Torquay

Formation and early years (1899–1912)

The original Torquay United was formed in 1899 by a group of school-leavers under the guidance of Sergeant-Major Edward Tomney. The newly founded club played its inaugural match against an Upton Cricket Club XI on one of local farmer, John Wright's fields, situated at the top of Penny's Hill, on Teignmouth Road. After a season of friendlies the club joined the East Devon League and moved into the Recreation Ground, their home for the next four years. Plainmoor at the time was occupied by Torquay Athletic Rugby Club in what is a reversal of the modern day situation. In 1904 Athletic secured the lease on the Recreation Ground from United, with League rivals Ellacombe taking over the lease of Plainmoor, leaving United homeless for the first time in their existence – facilitating a return to the farmer's fields on Teignmouth Road.

However the club was on the move once more when the fields were sold to be developed into what would later be known as Parkhurst Road. United soon found another home, sharing with Torquay Cricket Club in nearby Cricketfield Road (a site still used for football in the modern day by South Devon League side Upton Athletic F.C.) for four years. It was during this time that they won their first honour; the 1909 Torquay and District League title. Following this breakthrough for the club, United merged with local rivals Ellacombe Football Club in 1910 and adopted the name Torquay Town. It was then that United finally moved into Plainmoor where they would remain to this day. During this period the ground was shared with the team's remaining local rival Babbacombe. Both sides were playing in the same league, the Plymouth and District League alongside the reserve teams of Exeter City and Plymouth Argyle, Torquay Town would later win the league in the 1911–12 season.

Election to the Football League (1920–1950)

In 1920 after the resumption of the Football League following the First World War, United's local rivals Plymouth Argyle and Exeter City were both elected to the Football League as founder members of the Football League Third Division, this prompted a movement in the town to merge the two remaining teams and create a new entity capable of competing at this level and being elected into the new league. After many discussions, Babbacombe at last agreed to a merger, enabling the new club to become the sole representative of the town and turn professional to further its case for league election, the new team was to be called Torquay United again.

In 1921, Torquay United moved from the Plymouth and District League to the Western League; they spent one season there, before transferring to the Southern League for the 1922–23 season. Torquay went on to finish sixth that season and during the summer applied for Football League status, but failed to gain a single vote. They remained in the Southern League until the end of the 1926–27 season. In 1925, the club reached the first round of FA Cup for the first time in the club's history. In 1927, Torquay won their first league title since the Torquay and District League of 1912, winning the western division of the Southern League.

Capitalizing on this momentum, the club once again applied for league membership and were successful this time, joining the Football League Third Division. The town of Torquay had had joined Plymouth and Exeter in the football league at last. Torquay's first match in the league took place on 27 August 1927, a crowd of 11,625 watched a 1–1 draw. The team's first season in the league however, was not a success, finishing their first season in the football league bottom of the table on 30 points and with a goals against tally of 103. Though they were successfully re-elected to the league for the next season. Throughout the 1930s, Torquay struggled against financial problems, they also failed to finish higher than 10th in twelve seasons. When league football was resumed in 1946 after the second world war, United continued to struggle and finished that season 19th.

Webber, O'Farrell and the glory years (1950–1970)

Torquay United finished 5th in 1950. In 1954 United changed their club colours again, the black and white stripes being changed to gold and blue to reflect the resort's "sun, sand and sea image", colours which the club has maintained to this day. With the change of colours came a change in fortunes starting with the club's greatest ever FA Cup moment that very season. Torquay were drawn against Leeds United, away, in the third round of the Cup. Torquay went into the game clear under-dogs, yet they managed to hold the Yorkshire club to a 2–2 draw. The following Wednesday, 12 January, Torquay beat Leeds 4–0, with a gate of 11,000. Torquay United went on to play Huddersfield Town in the fourth round FA Cup game at Plainmoor. Torquay lost 1–0 to the higher-placed Division One club, but the official attendance of 21,908 remains a club record.

Following their FA Cup heroics, in the 1956–57 season Torquay just missed out on promotion to Division Two on goal average. The season had begun well – and by April, the possibility of a first promotion to Division Two was the talk of the town. A trip to Crystal Palace for the team and over 1,500 Torquay fans travelling on the last day of the season beckoned. Torquay only needed to win the game to be certain of going up, but they managed only a 1–1 draw at Selhurst Park and Ipswich, who won their final match away to Southampton, took the title. United failed to repeat this form the following season and after finishing 22nd in the league and were placed in the new Division Four, created by the de-regionalisation of the two third level divisions. With Eric Webber still in charge, United ended their first season in the League's new basement division in twelfth place; but the next season, the club returned to form, and on 27 April 1960, 8,749 fans saw Torquay United beat Gillingham 2–0 at Plainmoor to return to the Third Division with two games of the season remaining. They were relegated on the last day of the campaign on May 1962.

Torquay came very close to regaining their Division Three status when they finished sixth in both the 1962–63 and 1963–64 campaigns. In 1963, Webber signed striker Robin Stubbs for a club record fee of £6,000 from Birmingham City; he went on to be the club's top goalscorer at the end of the 1963–64 scoring 24 goals in 34 games. Torquay's FA Cup run of 1964–65 was the highlight of a disappointing mid-table season as United again failed to return to the Third Division. In the third round, Torquay were drawn at home to English football giants; Tottenham Hotspur. In front of Plainmoor's second ever largest attendance, slightly above 20,000 – the team performed well, in the last few minutes, it was the turn of record signing Robin Stubbs to net two goals and make it 3–3.

The first attempt at a replay in London was cancelled, with the majority of United's travelling fans having already arrived in the capital. A week later though, in front of 55,000-strong crowd at White Hart Lane, the match went ahead. Jimmy Greaves scored a hat trick as Tottenham showed their class to win 5–1. After finishing in 12th at the end of the season, Eric Webber was finally sacked after 15 years as manager. Webber's replacement was Frank O'Farrell. In his first season in charge, O'Farrell oversaw Torquay's second promotion when they finished third in Division Four. At the end of their 1966–67 campaign United finished in seventh, and at the end of their 1967–68 season, United came very close to promotion to Division Two, once again, finishing fourth, two points behind Oxford United and Bury. This period also coincided with the club's fans being voted the 'Best Behaved Supporters in the League'. The O'Farrell era ended in 1968–69, when he left to manage First Division Leicester City and later Manchester United.

Lower league disappointment (1970–1988)

Another two seasons of indifference in Division Three saw the club finish in mid-table positions, then at the end of the 1971–72 campaign, United found themselves in the relegation zone, and back in the basement division. This led to a relatively uneventful decade with the club consistently scratching out mid-table finishes. O'Farrell made a return to Plainmoor in 1977 into the position of consultant manager, with Green taking hold of first team duties, The end of the 1977–78 season saw the Gulls finish in ninth place. Green then left the club, to be replaced at the helm, for the third time, by Frank O'Farrell. O'Farrell didn't stay in charge of team matters for long, bringing in ex-Scotland international Bruce Rioch to become player-coach. Though the Gulls finished in fifteenth place in the 1981–82 season.

During the following summer Rioch was named manager, and the following 1982–83 campaign saw United finish 12th, but reached the fourth round of the FA Cup for the third time, going out of the competition at Plainmoor after a thrilling 3–2 defeat at the hands of Sheffield Wednesday. United would go on to finish the season in a strong 9th place. However, in Webb's first full season at the healm, the 1984–85 season United finished bottom of Division Four and had to apply for re-election to stay in the Football League. For the second successive year United finished bottom of Division Four, and again had to apply for re-election, they were successful. The 1986–87 season saw automatic relegation to the Football Conference.

A new era and the Bateson years (1988–2008)

The start of the 1987–88 Cyril Knowles became manager. During this season, Torquay United beat Tottenham Hotspur 1–0 at Plainmoor in the FA Cup. The team also reached the southern semi-final of the Football League Trophy. In May 1988 Lee Sharpe transferred to Manchester United for £180,000 in one of the biggest transfers of Torquay United's history at that time. Torquay reached the final of the Associate Members' Cup in 1989. A crowd of 46,513 saw Dean Edwards put Torquay 1–0 up against Bolton Wanderers at Wembley, before Bolton came back to win 4–1. Torquay won promotion again on 31 May 1991, winning a play-off final on the club's second visit to Wembley against Blackpool. The introduction of the Premier League at the end of the season meant they were relegated from Division Three to Division Three.

Don O'Riordan, took the senior job. He guided United to the play-offs again during the 1993–94 season, finishing sixth. However, the team lost 4–1 at Deepdale in the final match of the play offs. At the end of the 1995–96 season Torquay finished bottom of Division Three. However, they were saved from relegation when Stevenage Borough's ground was deemed unfit for League football. Eddie May, was replaced by Kevin Hodges. In the 1997–98 season the club finished fifth and gained entry to the play offs, Albiet United lost 1–0 to Colchester United in the Wembley final. Kevin Hodges left the club and Wes Saunders returned as manager.

The following season Torquay only narrowly avoided relegation to the Conference. Matters improved in the 1999–00 season, with a finish of 9th. However, 2000–01 the club only narrowly avoided relegation. Lee left at the end of the season and was replaced by Roy McFarland, who only managed to deliver 19th-place finish the following season; McFarland subsequently quit at the end of the season. 2002–03 saw improvement with a finish of 9th. At the end of the 2003–04 season the club win automatic promotion for the third time in their history. However their stay in the third tier was only to last for one season, as the Gulls were relegated back at the end of 2004–05.

In the 2005–06 FA Cup 3rd round Torquay managed to pull off a 0–0 draw with Premier League strugglers Birmingham City. However they lost the replay at St Andrew's 2–0. Atkins, apointed half way through the same season, managed to rescue the side just three points from relegation. In October 2006, Atkins departed, being replaced by former Czech international Luboš Kubík. Keith Curle was then appointed as Head Coach on 7 February 2007. Torquay United lost their 80-year Football League status on 14 April 2007, following a 1–1 draw at home to Peterborough United. The side's post-season soon descended into chaos, A new consortium headed by Alex Rowe and Cris Boyce, fiscally backed by £15M National Lottery winner and United fan Paul Bristow, bought the club from Bateson. Rowe was installed as the new chairman, and Paul Buckle appointed the club's new manager.

On 15 March 2008, Torquay reached Wembley for the first time in ten years with a 2–1 aggregate win over York City in the semi-finals of the FA Trophy. After finishing 3rd in the Conference Premier, Torquay had to play their fiercest rivals Exeter City away first with the return leg at Plainmoor, with the final score 2–1 to United. Exeter City scored four goals in the space of 18 minutes, knocking the club out of the play-offs. On 10 May 2008, Torquay lost 1–0 in the FA Trophy final to Ebbsfleet United at Wembley. They reached the fourth round of the FA Cup in 2008–09, though struggled for goals throughout January and, against Coventry City with a sell out crowd of 6,018, they lost a game 1–0. Torquay United were promoted back to the Football League on 17 May 2009 in the play-off final at Wembley with 35,000 in attendance.

From Football League to non-League (2008–present)

In their first season back in League Two, Torquay finished the season in 17th place with 57 points and the club reached the third round of the 2009–10 FA Cup, where they lost 1–0 to Brighton & Hove Albion. The next season, Torquay United reached the fourth round, equalling the club record. That same season, Torquay came 7th but they lost 1–0 in the play off final to Stevenage and remained in League Two. Paul Buckle resigned the day after the defeat. United enjoyed an even more successful season in 2011–12 under new manager Martin Ling, achieving a record high of second place in League Two. However, they lost 4–1 on aggregate in the play-offs, ensuring another season in the fourth tier.

The next two seasons saw the club finish 19th (2012–13 season), and then get relegated to the Conference Premier in 2013–14. Torquay finished 13th in their first season back in non-league. In June 2015, ownership of the club was taken up by a new consortium made up of 10 local business people. Paul Cox was appointed as manager but left Torquay three months later. Shortly after this, on 19 September 2015, United suffered their biggest loss in 20 years, when they lost 7–3 at home to Bromley. On 28 September 2015, the club announced Kevin Nicholson would be the new player-manager. During 2016–17, a deal with a Swindon-based gaming and leisure company, Gaming international, was agreed and then ratified by the National League in March 2017.

On 21 April 2018, Torquay were relegated to the sixth tier of English football for the first time. On 13 September 2018, Gary Johnson was appointed manager. They were crowned champions of the National League South on 13 April 2019 - their first league championship title since 1927. In 2019–20, Torquay finished 14th in the fifth tier after the season was cancelled in March 2020 due to disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2020–21, the Gulls finished second. In the play-off final at Ashton Gate, Torquay's goalkeeper Lucas Covolan equalised in the 95th minute. However, Torquay lost out 5–4 on penalties. Two years later, Torquay were relegated back to the National League South. On 22 February 2024, Gaming International owner Clarke Osborne said he was planning to appoint administrators and stood down as club chairman. Under his ownership, Torquay had twice been relegated to the sixth tier, while he had kept the club afloat with loans of over £4.3m. In the year to 30 June 2023, the Gulls lost £1,163,124 and Osborne's loans to the club rose to £5.28m. After it was announced that the club faced going into administration, manager Gary Johnson left the club by mutual agreement and his assistant Aaron Downes was appointed interim manager. On 13 March 2024, the National League docked Torquay ten points, dropping the club from 12th to 17th place in the table, its lowest position since being elected to the English Football League in 1927. The club formally went into administration on 5 April 2024.