Friday night football at Plainmoor could become a regular thing for Torquay United under new ideas put forward by the club.
The Gulls first championed the idea in the late 1960's under the management of Frank O'Farrell - mainly for two reasons.
Firstly, the then United Chairman the late Tony Boyce believed that Friday evening kick offs - and Saturday evening kick offs, which United also pioneered - would give local amateurs players the chance to watch the team after finishing their matches. Secondly, many of the games used to take place in the spring and autumn times to attract holidaying visitors to the bay who fancied watching a football match as part of their holiday package.
It was an plan that lasted until the mid-1980's that was finally curtailed after crowd trouble during a league fixture between the Gulls and Wolverhampton Wanderers in the 1986-87 season.
United were not alone in doing this; Stockport County and Tranmere Rovers also introduced a similar scheme to avoid clashing with the fixtures of the larger, more illustrious sides in Manchester and Merseyside. Colchester United also followed suit to miss out on competing with East Anglia neighbours Ipswich Town.
In fact Tranmere's Friday fixtures proved to the inspiration for the song 'Friday Night And The Gates Are Low' by Birkenhead based band, and staunch Super White Army fans, Half Man Half Biscuit.
Meanwhile in 2017, the Gulls have been competing in recent seasons against the twin attraction of Plymouth Argyle and the Exeter Chiefs rugby side, who many of their Saturday home fixture have clashed with. With the Chiefs in particular now ranked as one of the leading rugby sides in the country, if not Europe, the draw of the oval ball in the South West is now stronger than possibly ever before, with many making the journey from South Devon to Sandy Park.
Moving some such games could give an indication of the long-term viability of the idea.
However, it would still require the consent of the prospective visiting teams who will, of course, have the issues of overnight stays and travel plans to consider. Earlier this season, the Maidenhead United team bus was delayed by an accident on the M5, which resulted in a delayed kick off.
