After the initial success of my first Torquay United book, Torquay
United: A History in 50 Matches, my thoughts soon turned to ideas for my
next project.
Having been aware of Simon Hughes’ series of books
interviewing Liverpool players from different eras: Red Machine, Men in
White Suits and Ring of Fire covering the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s
respectively, Andy Mitten’s ‘We’re the famous Man United’ series of books
and Simon Hart’s Here We Go, which looks at Everton in the 1980s, the
idea of writing a book of player’s stories appealed to me.
All of these books were written by fans turned journalists
of the clubs in question and were written with the fans of said clubs in mind,
but could also be enjoyed by football fans who didn’t support these particular
clubs. This was something that I also found appealing.
No one to my mind had ever written a similar book about a
lower league club, and Torquay United are a club with a rich history. The Bryn
the Police Dog inspired ‘great escape’ of the 1986-87 season is well documented
– as evidenced by the Netflix documentary Losers: The Jaws of Victory.
However, what is often overlooked is that it preceded one of
the greatest spells in the club’s history that followed it. In the 1987-88
campaign, under the late Cyril Knowles, United missed out on promotion;
defeated Tottenham Hotspur in the first leg of the Littlewoods League Cup second
round; unearthed a real gem in Lee Sharpe, who they sold to Manchester United
for £185,000, and lost out to Swansea City in a two-legged Fourth Division
play-off final.
This was then followed by their Sherpa Van Trophy final
appearance against Bolton Wanderers in the 1988-89 season, the Gulls’ first
ever trip to Wembley, which they secured by beating Steve Bull’s Wolverhampton
Wanderers in the Southern Area final over two legs.
The 1989-90 campaign saw Knowles leave the Gulls to be
succeeded by the former Mansfield Town, Southend United, Plymouth Argyle and
Dundee manager Dave Smith. Under Smith, the Gulls’ reached the fourth round of
the FA Cup for the fifth time in the club’s history, after beating West Ham
United in the third round at Plainmoor.
Smith laid the foundations for the Gulls’ promotion in the
1990-91 season through the play-offs with a 5-4 victory over Blackpool on
penalties, after drawing 2-2 in normal time and extra time. The match saw
United become the first side to win a play-off final at Wembley and goalkeeper
Gareth Howells became the first keeper to save and score a penalty in a penalty
shoot-out at Wembley, as he struck the Gulls’ fifth successful spot-kick.
This was then followed by several relegations, promotions,
play-off campaigns and numerous ‘great escapes’ – which all added to the
makings of a great story.
The next challenge was to draw up a list of potential
candidates and in the end, I came with an interesting mix of characters for the
final 12. They included the maverick (Dave Caldwell), the local boy made good
(Chris Myers), the cult hero (Jim McNichol), the starlet who progressed to the
top-flight (Darren Moore), the former player-manager who became a
globe-trotting coach (Don O’Riordan), the stalwarts of South West football (John
Uzzell and Kevin Hill), the thinker (Alex Russell), the University educated
Guardian reader (Martin Gritton) and the inspirational leaders (Alex Watson and
Chris Hargreaves) to name but a few.
A foreword by Derek ‘the Dude’ Dawkins, scorer of United’s
winning goal against Tottenham Hotspur in 1987 – and winner of the BBC’s
Football Focus Torquay United cult hero poll in 2005 – also helped to capture
the flavour of the era.
Having started actively supporting the club in 1991, I had
seen all but two of the 12 players featured in the book in action – those two
being Jim McNichol and Dave Caldwell – so it was a real labour of love.
I had hoped to conduct a number of the interviews in person,
however, in the main, due to Covid, the closest I came was speaking to Darren
Moore from his office in Sheffield Wednesday’s training ground via Zoom.
The majority were done over the phone, including the interview
Chris Hargreaves which I conducted whilst on my lunch break from my day job.
Social media proved to be an aid for communicating with Alex
Russell and Don O’Riordan; Russell was in Cairns in the far north of Queensland
in Australia, while O’Riordan was based in the West of Ireland. Russell sent
his responses to me as voice memos on WhatsApp, in which he read out the
questions before giving me the answers, thus providing me with an insight into
his thought processes. O’Riordan also used WhatsApp.
As well as sharing their memories of their playing days at
Plainmoor, they also treated me to some of the back stories to their careers
which were particularly interesting. My particular favourite was Jim McNichol’s
Scotland Under-21 exploits, which saw him appear alongside players like Gordon
Strachan, John Wark and Steve Archibald who later featured in the Scottish
senior side at World Cups. The side he played in was also managed by Andy
Roxburgh, who led Scotland to Italia 90 and Euro 92.
Another interesting insight was the reason Don O’Riordan
missed out on a Republic of Ireland call-up in what could be described as a
‘sliding doors’ moment for him (you’ll need to buy the book to find out what it
is.)
Alex Watson also talked warmly about coming through as an
apprentice with Liverpool during one of the greatest eras in their history,
including making a Charity Shield appearance at Wembley. Kevin Hill and Martin
Gritton both shed new light on their non-league days before becoming full time
pros in their early 20s. John Uzzell’s tale of how he went from being a fan on
the terraces to being a long serving professional with Plymouth Argyle before going
on to become a well-respected senior pro at Plainmoor will surely interest
readers of both a green and yellow persuasion.
From a Torquay United perspective, my favourite story was
Alex Russell’s thoughts on both automatic promotion in 2003-04 under Leroy
Rosenior at Southend United and the subsequent relegation from League One on
the final day of the 2004-05 season against Colchester United.
The end result was not only a 171-page book, but also that I
was able come away happy in the knowledge that all 12 interviewees were as keen
to share their stories with me as I was to ask them about them.
After the Jaws of Victory is available from torquayunitedahistoryin50 — After The Jaws of Victory
