U's fan Chris Vessey talks to Joe Barlow, a 17-year-old student from Torquay about everything Torquay United and more...

CV - Looking back to last season, can you give us a summary of the disastrous happenings that led Torquay to relegation?

Where do i start? When our former owner Mike Bateson sold the club to one Chris Roberts I was sucked into believing we were on the up and everything was going to be rosy. But it soon dawned on me that Chris Roberts had no money to buy the club, let alone invest in it. He had a plan for a 20,000 new stadium for us when we average 3,000 a match.

Soon into the season he fired Ian Atkins who saved us from relegation, and when we were in 6th place he criticised him in an email to a fan. Soon after we didn't even have enough money to pay for the security cameras and he even dared to show a fan a player's contract. In basic terms, Mike Bateson (who closed down our youth team), sold us to a beggar and near the end of the season we'd had 5 chairman, 5 managers including Lubos Kubik who couldn't even speak proper English and had fired Colin Lee about 5 times!

CV - How have you found the start to the season. as it's looking good for you so far?

Fantastic. I can't believe the start we've had compared to last season. Paul Buckle has always taken this season one game at a time and doesn't look at the table, only the next opposition. The lads have done great and they are great to watch. We need to keeps our heads focused on the next game though and don't think about the table until March. We don't want to do an Oxford and think we've won the league by Christmas.

CV - What has Paul Buckle brought to the club to make you the force you are this season?

He has brought ambition to the club, and also bought experienced players like Hargreaves and Nicholson with younger players with ambition like Welsh and Zebroski. He has got the team together very quickly and got them to gel together in unbelievable time.

Paul Buckle

He himself is young and his first position as manager at a club. He also has a unique personality where he makes friends and gains the trust of fans far easily than previous managers, and also has good discipline and his feet on the ground at all times.

CV - Despite the shed loads of goals you've been scoring, I see you have a tendency to be rather leaky at the back?

Yes we do tend to let quite a few goals in. I think Buckle is like Kevin Keegan with the 'as long as we score more than the opposition then that's good' attitude. Also injuries at the back haven't halped in recent games, and now we have Chris Todd suspended, who has scored four goals this season. So now we have to shift around at the back again.

CV - What were you expecting from the Conference before the season started, and what are your thoughts of this division in general?

Before the start of the season, I was expecting a challenge for the play-offs, but not the start we're having at the moment (I mean, only two defeats all season, not bad!). I knew it was going to be hard and we have learn from what happened to Oxford last season and take every team like the best, no matter who they are. This is a hard league to get out of, but i was expecting a near top finish at the end of the season.

CV - Who are the three players you feel could cause Cambridge United some serious problems on Saturday?

I would say Tim Sills, Kevin Nicholson and Ishmael Welsh. Sills is quicker than he looks and has the ability to beat his marker and head the ball and score from almost anywhere. Nicholson is one of the best free-kick specialists I have seen in this league. More than half our goals have come from his free-kicks and also is a good defender, he can tackle and feed out strikers from anywhere on the pitch. Welsh is a great winger and tears defender's to shreds. He can run from thehalfway line to goal in no time at all and I would pay good money for him if I could. I can see him playing in League's 1 and 2 (with us I hope!). All in all, without these three players, most of our results would have gone the other way.

CV - The standard pf the refereeing in the Blue Square Premier is firing more debates than ever, do you think it's getting as bad as people make out?

It's a tough call to make. I think referee's often make mistakes in matches and sometimes I don't know how they got to referee at National level. But they often get abused by fans and I try and see it from the referee's point of view, as he and the other officials can't see everything.

CV - If i say to you 'Cambridge United', what's the first thing that comes to mind? And have you any particular memories of the U's, good or bad, over the past few years?

The first thing that comes to mind is that you're a good side who could beat us on any given day. You're doing well and I can see them near the play-offs at the end of the season. My best memory of Cambridge is when we beat you 3-0 at Plainmoor in the 2003/04 season. I was jumping around that day as it was the best season I've had at Plainmoor.

CV - And finally, a massive game for both teams on Saturday - what's your prediction?

2-0 to Torquay. I think our midfield and strikeforce are great and we have the best fitness levels in the league. We have played quite a few good teams and feel that Saturday is Torquay's day.

Many thanks to Joe Barlow for his time.

Chris Vessey