Can the Plainmoor pitch take it?

There is still no indication of when, or whether, Truro City will end the groundshare deal with Torquay United, but the arrangement is about to exert the sort of pressures on the Plainmoor pitch that many Gulls fans feared all along.

And it‘s going to happen just as award-winning head groundsman Chris Ralph is preparing to leave the club for Plymouth Argyle.

Ralph‘s new pitch has already staged 26 games – the normal load for a whole season – in three-and-a-half months, and it has held up well.

But the pressure is about to be cranked up - and some.

Starting with City‘s 3-1 win over Dartford last Saturday, Plainmoor is in the middle of a schedule of at least ten games in 36 days: Oct 27 - Truro-v-Dartford, Oct 29 - FA Youth Cup (Utd-v-Totton & Eling), Oct 30 - Truro-v-Bath, Nov 3 - Utd v Billericay, Nov 10 - United-v-Woking ( FA Cup), Nov 11 - Truro-v-Dulwich Hamlet, Nov 13 - United-v-St Albans City, Nov 17 - United-v-Concord Rangers, Nov 24/25 - possible FA Trophy ties for both clubs, Dec 1/2 - Truro-v-St Albans and/or United-v-? if they beat Woking in the Cup.

You will notice that Truro have now rearranged their ‘home‘ game against Dulwich Hamlet for Sunday week (Nov 11), 24 HOURS after United‘s home tie against Woking.

I have also included a United-v-St Albans City game another two days later (Nov 13) - that postponed fixture has not been confirmed yet, but I understand that the National League are keen for it to be played as soon as possible.

United believe the league will insist that it take place on either the 13th or the following Tuesday (Nov 20).

In the wake of news that a planned redevelopment of Truro‘s Treyew Road ground is not now happening, over the next 12 months anyway, the White Tigers can go back any time they want. Chairman Peter Masters has said he would prefer to go back ‘home‘.

Jamie Reid shows his joy after netting for Torquay United on Saturday

HARROP MOVES ON

This week’s departure of general manager Geoff Harrop means that Torquay United have now lost three key members of their backroom staff in little over a month.

It started with the resignation of secretary Tim Herbert, continued with the news that head groundsman Chris Ralph is going to Plymouth Argyle, and now Harrop is off. It was announced by the club on Monday, but he has actually left already.

The Gulls have made no official statement about a successor, but his duties have been covered in recent weeks by media officer Patrick Tinkler in tandem with Harrop.

The fact is that a tier of expertise and experience, on the pitch and off it, has been removed from the club and there is a clear urgency to replace it as soon as possible.

The key man is that process is George Edwards, who has been acting as owner/chairman Clarke Osborne’s chief executive at Plainmoor.

Edwards is a highly experienced businessman and a director of Osborne’s Gaming International company.

However, the world of business and the world of football are very different animals, and it would not be a surprise at all if the guidance of Johnson, with all his years of experience in the game, is put to good use in the search for new behind-the-scenes faces.

The secretary’s job is far more involved and carries with it greater risks of mistakes than many outsiders might think.

Tinkler is currently doing his best to keep several plates in the air in that area.

Osborne was fulsome in his praise for Harrop, adding: “I am personally sorry that Geoff has decided to end his journey with the club.”

He acknowledged that Harrop played an important part in bringing him to Plainmoor in the first place, as well as driving many off-the-field improvements after being appointed general manager in March 2017.

It marked a return to the club for a man who had first been brought in to relaunch

United’s youth Academy in 2010, before he moved to Yeovil Town five years later when the Academy was closed again.

The youth scheme has been restarted yet again under Harrop’s latest watch, and he said this week: “It has been a difficult decision for me, made harder by the great bunch of people at this brilliant club.

“I leave the club in a far better organised and secure position than when I arrived.”

I understand that Harrop will focus on long-standing family commitments over the next month or two before tackling his next job.

YOUNG GULLS THROUGH

Goals by Olaf Koszela (2), Harry Smith and Jamie Passmore earned United a 4-1 win over Hampshire’s Totton & Eling and carried them to the 2nd Round of the FA Youth Cup at Plainmoor on Monday night.

United will go to the winners of Thursday’s Maidenhead United-Dulwich Hamlet tie.

REVOLVING DOOR

Two more United players have found new homes over the past week. Striker Andre Wright has terminated his Plainmoor contract by mutual consent to join Gloucester City under Chris Todd, and winger Jason Banton has moved to St. Albans City in a one-month loan deal.

QUITE REMARKABLE

Nowhere is the transformation under Gary Johnson more telling than in United’s goal-difference.

Over the first nine games of the season under Gary Owers, it read 5-3, but heading into last night’s match at Weston-super-Mare the first seven matches under Johnson

had produced a GD of 25-5.

QUOTE

“You lot are the best thing to happen to this league for years,” said a Wealdstone official after nearly 300 Gulls fans had boosted the gate to 1,241 for last Saturday’s 3-0 win at Grosvenor Vale.

The Gulls’ travelling supporters are pumping thousands of pounds into the coffers of every club they play away, which made the Stones’ decision not to allow them into

their social club all the more puzzling.

Maybe they were worried that there were too many?

James Fearn/PPAUK