25 years ago last summer, former Derby County and England defender Roy McFarland
"If you ever get the chance to manage on the south coast, take it - wherever it is."
That was the advice given to Roy McFarland by Peter Taylor, who himself famously succeeded his long time managerial partner Brian Clough as Brighton and Hove Albion manager, rather than join Clough during his now infamous 44-day spell in charge of Leeds United, before being reunited with Clough at Nottingham Forest.
It was a piece of wisdom that was heeded by McFarland when he was appointed as Torquay United manager in the summer of 2001. At this point in time, the Gulls had just retained their league status on the final day of the 2000-01 campaign with a 3-2 win over Barnet at Underhill, and McFarland had taken the managerial reins after caretaker manager Colin Lee had turned down the chance to take the job on a full-time basis.
With 28 caps for England to his name and two league titles won with Derby County in 1971-72 and 1974-75, the first of which came under Clough and Taylor, McFarland had one of the strongest playing pedigrees of any Torquay United manager. As a manager, he had won promotions from the fourth tier with Bradford City (1981-82) and Cambridge United (1998-99), which marked him out as the ideal candidate to revive the Gulls' fortunes.
Amongst McFarland's first moves were to bring in David Preece, his former number two at Cambridge, in as his assistant and made Alex Russell, who also served under him at the Abbey Stadium, his first signing.
In the league, United didn't get off to a great start as they lost their opening two league games against Bristol Rovers and York City before turning on the style to beat AFC Bournemouth 2-0 at Dorchester Town's Avenue Stadium (Dean Court was being redeveloped at the time). A stunning 40 yard strike from David Graham and a second half effort from Chris Brandon sealed a 2-0 win over a Cherries' side that featured a young Eddie Howe.
As a reward, the Gulls were drawn away to Tottenham Hotspur at White Hart Lane, which was the first domestic football match in the UK to take place after the 9/11 attacks in the USA. In a game that was shown live on the ill-fated ITV Digital channel, United gave a good account of themselves, losing 2-0 after the half-time introduction of England star Teddy Sheringham helping to turn the match in Spurs' favour.
The match helped to boost the club's coffers, which were further boosted with a £100,000 sale of teenage centre back Mike Williamson to Southampton.
Nevertheless, the first half of the season saw much chopping and changing. The 2000-01 player of the season Jimmy Aggrey left Plainmoor after playing just two games under McFarland, and a similar fate befell 1999-00 skipper Brian Healy. Goalkeeper Stuart Jones, who famously saved a penalty against Barnet on the final day in 2000-01, also departed the club as Kevin Dearden proved to be an immovable object in goal, being an ever present and player of the season in 2001-02.
Club record signing Eifion Williams was also on the move as he joined Hartlepool United for £30,000 in February 2002.
Many others also came and went, including tough tackling central midfielder Gary Brabin, who was sent off twice in the space of four matches against his former club Hull City and in a Devon derby with Exeter City.
In addition to this, McFarland also transfer listed Tony Bedeau and David Graham, and in his 2014 autobiography, Roy Mac: Clough’s Champion, McFarland
imagines what his former bosses from his own playing days at Derby County,
Brian Clough and Peter Taylor, would have made of Graham. He wonders what
Taylor would have seen in Graham and whether Clough would have persisted with
him or driven him to the train station and bought him a one-way ticket back to
his native Edinburgh.
And persist with Graham he did, as he finished the 2001-02 season as United's top scorer with nine goals.
After reaching a season high position of 11th place at the end of October 2001, the Gulls only won once in 18 games. Nevertheless, a 3-1 away win at Darlington, which saw Alex Russell score his only career hat-trick, helped to start a revival which saw them lose three of their last 12 fixtures, which included a then club record run of six clean sheets.
However, after their final day draw with Swansea City came the bombshell that McFarland and Preece would both be leaving the club in the wake of the collapse of the ITV Digital deal with the Football League, which left many lower league clubs facing financial peril.
McFarland had been informed by chairman Mike Bateson that he would have to work without Preece as his assistant, which McFarland refused to and decided to resign.
Bateson then, of course, turned to Leroy Rosenior as manager who then famously led the Gulls to automatic promotion for the first time in 38 years in the 2003-04 campaign.
Many of the 16 man squad who clinched promotion of the final day in 2003-04 were signed by McFarland, including Reuben Hazell, Steve Woods, Alex Russell, David Woozley, Jason Fowler and Lee Canoville; Goalkeeper Kevin Dearden, who was voted as the club's player of the year for the 2001-02 campaign, only missed out through injury.
Although Rosenior made a number of astute additions to the squad he inherited such as Martin Gritton, Jo Kuffour, Arjan Van Heusden, Craig Taylor and Brian McGlinchey, the core of the squad that achieved that success were signed by McFarland, which has always left many what he and Preece could have achieved if they had carried on.
Could they have repeated the success that they had had with Cambridge?
Maybe, McFarland and Preece were reported to be looking at some serious signings who would have helped the Gulls challenge for promotion.
However, it is also worth mentioning that some years before McFarland took charge the late Cyril Knowles arrived at Plainmoor in 1987 after winning promotion from the 'old' Fourth Division with Darlington in the 1984-85 campaign, and keeping them in the 'old' Third Division in 1985-86. After McFarland left Plainmoor, Martin Ling led Leyton Orient to promotion from League Two in the 2005-06 season and kept them in League One in 2006-07.
Both Knowles and Ling guided United to the play-offs after coming agonisingly close to winning automatic promotion, so the question is 'would McFarland have emulated their efforts or Rosenior's?
The truth is that we will never really know, but many of McFarland signings such as Russell, Fowler, Woods and Dearden still trip off the tongue of most Gulls' fans to this day. Which is as fine a legacy as any.
Footnote: As a young hopeful with Tranmere Rovers, McFarland was spotted by Peter Taylor whilst appearing for Rovers against Torquay United in 1967.
