After four years in charge at Plainmoor, Paul Buckle has left his post as Torquay United to take charge of Bristol Rovers.
During his time as Gulls' boss, Buckle has transformed the fortunes of Torquay who had been relegated to the Conference at the time of his arrival and only had four players under contract.
Upon his arrival, he used his contacts and knowledge of the league to bring players such as Lee Phillips, Chris Todd and Martin Rice from Exeter City, Tim Sills from Hereford United, Chris Hargreaves from Oxfiord and Kevin Nicholson from Forest Green Rovers.
However, such was the transformation of the club under Buckle that the Gulls reached the Conference Play-Off Semi-Finals and the FA Trophy final in his first season in charge, where they were beaten by Exeter City and Ebbsfleet respectively.
In his second season, Buckle once again led Torquay to the Play-Offs where they faced Histon in the Semi-Finals who they beat 2-1 on aggregate to set up a final with Cambridge United at Wembley.
The Gulls defeated Cambridge 2-0 to secure their return to the Football League with skipper Chris Hargreaves and Tim Sills finding the target as they pulled off a memorable win.
Buckle's first season as a league manager proved to be a transitional one as a number of the players who had helped Torquay to end their two year exile in the Conference such as Chris Todd, Chris Hargreaves and Tim Sills were moved on.
Fresh faces were brought into Plainmoor including Guy Branston and Northern Irish midfielder Eunan O'Kane and Chris Zebroski returned to Torquay on a permanent basis as the Gulls ended the season in 17th place after going on a run of eight games without defeat in their final eight matches of the campaign, which included seven wins.
Torquay carried this form into the following season as they won their first four games of the 2010-11 campaign, which earned Buckle the manager of the month award for August 2010.
This provided the Gulls with a foundation to challenge for promotion as they finished the campaign in 7th place thus qualfying for the Play-Offs.
After beating Shrewsbury Town 2-0 on aggregate in the Semis, Torquay were beaten 1-0 in the final by Stevenage in what would ultimately prove to be his final game of his eventful four year reign as manager of Torquay United, which makes him the Gulls' third longest serving post war manager behind Eric Webber and Mike Green.
