Torquay fans vent anger towards players and CEO George Edwards after sixth league defeat

Torquay fans vent anger towards players and CEO George Edwards after the club picked up their sixth league defeat of the 2023/24 season.

Hampton & Richmond ran out 3-1 winners on Saturday, with Mason Bloomfield goal, followed by a Ben Seymour penalty, seeing the Gulls having a mountain to climb at the break. A second strike from Bloomfield sealed all three points for the hosts, before Asa Hall got a very late consolation.

Scenes at full time however turned sour for those in the Torquay end, making their feelings known having watched their side fall to another loss, and for the second game in a row they’ve conceded three goals, with worrying form seeing them slip further down the National League South table.

#TUFC this is the nearest we’ve had to any kind of comment from the club. @TORQUAYTALK @TalkingTorquay pic.twitter.com/9BfVjdVPHi

— Jamie (@donttakethepeas) October 28, 2023

After the game, Torquay boss Gary Johnson said: “Yeah difficult because whatever you say, you know, we lost the game 3-1. But how I saw it, they scored two goals, one the penalty, if people see it, wasn’t a penalty. But we didn’t play well enough to be level or in the lead at that point anyway, so we found ourselves two nil down pretty early. And to be fair to the lads, from as bad as we was in the first half, even though we did have a few shots, the second half was better as far as stats were concerned, as far as penalty area, box entries, final third entries, crosses, shots. You’ve seen it, we’ve shown you the stats and it would have been nice to have got another couple of goals. For all our pressure in the second half, the goal, that when Asa headed it down, everybody behind the goal jumped up. Our fans, our players jumped up. And now we’ve seen it on the video that that was over the line as well. We did enough in stats to win the game. But it’s more than just stats because the stat that counts is what the end result is. 3-1 and we’ve lost. We got to keep going and that’s what we’re going to do. As soon as we can, we got to add to the squad. We are trying to add to the squad every day that God sends. We have got an offer in for another striker and we have to wait and see what happens. But we also have to wait and see how Jarvis is because he had his scan on Friday on his knee and the results are not coming to us until Monday. So we’ve had to be careful not to jump in too early. But Jarvis, we hope it’s not so bad, but he’s not feeling great at the moment, so we keep our fingers crossed that it’s not a long, long term one.

Interviewer: Do you think that the way the two goals in the first half came about was particularly difficult for your side to take? Obviously the first goal some debate as to whether it was Bloomfield or whether it was an own goal and obviously the second, a debatable penalty. Is that hitting your heart hard at the moment as well at the moment?

GJ: I think it is. I think we’re not getting any luck going for us. Then, Mark gets concussed in the second half. It wasn’t a foul, but he certainly got concussed. We’re looking after him at the moment. He’s also got quite a few big cut on his chin, so we haven’t taken to the A&E when we get back. He’s a bit droggy as well. So all those things you’re thinking, Please, God, if we work hard enough and we keep going and keep believing in ourselves like they did with the second half, and then we find players with the ability and the quality that Callum showed us because I thought he played really well today. First time he’d been with the lads. He’d only trained with us once. He had five shots, three were saved, put some great balls into the penalty area and as the game went on, didn’t get less fit, he got more fit and more involved. So there was a few positives come out the game, but the biggest one was the defeat and that’s where people judge you by. So that’s what we got to make sure that it doesn’t happen. I know we got the right man at a job to do it. I know that until somebody else tells me otherwise. I know there’s a lot of people telling me, but, listen, I’m going to give it everything. I know Downsy is going to give it everything and that’s what we’ve done. We put them out there and it’s up to them to produce. We might be at the stage now where we might need to move out and bring in or vice versa, but we’ll keep going. We’ve got a big game against Bath. If you can win that game, then you’re on the same points as them who are in third. Just got to keep going and believe in the club, believe in your structure and eventually you believe in your players and they believe in you.

HAMPTON & RICHMOND: 19. Adam Desbois, 2. Jordan Thomas, 3. Ruaridh Donaldson (16. Alex Solomon, 90+6′), 4. Dean Inman, 5. Luis Fernandez, 9. Ben Seymour, 10. Jake Gray (c), 11. Sam Deadfield (5. Issac Pitblado, 67′), 12. George Hunt (6. Jordan Cheadle, 81′), 15. Dan Wishart, 26. Mason Bloomfield..

SUBS: 8. Alfy Whittingham, 17. Connor Kurran-Browne.

Yellow Cards: Wishart 96+3′

UNITED: 1. Mark Halstead (22. Rhys Lovett, 57′), 6. Ross Marshall (8. Asa Hall, 67′), 10. Lewis Collins, 11. Brad Ash, 14. Brett McGavin, 15. Finley Craske, 16. Shaun Donnellan, 20. Callum Dolan, 21. Dean Moxey (c) (7. Ryan Hanson, 73′), 23. Ollie Tomlinson, 27. Jack Stobbs.

SUBS: 2. Dylan Crowe, 24. Calum Thomas.

Yellow Cards: Dolan 82′, McGavin 86′

Attendance: 1,469

Here’s how fans Twitter users reacted as Torquay fans vent anger towards players and CEO George Edwards after their sixth league defeat…

@DomRoman: Osborne, Edwards, Hayman, Johnson – what the hell is going on at this club we love. Absolute disgrace. #tufc

@paulhep91: A throughly shameful performance, fans fantastic again throughout and yet again let down massively, never been more disillusioned to support this football club 😔

@tomtom1976: I’m done with this management team. I won’t be watching any games whilst GJ remains in charge. Does this man have any pride? If he doesn’t go now then things are likely to get toxic. And to the owners; you have completely deprived your fans of any pleasure or pride!!

@zakw91: This isn’t acceptable George you can’t be happy with this

@FMStory17: 1 win in the last 5 games. Practically mid table in the bloody National League SOUTH! Change it now. If it’s too expensive to sack Johnson, doesn’t that work nicely for having the club fold and turning Plainmoor into flats? Or if he does actually care, then it needs to be done.

@Torquayhopper12: This is beyond a joke now. Johnson needs to walk if they’re not going to sack him, and Clark Osbourne is not fit to run the club

@PopnBristows: for the sake of our club Johnson Out!

@JonathanMarkUK: If Torquay lose anymore matches they’ll be looking forward to playing matches just on a Sunday morning

@Ashton03111166: Any normal club would’ve had him gone last season

@68Langers: Absolutely embarrassing. A club like Torquay should not struggle in this league. Time for Johnson to go. It’s not working

@scoony10: These are part time sides we are loosing 4 on the bounce (away) too. What the hell are we doing in training, why do we persist with a CB that’s a walking penalty/red card. As for our bench….couldn’t charade a game if it tried! I’m done with this club……

@GullsRosario: Gary Johnson, a man whose tactics went out with the ark. Resign now.

@InTheShires: This is just embarrassing. Time for change is long overdue.

@pj_perkins: Does anyone at the club ever read these replies? Someone needs to front up and get a grip. I’m ashamed to say I’m a @TUFC1899 supporter right now. DO SOMETHING!!!!!!!!!

@TUFCtravelclub: Another pathetic showing and absolutely no leadership shown on or off the pitch . Get a grip !

@barnabynickels: Enough is enough. Thanks for the memories Gary but please do the right thing and resign.

When players clash with fans, you know it’s over. The support from you guys was brilliant though. Great to meet and chat to many Torquay fans. Look forward to playing again 👏🏻👏🏻 pic.twitter.com/yFbxcyjqw2

— Jay B (@jay_b_91) October 28, 2023