If someone asked yours truly to describe the biggest difference between Torquay United and Exeter City, the eventual answer may surprise you somewhat.
Could it be their respective league positions? Or maybe the big money transfers or the high profile Cup draws that the Grecians have enjoyed in recent seasons?
The answer is actually none of the above, but can be summed up in two words: Steve Perryman.
Since 2003, following his appointment as City's Director of Football - following their takeover by the club's Supporters Trust, Perryman has provided support to a succession of managers including the late Eamon Dolan, Alex Inglethorpe and present Grecians boss Paul Tisdale and, at the same time, shared his vast expertise with the club at boardroom level.
Until the end of the 2009-10 season, Torquay United also had such a person to go to for similar advice in Colin Lee, when the Gulls dispensed with his services as Chief Executive - a position that he held for three years.
Lee's own career had run parallel to that of Perryman's until that point in time; they had played together at Tottenham Hotspur in the 1970's; Perryman succeeded Lee as manager of Watford in 1990 and the pair both saved the Grecians and the Gulls from relegation from the Football League as caretaker managers in the 2000-01 season.
In the three years that Lee served as Chief Executive at Plainmoor between 2007 and 2010, after previously serving the Gulls as a fan, player, caretaker manager and Director of Football, United won promotion back to the Football League and retained their status in League Two.
Whilst much of this progress was funded by Paul Bristow and didn't come cheap, it was planned for and was part of Bristow's dream to help United reach League One.
However, whilst part of that part was sustained in the 2010-11 and 2011-12 seasons which saw the Gulls reach the Play-offs under Paul Buckle and Martin Ling - the wheels soon began to fall off.
Not since the end of the 2011-12 campaign, when United finished fifth under Ling have they finished in the top half of any division that they have played in.
Also, had Lee been in situ in January 2013 when Ling fell ill, surely he would have been the ideal person to have stepped into the breach at that time.
During the Gulls' subsequent decline, Lee has been working for the Chelsea Foundation and heading the football department at South Dartmoor Community College.
He has always been ready to help out if asked and, even now in these difficult times, probably still would.
