Shortly before Torquay United’s Conference Play-off final
victory in 2009 over Cambridge, Chris Hargreaves was one of four special guests
at a question and answers evening held at Plainmoor.
The evening was organised the club’s Supporters Trust and
Hargreaves’ fellow guests of honour included former manager Frank O’Farrell, ex
goalkeeper Kenny Allen and club record appearance holder Kevin Hill.
During the course of the evening, which was also attended by
several members of the first team squad at the time, Hargreaves quipped that he
would not regard himself as a Torquay United legend unless he had helped the
club win something.
Fast forward to the final itself and Hargreaves captained
the Gulls to victory over the U’s, scored the opening goal of the match - which
United won 2-0, as Torquay bounced back into the Football League after an
absence of two years.
Now- in 2014- as manager of the Gulls, Hargreaves will no
doubt be aware if in the future if he is to be held in the same regard as
manager, he needs to achieve some success with the Gulls.
The last Gulls’ promotion winning captain to take on the
manager’s job- Wes Saunders, who led Torquay to their Division Four Play-off
triumph against Blackpool in 1991- enjoyed a two-and-a-half year spell in
charge, between 1998 and 2001, which ultimately proved to be unsuccessful as he
was sacked by the then Gulls’ Chairman Mike Bateson and replaced by Colin Lee.
However, prior to taking on the manager’s role, Saunders had
spent five years working for his family’s clothing firm. Hargreaves, in
contrast, had spent the time between the end of his playing days in 2010 and
his appointment at Plainmoor earlier this year learning his trade as coach of
Exeter City’s Under-16’s and working under Eddie Howe at AFC Bournemouth as
first team coach.
It is fair to say that Hargreaves had done everything that
he could to prepare himself for his first managerial vacancy.
Next up for Hargreaves’s Gulls is a trip to Kidderminster
Harriers, who include one of his team-mates from those two years spent battling
to get United out of the Conference, Kevin Nicholson.
After making over 300 appearances for United over seven
years, Nicholson was released by Torquay following relegation from the Football
League.
Over the course of those seven years, Nicholson’s ability
from set pieces proved to be an important weapon in United’s armoury, but the
Gulls have now found a player whose delivery from dead balls is every bit as
dangerous in Luke Young, who returns to the Gulls’ side after missing last
week’s FA Cup Fourth Qualifying Round defeat at the hands of Aldershot Town.
