Torquay suffered overriding disappointment in their first season since relegation from the Football League as the Devon club fell well short of a challenge for an instant return. Chris Hargreaves was given the task of guiding the team despite overseeing relegation at the end of the previous season, having shown enough promise and ability in his first few months of charge. As expected, there were some notable departures over the summer and none more so than the heartbeat in midfield, Lee Mansell, who joined fellow relegated side Bristol Rovers. But Luke Young arrived from Plymouth as a direct replacement and would prove an excellent addition over the course of the campaign. Ryan Bowman was to be the new main man in attack while Toby Ajala, Courtney Richards and Angus MacDonald were brought up with the hope of realising their potential. It was an excellent and highly encouraging start of the season, even if they lost 3:1 at Gateshead on the first day of the season. The Gulls went on to go ten games without a loss, playing some fluent attacking football and showing real desire and hunger for goals. They actually won six games in a row in September and were going toe-to-toe with Barnet at the top end of the table. Ajala, Courtney Cameron and Young were showing some superb performances while Bowman was bringing the goals. But the defending was the main building block for the success in this period as Hargreaves’ men picked up five clean sheets in a row. The aim was to keep up the excellent run into the autumn but things started to take a turn for the worse quickly. A few injuries and suspensions disrupted the fine balance that the manager has created in his starting 11 and results dipped alarmingly, losing five of six games. There was a brief flicker in beating the leaders, Barnet, but the performances were now a far cry from the standard set in early in the season. The defence started leaking goals on frequent basis and Hargreaves seemed unable to stop the rot. The Gulls dropped into mid-table by December and never really managed to get on a good run from then on. The aspirations for a play-off charge quickly faded as disappointments followed one after the other. Indeed, Torquay managed just two wins in the league in a period from October to February, and generally just three in a run of 19 games. The only shining light in their season was the run to the FA Trophy semi-final. But the hopes of a Wembley appearance were dashed unceremoniously by a superior Wrexham side over two legs. The morale on the camp was badly damaged for the last couple of months of the season, with a humiliating 5:1 defeat to Braintree proving the nadir. The team played a few decent games at the end of the season but it mattered very little at the end as the team under-performed badly after a strong start, finishing at 13th place in their first season after relegation.
