Johnson excited to build new Torquay

GARY Johnson is going to face a battle to keep some of Torquay United’s key players this summer – but says there will be some ‘marquee signings’ coming in as the Gulls try to win promotion from the National League – again.

The Torquay manager will have been disappointed with the two draws he watched over the Bank Holiday weekend, with Joe Lewis’ goal in the 90th minute rescuing a point for the Gulls at Plainmoor against Maidenhead United on Saturday, and the 0-0 at Dagenham & Redbridge on Monday.

That second result made it mathematically impossible for the Gulls to reach the play-offs this season – so the club will need to try again from August.

But with three games still remaining - the first at home against promotion-chasing Chesterfield on Saturday (a 12.30pm kick-off because it is being shwon live on BT Sport) - Johnson said: “I can’t look forward to next season until we have play these last three games, but I am looking forward to creating a new group, along with some that are already here, to keep that continuity. Because we weren’t a million miles away.

“I can look forward to it in a week or two’s time when the season is finished. And I can look back and say this group of lads gave it a good go and given a bit of luck we might have been in the play-offs. But we are not and we have got to keep improving.”

With other clubs likely to be sniffing around the key players Johnson is bound to lose some of them - just like he did last summer. But he will have longer to prepare this time around (Torquay’s season ended on June 20 before the new season started again just two months later on August 21) and he says the club is already well ahead of the game.

“Stick with us because whether it is this year or next year, we have got some what we would class as marquee players coming in,” he said.