1. 13 is unlucky for some - but not the Gulls.
United's clash with Enfield saw 13 players make their debuts for the club, nine from the start and four more from the bench. The only players to have featured previously for the Gulls were James Hamon, during a loan spell in 2020-21 and last season's leading scorer Brad Ash.
It was the most number of debutants that United have fielded on an opening day since Paul Cox selected nine in his first starting line-up against Macclesfield Town in the 2015-16 campaign.
2. Ash off the mark.
After finishing last season as the Gulls leading scorer with 14 goals, it was interested to see how Brad Ash fared in the 2024-25 campaign, especially with the increased competition from the signings of Ben Seymour, Cody Cooke and Jaydn Crosbie. However, Ash made a flying start to the new campaign when he headed home a cross from the left from Matt Carson and had chances to further add to his tally, and based on this showing he could hit double figures again.
3. Carson shows his class.
In recent years, Torquay United have been blessed with a number of fine left-backs, from Tom Kelly (1986-1989 & 1993-1996) to John Uzzell (1989-1991) to Paul Gibbs (1997-1998) to Robbie Herrera (1998-2001) to Brian McGlinchey (2003-2006) to Kevin Nicholson (2007 -2014, 2015-2017) to Liam Davis (2017-2021), and Matt Carson could join that list.
Carson, who joined from Southampton in the summer, played a key role in United’s opener as his shot from the edge of the penalty area on 15 minutes ricocheted off Enfield defender Scott Thomas before finding the back of the net to cancel out Lewis Taaffe’s opener for the visitors. He also played a key role in the Gulls’ second, and ultimately decisive, goal as it was his cross which Brad Ash connected with to head home.
What made his performance seem even more remarkable is that the Northern Ireland youth international’s only previous experience of senior competitive football was a loan spell with Braintree Town last season.
4. First opening day win since 2020-21.
Torquay United's win over Enfield Town was the Gulls' first opening day win since the 2020-21 campaign when a late strike from Connor Lemonheigh-Evans sealed a 1-0 win over Stockport County.
5. Parallels with Leroy Rosenior’s first game in charge.
While a lot of similarities were drawn between Paul Buckle’s first campaign in charge in 2007-08 and the beginning of Paul Wotton’s reign in 2024-25, there is one very big parallel between Leroy Rosenior’s first game in charge and Wotton’s. United marked the beginning of Rosenior’s reign with a 2-1 win over Bristol Rovers after coming from behind as an equaliser from Martin Gritton and a penalty from Alex Russell cancelled out Guiliano Grazioli’s opener for the Pirates.
6. Crowd watch.
The crowd of 3,837 who poured into Plainmoor to witness the Gulls' opening day clash with Enfield Town was only beaten by the attendances of Southend United versus York City (7,962) and Oldham Athletic versus Braintree Town (5,552). If United can build on their display against Enfield, then they will surely continue to pack in the crowds for the duration of the campaign.
