After the euphoria of reaching the Sherpa Van Trophy final
in 1989, Cyril Knowles quit as Gulls’ manager in September 1989, following a
high profile fall out with Chairman Lew Pope.
A bad feeling between the two men had existed for some time,
which had been tempered by the revelations that Lew Pope received a £16,000
payment from the Wembley profits and Knowles had also been seen tearing up a
piece of paper symbolising his contract.
Former Plymouth Argyle manager Dave Smith, who had led the
Pilgrims to promotion from Division Three in the 1985-86 season before heading
to Scotland to manage his hometown club Dundee, was named as his successor.
Smith’s arrival led to an improvement in results and the
Gulls also enjoyed a fine FA Cup run, which saw them beat Sutton United and
Basingstoke Town to earn them a home tie in the third round against West Ham
United.
The Hammers are a club that the Gulls have had a number of
strong links with. The most notable of these is former manager Frank O’Farrell
- a member of the original West Ham Academy - who enticed the likes of John
Bond, Ken Brown and Bill Kitchener to Plainmoor in the late 1960’s.
Given the connections between the two clubs, it was then
perhaps no surprise that a future Gulls’ manager featured on the day for the
Hammers in the form of second half substitute Leroy Rosenior.
At the time of this meeting, the Hammers had just been
relegated from the ‘old’ First Division, and their extra class told in the
first half.
In After the Jaws of
Victory, United’s skipper John Uzzell recalls: “I remember in the changing
room before the game Dave Smith got everyone in a circle and we chanted: ‘we
can, we will’ as loudly as we could.” Uzzell also recounted in his foreword for
Torquay United: A History in 50 Matches.
Ian Bishop’s dangerous runs from midfield, allied with the
attacking menace of right winger George Parris and the visitor’s strike pairing
of Trevor Morley and Jimmy Quinn meant the Gulls’ rear guard of goalkeeper
Kenny Veysey and their defensive quartet of Paul Holmes, Matt Elliott, Phil
Lloyd and Uzzell had to be on the top of their game.
In the 29th minute, Veysey plucked a close range
header from Northern Ireland striker Quinn out of the air, which help to set
the tone for the rest of the afternoon.
At the other end of the pitch, Gulls’ striker Dave Caldwell
was enjoyed an often fierce battle with the Hammers’ centre back duo of former
England defender Alvin Martin and Tony Gale.
It was a challenge on Caldwell by Martin that set Torquay up
for their best chance of the first half, as Caldwell quickly took the resulting
free-kick himself and picked out Robbie Taylor who – in turn – set up Uzzell
for a effort from 12-yards that he pulled wide.
United probed and stretched the Hammers’ defence down the
right hand side through Dean Edwards and Paul Smith and – following a frantic
goal mouth scramble on 35 minutes - they forced four successive corners, but
they were unable to break the deadlock.
In the second half, with the tie seemingly heading for a
replay at Upton Park, Dave Smith made what would later prove to be a decisive
substitution, which he described as being ‘tactical’, when he replaced Caldwell
with the fresh legs and youthful exuberance of Hirons.
Within three minutes of his introduction, the change paid
off for the Gulls as Paul Smith set off on a bursting run out of defence. He
then produced a cross which found Taylor, whose miss hit shot landed straight
into the path of Hirons, who fired home past Hammers’ keeper Phil Parkes with
his first touch of the match.
With nine minutes to go, Hammers’ boss Lou Macari threw
caution to the wind - as they attempted to get back on level terms, sending on
Rosenior on as a substitute for Parris with nine minutes to go.
In the dying minutes of the tie, Rosenior headed a Steve
Potts’ free-kick over the bar and Quinn forced a thrilling save from Veysey, as
the Gulls held on to secure a famous win to reach the fourth round of the cup
for the fifth time.
The result helped to ensure that the Gulls were ‘forever bursting bubbles’- according to the
headline which accompanied the report of the match in the Herald Express, a
play on words of the song famously sung by the Hammers followers.
However, there was to be no repeat of their heroics against
the Hammers in their fourth round tie away at Blackpool, which they lost 1-0.
Torquay: (4-4-2) Kenny Veysey; Paul Holmes, Matt Elliott,
Phil Lloyd, John Uzzell; Paul Smith, John Matthews, Ian Weston, Robbie Taylor;
Dean Edwards, Dave Caldwell (Paul Hirons 74)
Attendance: 5,342
This match features as match 22 in Torquay United: A History in 50 Matches, which is available here: https://torquayunitedahistoryin50.bigcartel.com/product/torquay-united-a-history-in-50-matches
