During the year 2010, Torquay United made the transition from being a newly promoted club from the Conference to a competitive League Two side in contention for a Play-Off place.
The January transfer window saw a number of Conference campaigners of the previous season depart as skipper Chris Hargreaves joined Oxford United, Chris Todd returned to his native Wales to sign for Newport County and Tim Sills was snapped up by Stevenage.
A number of new faces arrived including Northern Irish playmaker Eunan O’Kane who was plucked from Northern Irish side Coleraine and experienced centre half Guy Branston joined on loan from Burton Albion.
Chris Zebroski also signed permanently from Wycombe Wanderers for a fee of £20,000 following a second loan spell at Plainmoor.
The new changes took some time to take effect as the Gulls did not record their first win of the calendar year until late February when they beat Accrington Stanley 2-1.
Paul Buckle’s men gradually began to turn things around and finished the campaign strongly and didn’t concede in their final eight games of the season to set a new club record for the highest number of consecutive clean sheets.
This run included a 5-0 win over Rochdale and a goalless draw with eventual champions Notts County on the final day of the season.
During the close season, the club were dealt a shock following the untimely death of Vice-Chairman Paul Bristow.
A former lottery winner, Mr Bristow’s involvement with the consortium that purchased the Gulls from former Chairman Mike Bateson was for the greater good of Torquay United and the wider community, instead of ego or for prestige which are reasons many owners of football club’s invest in the game for, and without his backing Torquay United would not be the club it is today.
Also in the summer, Paul Buckle strengthened his side with the permanent acquisition of Guy Branston, former promotion winning striker Martin Gritton returned on loan from Chesterfield and Northern Ireland Under-21 striker Billy Kee was snapped up following his release from Leicester City.
He would later help create a small piece of Torquay United history in November when he and Eunan O’Kane both appeared for Northern Ireland Under-21’s against Scotland in Glasgow. Their appearances increased the number of Torquay United contracted players to have been selected for home international side to three. O’Kane also managed to find the target for the Irish to become the first Gulls contracted player to score for one of the home countries.
The Gulls made a flying start to the season and won their opening four games of the campaign which earned Paul Buckle the Manager of the Month award for August.
Torquay then embarked on a nine match run without a win which came to an end with a 3-1 win over Morecambe in October.
At the time of writing, the Gulls are currently 7th in the League Two table and have an FA Cup third round tie with Carlisle United on January 8th to look forward to.
However, the big freeze has left the club facing a considerable fixture pile up in the New Year as their last three home matches have fallen victim to the cold weather.
The Gulls will also be hoping that they can hang on to leading scorer Elliot Benyon during the transfer window as he has attracted interest from a number of League One sides including Swindon Town.
