Western Morning News (Saturday)
Torquay hope to defy the odds
TORQUAY United’s last-day game against Wrexham will be played in front of a full-house at Plainmoor this evening - as the National League season reaches its climax, and the Gulls try desperately to climb out of the relegation zone.
Torquay do look like dropping out of the National League and into the National South division - but they will avoid that fate if there is a somewhat unlikely seven-goal swing in goal difference between them and Maidenhead United, who are at Gateshead.
Gateshead beating Maidenhead by two, three or four goals is not inconceivable, but Torquay beating champions Wrexham by enough goals to take advantage of that scenario, perhaps is. Still, no one at Plainmoor has given up hope, and now manager Gary Johnson says he wants to stay at the club, whatever the outcome, everyone will be doing their best to try and make sure that the 2023-24 season is another one at this level.
“Probably the hardest task is for us to beat a team that has already won the league - but it’s definitely not impossible,” said Johnson. “We and the lads have been working hard and are focussed on this game.”
Gateshead were relegation candidates alongside Torquay until a month ago when they started out on a brilliant run that has seen them climb to 15th with a game to go. In the meantime, Maidenhead fell in the opposite direction, and ended up being the only team other than Torquay that can go down with Maidstone United, Scunthorpe United and Yeovil Town.
Gateshead, managed by former Newcastle United and Torquay defender Mike Williamson, who grew up in Paignton, were beaten by play-off hopefuls Woking and Chesterfield in the last couple of weeks, but two Adam Campbell goals saw them enjoy a good 2-0 win against
Dean Moxey of Torquay United
Boreham Wood on Tuesday night and Johnson is hoping they are just as good again on Saturday.
He said: “The good news is Gateshead played very well against Boreham
Wood, and I watched that game to see whether they were in Marbella or not, but they have got their FA Trophy final, so they look like they are giving it a go, and they beat Boreham Wood 2-0 and had quite a few chances. More power to them.”
Gulls fans will be hoping Johnson has his strongest team back for this one, after experienced defender Dean Moxey was withdrawn in the warm-up at Altrincham, where Torquay drew 2-2 last weekend.
Ben Wyatt came in but it would be good for the back three of Moxey, Nico Lawrence and Shaun Donnellan to be back together again - especially against such a brilliant Wrexham strikeforce.
Paul Mullin should be playing at a much higher level than the National League - probably the Championship - but, of course, Disney-money talks, and the powerful forward has scored 38 goals in 45 NL games for Wrexham this season. But everywhere on the field, Wrexham will be a threat, and Torquay will have to be on top of their game, just to match them, let alone beat them by any significant margin.
And Johnson has admitted, whatever is happening at Gateshead might dictate how he sets up Torquay against Wrexham.
“We always give somebody the role of keeping an eye on their phone at the score that we need,” said Johnson. “You have to, it dictates what you do. Do you play a different game? Do you go gung-ho all of a sudden? Do you get tight all of a sudden? Whatever it is.
“But the first thing we have got to do is try to win the game. And if you can get that first goal, then any goal after that is a bonus.
“So we have been looking at different things and working on different things - but we have won some good games over the last six or seven games. We know how to win, and we have to wait to see if Wrexham have an unlucky day.”
All the NL games are 5.30pm kickoffs.