At what point does a setback become a crisis?
While Torquay United have made a promising start to the managerial reign of Paul Wotton, which sees the Gulls occupy the play-off zone, but were dealt an unexpected blow in the FA Cup second qualifying round where they were beaten by Bishops Cleeve of Southern League Division One South.
It was certainly a result that no United fan would have expected, in fact not even the most ardent of Bishops Cleeve fans would have thought that they would win 3-0.
Therefore Wotton's post-match reaction was probably not surprising when he said:"It was humiliating and embarrassing. We were second best, in fact we weren't even that. There was absolutely zero credit to be had, Bishops Cleeve should have won by more."
Since the Bryn Consortium's takeover of the club in the summer, United have got so much right off the field in terms of supporter engagement, ranging from the new signing videos on social media, record season ticket sales, new home and away shirts that have sold in high volumes and a community share issue with the club's Supporter's Trust which has surpassed its fundraising target.
So therefore a result like last Saturday is not in keeping with the renewed positivity surrounding the club.
Whilst Bishops Cleeve are lowest ranked side that the Gulls have lost to in the FA Cup in recent years, they are two divisions above the Mitres, which isn't the biggest divisional gap between United and one of their FA Cup giant killers. There was a divisional gap of three leagues existed between the Gulls and Hinckley United, who knocked United out of the cup in the 2004-05 season. At the time, the Gulls were in League One and Hinckley were in National League North.
However, United bounced back from their premature cup exit at the hands of the Midlanders, as they went and won 2-1 at Port Vale with goals from Kevin Hill and Leon Constantine and then beat Wrexham 1-0 at Plainmoor thanks to a Tony Bedeau strike.
Up until now the idea of a crisis at Plainmoor has been on par with what the Cobbolds of Ipswich Town would have regarded as one - namely the boardroom running out of wine.
A response akin to the Gulls' class of 2004-05 would go a long way to maintaining that status.
