Plainmoor pitch taking the strain

It would be a cruel, but almost inevitable, irony if Truro City’s 3-2 win over Dulwich Hamlet on Sunday proves to be not only the last match of their groundshare deal with Torquay United but also the most damaging.

For three-and-a-half months a combination of summer investment, the expertise and know-how of head groundsman Chris Ralph and his staff and some fine weather has seen Plainmoor cope with a daunting schedule of 30 games.

That’s more than the usual demand of an entire season.

The pitch was still in remarkably good condition after Saturday’s FA Cup-tie between United and Woking.

That game had been preceded by heavy rain which had forced the Gulls off their Seale Hayne Training ground over the previous few days.

But, with winter weather starting to take its toll, everyone knew that the surface was about to face its biggest test – three matches in the space of four days.

Sure enough, Plainmoor was looking sorry for itself after Sunday’s Truro-v-Dulwich game, which needed a referee’s inspection before it went ahead, and it remained to be seen how much more damage was done by last night’s United-v-St Albans City match.

One man who certainly wasn’t happy was Gulls manager Gary Johnson – of course, he has to try and lead United to promotion on that surface over the next five months.

“They left a poor pitch behind them – that’s how it is,” said Johnson.

“I don’t know whether we could have done any different. They will feel it was playable. They don’t care about our pitch, and why should they?

“As a club we had to expect that under the circumstances.”

Johnson was talking from bitter experience.

During his time as manager of Cheltenham Town, he saw Whaddon Road – like Plainmoor, it formerly won awards for its quality – suffer from a groundshare agreement with homeless Gloucester City.

Jamie Reid is sent flying by Ben Gerring of Woking ‘Ruined’ was the word used recently by Johnson.

After it became clear that plans to redevelop their old Treyew Road ground with a Lidl store aren’t going to happen for at least another year, Truro announced recently that they planned to return there as soon as possible.

But exactly when that will be is still not known.

A National League inspection has called for more remedial work at Treyew, which is currently being carried out, and a City statement on Friday read: “We are still in discussions with Helical (developers) and JIL (ground owners) on the Lidl development, and we should be able to report a positive outcome within the next few days.”

The forthcoming programme at Plainmoor sees United meet Concord Rangers this Saturday and, with the FA Trophy draw sending Torquay to Basingstoke Town, the following weekend will not see a repeat of the last one – Truro are due to host Greenwich Borough in the FAT on November 24.

Nobody wishes Truro any ill-will in all of this, but if that turns out to be their farewell to Plainmoor, it won’t come a game too soon for the pitch which was always going to pay the real price.

Gulls fans have bad recent memories of the Camrose Stadium, but the travelling diehards must head back there after the Third Qualifying Round of the FA Trophy sent Torquay United to Basingstoke Town (Nov 24).

It was three years ago that Basingstoke inflicted one of the club’s most ignominious defeats, knocking United out of the FA Cup 3-0 a few weeks into Kevin Nicholson’s reign as player-manager.

The Hampshire club are, as they were then, in the Southern League Premier (South), but they have just lost their popular and long-serving manager Jason Bristow.

Bristow, who served Town as player, coach and manager, has left to be assistant to new Eastleigh manager Ben Strevens.

HISTORY LESSON

A little piece of Gulls history was made when Olaf Koszela went on as an 86th minute substitute in the FA Cup-tie against Woking.

At 16 years 226 days Torquay Academy striker Koszela became the fifth youngest player ever to make his senior debut for the club.

It used to be quite common for lads of 18 or under to be thrown into senior action – in- deed, it used to be said that if they hadn’t got a few games under their belt before they were 20, they probably weren’t going to make it.

But it is a long time since anybody of Koszela’s age – he and fellow 16-year-old Josh Baxter were both on the bench last Saturday – did it.

Olaf joins six other debutants at 16 with four of them, all apprentices/trainees at the time, younger than him.

Heading the list is centre-forward David Byng, who was 16yrs 36days when he capped a dramatic debut with both goals in a 2-1 win at Walsall on the opening day of the 1993-94 season.

Next is winger Lee Sharpe, 16 and 129 days when he was sent on during a 1-0 Devon derby win at Exeter City under the late Cyril Knowles in October 1987.

Sharpe, of course, went on to play for Manchester United and England.

Left-back Phil Sanderson was 16 and 161 days when he played in a 2-2 draw at Brighton & Hove Albion in the old Third Division in November 1969, and striker Dean Stevens made his first appearance at 16 and 219 days at home to Cambridge United in September 2002.

The next two after Kozsela both made their debuts within two months of each other – goalkeeper Matthew Gregg at Wigan Athletic in September 1995 and defender Garry Monk at Chester in the November.

Torquay born-and-bred Monk, of course, went on to star for Swansea City before a managerial career which has taken him from the Swans to Leeds United, Middlesbrough and now Birmingham City.

Sean Hernon/PPAUK