Torquay United are at the dawning of a new era

Every Wednesday in the Herald Express, our Torquay United correspondent Richard Hughes takes a sideways look at what's going on in the world of the Gulls. This week, he talks Aaron Downes' departure and Paul Wotton's arrival - as well as the Bryn Consortium who are now in charge

It appeared in my inbox at 12.51pm yesterday, just as I was about to turn my attention to writing this column. It was short and to the point – with a headline that simply read: “Aaron Departs”.

It was a statement from the new almost-owners of Torquay United, the Bryn Consortium, saying thank you to the interim manager that kept the team safe in the National League South last season under such trying circumstances. While the club was crumbling around him, Aaron Downes did what he could to avoid the drop into the Southern League, and managed exactly that with a game to spare.

The fans thanked him on that last day of the season, which will be remembered for a long time because of the party atmosphere and the 5-0 drubbing of Havant & Waterlooville – and now it was the turn of the Bryn Consortium.

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The statement read: “Aaron Downes has been a loyal servant to Torquay United AFC, in trying and difficult circumstances. We thank him immensely for what he has done with the squad, and for securing our survival in National League South.

“He leaves with our blessing, and we wish him every success in his future endeavours. It goes without saying that he will always be very welcome back here at Plainmoor.”

The importance of the club still being in the National South at the end of the season cannot be understated. Had Torquay gone down, it might have been curtains for the club we know and love. Yet after Downes and Robbie Herrera, acting as his assistant after Asa Hall found a key role in the centre of the defence, kept them up, the club feels like it is moving in the right direction again. More than the right direction, in fact.

So let me add my thanks to Aaron, who was genuinely selfless when he was managing the team, and who probably suffered many sleepless nights. My last chat with him was on the Tuesday after the season had finished, and I hoped that there would be a role for him next season. I am sure he did too. But football is an odd entity and we move on without the man who almost certainly paved the way for the club’s brighter future.

It was a funny day yesterday. With the press conference to unveil the new manager being at 4pm, it fell on exactly the moment this paper moved from its digital form (me smashing at keys at my kitchen table) to paper form, somewhere on big rollers at a printing behemoth in Portsmouth.

I thought that, by the time the papers had been collated and lorried down to Devon, to be read by you the loyal customer, the news will have already been out and the new manager revealed – but would have been too late for my deadline.

Of course, I went with Truro City boss Paul Wotton on the back page and unless I had mis-read every sign and had been steered down the wrong path by many people I trust, I suspected my prediction was spot on. It was. After finishing this column, the news came out of Wotton’s appointment before the conference – and I have since been rewriting this column, and the back page...

However, I am more than happy with the choice. I am sorry to see Aaron go, but I understand that the consortium wants to start completely afresh – new broom, etc – and once the sale goes through I expect to see some other people leaving the club.

It feels odd that the consortium were happy to announce a manager when technically they still don’t really own the club, but I understand that this is just a case of waiting for ‘creditor approval’ – and that might still take a few weeks. The club cannot afford to waste any more time – so forward we go, bravely and resolutely.

I have had dealings with Mr Wotton in my role as ‘custodian’ of the sport in our Cornish papers, and I have always found him approachable (on the telephone, at least) and honest, sometimes brutally.

Truro have been through some troubled times of their own and haven’t played in the Duchy for several seasons, so their fanbase has been severely diminished. At Plainmoor however, in pre-season, Wotton is sure to get a brilliant reception. And so he should.

Michael Westcott and Neil Warnock must have talked a good game to get him, and that can only be a positive. I am not sure Wotton would have walked away from Truro – who are supposed to be playing in a new ground back in Cornwall next season – if he wasn’t convinced that the new people in charge didn’t have ambition and the resources to fund it. And they have given him a three-year contract!

Having Mr Warnock on board is a huge plus, with all that experience and knowhow – and a contact book the size of a phone directory. Remember them? And with communication coming out of the club so readily, unlike the last five years, this really is all starting to feel like a breath of fresh air.

I have moaned about Clarke Osborne and George Edwards ignoring my requests for a chat before. Within an hour of Friday’s announcement, I was on the phone doing an interview with Mr Westcott. And that says it all really. It really is the dawning of a new era.

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