Stop me if you think you have heard this one before...

TORQUAY UNITED

Police dogs and Torquay United have a bit of history, shall we say, and it all got a bit nervous when one was patrolling Gulls fans at last Saturday’s match at Hungerford.

The dog and his handler kept walking past United’s subs’ bench while new Gulls’ boss Gary Johnson was trying to concentrate on the business in hand. “You don’t expect to have one of those dogs hopping around your technical area – it makes you a bit nervous, to be honest,” said Johnson. “I said to the handler ‘Do you realise, there’s millions of pounds worth of players here?’

“I’m not sure whether he be-

Police dog handler John Harris and his dog Bryn with Torquay United player Jim McNichol lieved me or not, but he did move away in the end, which was a relief.”

Johnson did not know the story of how ‘Bryn’ the police dog’s bite on defender Jim McNchol helped to keep United in the Football League back in 1987. He does now!

Footnote: Glad to report, in the wake of those unseemly scenes away to Gloucester City recently, that there was no trouble at all at Hungerford.