My mate in the pub should come and see what all the fuss is about

HAD a good chat with a fella in the pub last week. He couldn't get his head around why Torquay United hadn't won the National League South at a canter last season, and asked me what was wrong up there. Nothing's wrong, I explained... anymore.

- Richard Hughes

The trouble is, there are far too many people out there in Torbay that still aren't convinced that the changes that we - as fans - have witnessed, are enough to stall the downfall of a club that they remember playing in the league against proper football clubs, not the minnows that we are scratching about with these days.

I like my pub mate very much but I did get a little frustrated as I tried to put up a defence of the Bryn Consortium and the manager. But with the crowds we were getting last season, why couldn't we get the players that could win the league.

I explained that Paul Wotton started the season with one player and had to bring in the best players he could, that would come to a club that had ended the previous season in administration - and with a so-far unproven new board.