Fan Zone 11/05/2026

TUST
18 hours ago
4 min read

FAN ZONE

By Nick Brodrick, TUST's Chair and TUFC board member.

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IN THE HIGHS AND LOWS OF A FOOTBALL CLUB IT’S A WEEKEND OF MIXED EMOTIONS

IT’S MY PARTY AND I’LL CRY IF I WANT TO FOR THE YELLOW ARMY

BUT EVERYTHING’S ALRIGHT FOR UNITED’S WOMEN AS PROMOTION CONFIRMED

We all awoke on Saturday morning full of hope and high expectations for what was meant to be a double celebratory weekend. Our men’s side was going to go one step further than last year’s near miss and our women’s team were going to clinch their promotion too.

Following on from the previous Saturday’s fantastic 4-2 win over Dorking Wanderers in the play-off semi-final hopes were high and the next day the women took a step nearer their title with a 1-1 draw at AEK Boco.

All was set – what could go wrong?

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The build up to the National South Final at Hornchurch was frantic starting last Sunday as planning was quickly put into place and despite the next day being a Bank Holiday plans took off.

For a time on Sunday the National League rules for finals was unearthed and in it there was a section which talked about the use of a neutral ground. With Hornchurch’s home ground surrounded by an athletic running track and a maximum ground capacity of 3000 it didn’t take much working out that the Yellow Army couldn’t all be accommodated.

And just exactly how many were we allowed? 25% 50%? Maybe the match could be switched to Dagenham’s or Leyton Orient’s grounds?

Sunday morning there were discussions with United officials, those at Hornchurch and the National League.

Not surprisingly, Hornchurch didn’t want to give up their home advantage but it was established that United’s ticket allocation was to be 30% which equated to 900 tickets.

So, how to satisfy at least three times that number? The decision was taken to reward as many sections of supporters as possible such as all the amazing volunteers amongst whom were turnstile operators, programme and 50/50 sellers, the travel club and TUST leaving the bulk of tickets for season ticket holders.

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For us at TUST we quickly agreed to offer tickets to our Paint Up Plainmoor volunteers and Matchday Ambassadors with the remainder going to silver, gold and platinum Forever Yellow members. All this took a huge amount of administrative organisation which fell on the capable shoulders of our secretary Rick Williams.

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While all this was taking shape the club was busy organizing what was going to be the biggest ever Watch Party at Plainmoor.

With Michael Westcott’s knowledge of organizing big events with his CloserStill company, what about setting up a big screen on the pitch and beam the DAZN TV pictures back to Plainmoor?

And if we’re going to get fans in to watch the match unfold, we’re going to need food, drink, entertainment and children’s activities.

In the space of a few days, ideas became reality. Demand was so high, a second screen was booked and come Saturday a street food village was created on the pitch along the length of Bristows, football games, a bouncy castle and a huge football dart board were set aside in front of the Wollens Terrace.

But the two key areas were screens to watch the match in front of the Family Stand and in front of the Popside.

Fans brought in their picnic chairs and rugs quickly setting themselves up on the grass while others either sat in the Family Stand or stood on the terraces. The club had thoughtfully provided large gold flags to wave.

With Hornchurch’s ground capacity 3000, those at Plainmoor easily matched that.

The build up at Plainmoor was electric, our Forever Yellow video put together by Sam Swann and voiced over by Gulls fan and TalkSport presenter Charlie Baker was shown a couple of times while DJ Dev B belted out tunes to get the crowd right behind Jimmy Ball’s Yellow Army.

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So, to the match.

When Deon Moore scored his two goals the noise at Plainmoor must surely have been heard in Essex it was so loud.

To have promotion snatched away with literally minutes remaining will clearly stick in the memory along side previous sickening final defeats. Ebbsfleet? Colchester? Hartlepool?

Another season in National South awaits. New teams in Walton & Hersham, Farnham Town to face.

No doubt all the other clubs are rubbing their hands at the thought of United still being in the same division as they can look to at least one bumper attendance.

With last season going out at the semi-final stage and now falling at the final stage could it be third time lucky in 2026-27 to go up automatically?

A key to that is going to be Jimmy Ball’s retained list and his recruitment. We await both with the former imminent.

The club also needs to make a decision about Ball’s assistant Darren Way as they have become a formidable partnership.

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The weekend, though, was certainly not all gloom and doom for United’s women travelled to Sherborne on Sunday needing a point but in reality, it would have taken a freak result to wipe out their massive goal difference over Forest Green. With Jimmy Ball in attendance the women got their point in a 0-0 draw at Sherborne to clinch promotion and to trigger great celebrations.

We are proud of their achievements under Ryan Perks’ management.

In the build-up to the match, I was able to promote our Forever Yellow membership scheme to give a massive big thank-you to all our wonderful TUST members who have changed their original £2 a month membership to either silver, gold or platinum.

Our goal to reach £100,000 to hand over to the club had, by Saturday, reached £64,000 and is increasing.

We have already signed up nearly 60 new members. If you’re still to change your membership tier we would love you to do so here: Join Forever Yellow | Torquay United

Your financial support will make a big difference to YOUR football club.

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I write this on a cross- Channel ferry from Portsmouth to Caen so the next Fans’ Zone will be in a couple of weeks.

COYY