Johnson promises to bring marquee signings to Torquay
TORQUAY United manager Gary Johnson says the club has got some ‘marquee players’ coming in for next season - and the fans should ‘stick with them.’
After the disappointing 1-1 home draw against Maidenhead United at Plainmoor on Saturday, Johnson was still clinging on to the ‘slim hopes’ that Torquay can just about reach the National League play-offs. But as they go to Dagenham & Redbridge today, it would take a miracle for them to be anywhere else but the National League next season, as they are 12 points adrift with only 12 points available to win.
Slim hopes and pride aside, however, some of the team’s players are now playing for contracts, as Johnson considers who to keep and who to cut for next season, with the manager saying he has already lined up some new faces to come in.
Of the current players, Johnson said: “They have got to prove themselves to me and the supporters and I am sure the supporters will have their ideas of who should stay and who should go.
“But I think the important thing is: 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.”
Torquay rescued a point from the Maidenhead game when Joe Lewis headed home a neat over-the-shoulder pass by Ben Wynter in the 90th minute.
Following an insipid first half the Gulls had been behind since an excellent Sam Barratt goal in the 55th minute, though the Maidenhead goalkeeper Daniel Gyollai did have quite a lot to do in the second half.
Torquay maybe should have won it in injury time too with Klaidi Lolos forcing Gyollai into spreading his body to make a good save - and a Danny Wright header was saved well right at the end.
Tom Lapslie and Connor Lemonheigh-Evans also had chances in the second half that on another day they might have put away. It was a desperately disappointing result - but over the 90 minutes Torquay weren’t good enough.
With the trip to Dagenham & Redbridge, the team will have to be better if they are going to dent another team’s play-off ambitions. Dagenham are eighth and need to close a four-point gap to Chesterfield in seventh.
Johnson said: “I feel that we didn’t really get our game going today - in a very important game of course. Some of the lads were not quite on form, shall we say, and I just felt it took too long in the first half for us to get going, and it took too long in the second half for us to get going.
“We gave it a right go at the end and to be fair, and we still should have won the game.
“We didn’t have the energy for long enough. I praise them when it goes well, but I thought today it was all too slow and there was not much quality. We have got players that have got much more quality that we saw today - and the crowd saw.
“But we nearly got the game back within five minutes, and that’s how we should have been playing for the 90 minutes, with that intensity, and we didn’t.
“We have been a little bit inconsistent with our quality to be fair, and that is probably why we are in the position we are in.
“We have got a game in two days and we have got to mentally get them ready; physically we have got to get them ready. And we have got to hope that the quality comes out and we have a good end to the season - whatever division we end up in.”