Torquay United Club Profile

Torquay United Football Club was formed in 1899 by former pupils of the Torquay and Torbay Colleges. The club settled at its current home Plainmoor in 1910 but did not take the name of Torquay United until 1921, the year they turned professional.

The Gulls were elected into Division Three South in 1927 and they later ended up in Division Four when the north and south sections merged in 1958.

The club won promotion to Division Three in 1960 but their stay in the third tier of English football lasted just two seasons and in 1966 Torquay were promoted once more but this time they stayed in that division for six seasons, their best effort yet.

Since suffering another relegation in 1972, they have managed only a couple of other brief spells in the Third Division, but disaster struck in 1986 when they finished bottom of the Football League. But they were given a reprieve after being re-elected and the following year automatic relegation to the Conference was introduced.

Then in 1996, the club finished rock-bottom of the Football League once again but were spared relegation as Conference winners Stevenage did not conform to the Football League’s entry standards.

But that wasn’t the case two years ago when, after a bright start to the season, the wheels came off their campaign and Torquay took just four points from 19 games and were relegated from the Football League for the first time in almost 80 years.

The 2008/09 season saw the club lose just two of their last 19 games to win a place in the Blue Square Division play-offs before beating Cambridge 2-0 in the final to return to the Football League under the guidance of highly-regarded young manager Paul Buckle.

However, they currently find life tough in the early stages of the 2009/10 season, and are languishing in the wrong half of League Two.