Friday 27 April 2012

THE FINAL FURLONG

Four League Two team of the season berths, two Manager of the Month and two Player of the Month awards won, but the single prize of automatic promotion remains up for grabs for Torquay United.

During the season so far, manager Martin Ling has scooped the Manager of the Month accolades for January and March and two of his charges, Mark Ellis and Lee Mansell, lifted the Player of the Month gongs for the corresponding months.

More recently, Mansell was also voted in the PFA League Two team of the year for the 2011-12 along with three of his team-mates, Bobby Olejnik, Kevin Nicholson and Eunan O'Kane, the largest Gulls contingent to feature in any such side.

Going into their final two games of the campaign, Torquay go into their last two games knowing they need to better whatever Crawley Town, currently sitting in third place, can achieve in their respective fixtures.

The situation the Gulls find themselves in is similar to the one that Leroy Rosenior's automatic promotion winning team of the 2003-04 season.

Torquay lay three points behind Huddersfield Town with two games to go before clinching four points in  their final two matches to secure the club's first automatic promotion in 38 years.

Two years, Martin Ling found himself in the same position as manager of Leyton Orient who vying for the final automatic promotion spot from League Two with Grimsby Town.

Orient were fourth in the table with 75 points, which was one less than the Mariners who were on 76.

Ling then steered the East London outfit to two wins in their final two games against Peterborough and Oxford to achieve Orient Chairman Barry Hearn's dream of promotion whilst Grimsby could only draw their final two games and forced to settle for the Play-Offs.

Fast forward to 2012 and Torquay United and Ling are both currently involved in the same scenario all over again.

Also, the Gulls penultimate home fixture is against Crewe Alexandra, nearly 25 years to the day when Torquay drew 2-2 in the game where Bryn the Police Dog sunk his teeth into Jim McNichol, which forced the game into extra time that enabled Paul Dobson to score a late equaliser.

Footnote: The Oxford United side that Martin Ling's Leyton Orient defeated to clinch automatic promotion on the final day of the 2005-06 season featured two future Plainmoor favourites in the form of Lee Mansell and Chris Hargreaves.