After speculation linking names such as Ronnie Moore, Paul Cox and Graham Westley with the vacancy, Bath City manager Gary Owers has been unveiled as the successor to Kevin Nicholson as Torquay United manager.
Owers was currently in his second spell in charge of the Romans, who were eighth place in the National League South upon his departure from Twerton Park - one point off the Play-offs and three points away from top spot.
He will be assisted by his former Bristol City teammate Martin Kuhl, the former Birmingham City, Watford, Portsmouth and Derby County midfielder, who had a brief spell as interim manager of Reading in December 2015 following the sacking of Steve Clarke.
Born in Gateshead, Owers enjoyed a playing career which saw him feature for Sunderland, Bristol City, Notts County, Forest Green Rovers and Bath City amongst others. Arguably the highlight of his playing days was featuring for Sunderland in the 1992 FA Cup final against Liverpool.
His coaching and managerial has been mostly spent in the South West and began in 2005 when he became player-coach of Bath City in October 2003 before becoming manager a month later.
His first spell in charge of the Romans lasted until May 2005 when he was appointed as manager of Forest Green Rovers. In the 2005-06 season, he successfully kept Forest Green in the Conference as they retained their status with a final day win over Stevenage. However, after a poor start to the following campaign, he was dismissed in August 2006. Whilst he was at the New Lawn, he signed one of his former Notts County teammates Kevin Nicholson to join Rovers.
A brief stint as manager of Weston Super Mare followed before he was appointed as assistant manager at Aldershot Town in 2009 to Kevin Dillon - a position he held until Dillon's dismissal in 2011. During this time, the Shots reached the League Two Play-offs in the 2009-10 season where they were beaten by Rotherham United.
Owers then returned to Bristol City in 2011 following his departure from Aldershot, initially joining the club as chief scout before he was promoted to first team coach following the appointment of current Aberdeen manager Derek McInnes as Robins boss.
In 2012 Owers then moved on to Plymouth Argyle, who he joined as a development coach before being brought in to work with the first team in January 2013 when John Sheridan succeeded Carl Fletcher as Pilgrims manager.
He left Home Park in a coaching reshuffle in April 2014 and became head of recruitment at Scottish Premier League side Motherwell before returning to his native North East to join up with his former Sunderland boss Malcolm Crosby at Gateshead.
However, his return to the North East proved to be a brief one as he left the Heed in November 2015 following Crosby's dismissal.
Owers then headed back to the South West for his next appointment as he returned to Bath City for a second spell in charge of the Romans in February 2016 and successfully kept in National League South in the 2015-16 campaign.
His challenge now with Torquay United is simple: win a minimum of 48 points from 36 games to keep them in the National League.
Three players in the current Gulls' squad will be familiar to him in the form of goalkeeper Ryan Clarke, who spent the 2005-06 playing under him on loan at Forest Green Rovers, Yan Klukowski, who played under him in his first spell in charge of Bath City, and Luke Young, who worked with Owers when he was assistant manager at Plymouth Argyle between 2013 and 2014.
