Town are a serious threat

TORQUAY UNITED

When freshly promoted Billericay Town thumped Truro City 4-0 at Plainmoor on the opening day of the season, nobody was in the last surprised when their owner Glenn Tamplin gleefully announced that his team would win the National League South title.

It’s the sort of thing that Town fans have come to expect from the flambuoyant construction millionaire.

Three months on, Billericay return to Plainmoor to meet Torquay United on Saturday with Tamplin, who freely admits to an eventful life punctuated by drug and alcohol problems, already on his second manager this season.

But few would bet against the club he wants to take into the Football League going close to another promotion.

They lie second after a 1-1 home draw with Dulwich Hamlet allowed Welling to overtake them on goal-difference.

They may not have swept all aside so far, but only Chippenham Town and Woking have beaten them and Tamplin’s money, which formerly attracted ex-Premier League players like Paul Konchesky and Jermaine Pennant, has still assembled a formidable squad.

Dean Brennan has a roster full of experienced players, many of them with impressive ex-League credentials.

They include veteran goalkeeper Alan Julian (Stevenage, Gillingham) and defenders

Jamie O’Hara (Spurs, Portsmouth) and Callum Kennedy (Swindon, AFC Wimbledon).

Injuries have ruled out Scott Doe, Jake Howells, Ricky Modeste and Alfie Potter – but the Town squad can take it.

Sam Deering is a key man in midfield, Ross Lafayette and Moses Emmanuel have solid goalscoring records.

Then there is Jake Robinson. Gulls fans will him as a pacy winger with an eye for goal during a lively loan from Shrewsbury in the 2010-2011 League Two Play-Off season under Paul Buckle.

During spells with Brighton, the Shrews and Northampton, he never quite made it, but a drop down to Whitehawk, Hemel Hempstead and Billericay have seen him fill his shooting boots, and how.

In three-and-a-half years Robinson, now 32, has scored well over a hundred goals, and 12 this season include all four in that opening-day rout of Truro. Can United keep him and the rest out on Saturday?