Who knows?

Programme article from City v Crawley 25/4/2006. One to go

As we near the end of the season City are left with very little to play for but just down the road our dear friends Torquay are fighting for their league status. It looked hopeless a few weeks ago but they’ve kept plugging away and have hauled themselves off the foot of the league to be within 3 points of safety with a game in hand. Torquay seem to be the masters of last day drama having survived a number of times in the past and having won promotion a few years ago on the last day (though of course they were relegated on the last day of last season), so I’m almost expecting them to save themselves.

I am however not entirely sure whether I want them to be relegated. I remember the fun had by Torquay fans in the season we were relegated, with one “famous” fan in particular on Saturday morning TV show taking particular delight in our demise. So from a revenge perspective it’ll be enjoyable to see them in the Conference with us next season. It would also be good to have a proper (well semi-proper, they’re hardly Argyle) derby over the Christmas period, rather than playing Aldershot or Hereford. That’s perhaps been one of the more annoying aspects of being in the Conference – the lack of a local derby (along with the “non-league” tag, having to qualify for the FA Cup 1st Round, trips to certain parts of the country we didn’t want to see….).

Having said that, though, is it good for Devon football to only have one league club? Managers of clubs down here often complain about the difficulty of persuading players to relocate to the Westcountry because of the lack of clubs around, and Torquay dropping out of the league will surely not help this. The Gulls crowds are some of the lowest in the league, regularly getting attendances in the low 2000. Will these be any better in the Conference? It must be said that ours have held up well, but I personally put this down to the change in ownership of the club since relegation. Their chairman has made no secret of his desire to off-load the club. Sadly with their small following it’s unlikely that a Trust would be able to take it over.

It’s a difficult one to call but I think I’m leaning towards hoping they come down, mostly for the extra interest/money that will be generated by having another local club in the same division (and for the look on a certain Torquay fans face!). Seemingly joining the Conference from the other direction of course are Weymouth who are top of the Conference South. This gives us another local game to look forward too. After 3 years of our closest game being Forest Green Rovers, we’ll have a little less distance to cover!

Weymouth are said to be approximately £2 million in debt. They’ve spent a significant amount of money just to get into the Conference and will no doubt continue to do so to try and get into the league. They do have the potential to get decent support however so may be able to sustain it (there were 5000 at their recent game against the team in 2nd). It’s still a lot of money to spend to get out of a semi-professional league and leaves the club in a precarious financial position and heavily reliant on a rich backer. Let’s hope they don’t go the same way as some other clubs who’ve spent heavily to get into the Conference.