between 1974 and 1988 through living in different parts of the country and watching lots of top-flight football. Consequently, this means I'm not always sure what to make of the
Great Lull in our history between 1972 and 1984 which must have been similar - without the novelty - to plodding along in Division 3 (S) back in the 1930s.
Here from
FCHD is a reminder of that period:
1972-73 FL-4 46 12 17 17 44 47 41 18/24
1973-74 FL-4 46 13 17 16 52 57 43 16/24
1974-75 FL-4 46 14 14 18 46 61 42 14/24
1975-76 FL-4 46 18 14 14 55 63 50 9/24
1976-77 FL-4 46 17 9 20 59 67 43 16/24
1977-78 FL-4 46 16 15 15 57 56 47 9/24
1978-79 FL-4 46 19 8 19 58 65 46 11/24
1979-80 FL-4 46 15 17 14 70 69 47 9/24
1980-81 FL-4 46 18 5 23 55 63 41 17/24
1981-82 FL-4 46 14 13 19 47 59 55 15/24
1982-83 FL-4 46 17 7 22 56 65 58 12/24
1983-84 FL-4 46 18 13 15 59 64 67 9/24
Twelve seasons of never finishing above 9th nor below 18th. Was it comfortable or depressing? A mixture of the two perhaps?
But looking back, there were some bloody good players in that period. Of them all, the three that stand out for me - who have already been acknowledged in this thread - are
Mike Mahoney (who went to Newcastle in March 1975),
Clint Boulton (with us for most of the 1970s) and
Steve Cooper. Good players in relatively ordinary times.
There was also quality in Malcolm Musgrove's sides of 1973-76 and Bruce Rioch's 1982-84 teams but - if I'd been born in
1965 rather than 1955 - I think I would have warm memories of
Mike Green's team of 1979-80 which included the likes of Turner/O'Keefe, Twitchin, Pethard, Larmour, Bourne, Sermanni, Lawrence, Cooper, Murphy, Davies, Ritchie, Coffill and Wilson. Or maybe I'm seeing this team in clearer light simply because - for the only time in fourteen years - I was in Torquay all winter? Well, I'd contend that - at its' best - this was a very good team but, of course, the rider is that it did bugger all in the second half of the season. What went wrong?
As of the first day of the 1980s - which we celebrated by winning 2-1 at Bournemouth - I was confident we were going to get promoted. This is how the table stood as we came back down the A35 with - I'm sure - the obligatory stop at Bridport bus station (look at the gap between us and 9th place where we eventually finished):
1 Walsall 25 37
2 Huddersfield Town 26 36
3 Portsmouth 26 36
4 Newport County 27 34
5 Torquay United 26 34
6 Bradford City 25 32
7 Aldershot 25 30
8 Wigan Athletic 23 26
9 Doncaster Rovers 24 26
1982/83 isn't a season I remember quite so well but I guess hopes were reasonably high on 1 January 1983 when Bruce Rioch's team beat Colchester at Plainmoor. Here's the table after that one:
1 Hull City 23 46
2 Bury 23 45
3 Port Vale 22 42
4 Swindon Town 22 42
5 Scunthorpe United 22 42
6 Wimbledon 22 41
7 Torquay United 22 38
And again, another tail-off suggesting that - should you have been born in 1965 - supporting Torquay United must have been something of a
slow burner.
But what if you'd been born in
1975 and had managed to remain unscathed during the Webb days? In that case you'd have had
Cyril's team in front of you when you were 12 or 13, just as I had Frank's side at the same stage of my life. Even as a relatively old git - after several seasons moonlighting watching Howard Kendall's great Everton side - I loved that 87/88 team and the whole season apart from that painful, painful end. Are you ready for the table with two to go and a game in hand? Three up automatically remember:
1 Wolverhampton Wanderers 45 87
2 Cardiff City 45 82
3 Torquay United 44 77
4 Bolton Wanderers 45 75
5 Scunthorpe United 45 74
6 Leyton Orient 45 69
That season was important because it gave us a
team - in every sense of the word - to cheer at long last. I'm firmly of the opinion that Cyril Knowles' team was central to the club's rebirth and provided a platform for Mike Bateson to buy the club in 1990 (and, let's not forget, that was an extremely
good thing at the time). Without Cyril - or that team - the club may have faded away.
I could go. Should you have been born in
1985 you would have had Kevin Hodges' team of 1997-98 to provide vivid lifelong memories before, ultimately, adding to your teenage angst. And for those born in
1995...you poor buggers!
But it's still fun - isn't it? - no matter
when you started.
