Title disappointment can spur Torquay on

BBC News

20-06-2025

Torquay United goalkeeper James Hamon has said the side will be spurred on by narrowly missing out on promotion last season.The Gulls finished second in National League South on goal difference as Truro City won the title thanks to scoring two more goals across the 46-game season.Torquay were knocked out of the play-offs in the semi-finals by Boreham Wood, who would go on to claim the other promotion spot. "To come so close and still miss out was such a difficult pill to swallow," Hamon told BBC Radio Guernsey. "I think it's still going to take time to get over, which is a good thing I feel because I think we could use that to add fuel to the fire to really kick us on this year and go one better and get up into the National League."That's exactly where this club deserves to be and the fans deserve it to be, and I think when it goes up once it's got the chance and the ambition to go again and again."
The Guernsey-born goalkeeper signed a new contract earlier this week to keep him at the club for a second season.The Gulls will embark on a second campaign under new fan owners the Bryn Consortium, having gone into administration and had 10 points docked in March 2024."The whole club within itself is definitely in a great place and it's only going to get better, which is a massive improvement from where it was two years ago," said Hamon."Us as players now we've got the chance to give the fans what they want and hopefully go one better this season than what we did last year."He added: "They're averaging 5,000-5,500 people at home games, they're all buzzing about the place again, there's no bad words to be said about anybody really, which is great."Prior to that in the years gone by it's been a bit of a difficult situation between fans and owners and managers, but the foundations that the Bryn Consortium have built now everybody seems to be singing off the same hymn sheet and it's all lining up to be a successful season and push Torquay back to where it belongs."