Every Wednesday in the Herald Express, our Torquay United correspondent Richard Hughes takes a sideways look at what's going on in the World of the Gulls - and this week, he talks about the return of Duane Ofori-Acheampong - who his car is named after

When my wife bought her car in 2015, she said it needed a name but didn’t know what to call it. I had the genius idea of calling it after the player who scored Torquay United’s next goal. And so, the second hand Peugeot 207 that is sitting outside our humble abode now, has been called Duane ever since.

In the last nine years that little car has seen a lot of miles – quite a few trips to Scotland, a lot of commutes to Exeter and Plymouth, a handful to London. It has been caught by speed cameras going a tiny bit faster than it should have been, and by congestion and clean air cameras when it has strayed into places we all try to avoid these days.

And in those nine years we have paid its fines and nursed it through bouts of injury and sickness, while getting it through its medicals with the MOT man. It’s fair to say Duane has served us well. But over Christmas there were some serious discussions about – whisper it – getting a new car.

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MOTs are becoming scary times for both us and Duane, and recently one of his back doors has dropped and Brian from the garage up the road is going to pop down to do a minor operation... Nine years is a long time in the life of a car. Nine years is a long time in the life of a footballer.

OK, the fact that we named our car after Duane Ofori-Acheampong nine years ago, and the striker returned last week to make an ill-fated second debut, was too much of a gift to ignore when I started writing this column. But really, it is no laughing matter.

As Gary Johnson said, the player is gutted to have got injured so quickly on his return. Duane told us he had unfinished business, and according to the Gaffer he was fit and sharp in training. But the football Gods have warped senses of humour, and I wonder now if Duane will play for the Gulls again. All I can say at this point is: I really hope he does. I don’t believe for a minute that Gary would have started him on Saturday if he and Aaron Downes had any doubts about Duane’s fitness.

Yes, online, lots of armchair pundits have had their say on the matter, claiming Duane was never going to be fit enough for the game – but that’s their opinion. We all have them. It certainly was not bad luck that Torquay lost at Hereford and went out of a competition that it would have been nice to stay in – that was down to a poor performance – but I definitely think bad luck had something to do with Duane’s injury.

So while we wait to see whether Duane remains a Gulls or not, I guess his name will be followed by a question mark on Torquay’s injury list. I am hoping we will see the return of Tom Lapslie and Brad Ash (or one of, at least) this weekend, as we put the Trophy behind us for another season and concentrate on the National League South.

We are out of all the cups now and maybe that’s a good thing. In the words of a million-and-one managers since football began: “We can now concentrate on the league.”

Gary can now focus on that ridiculously busy February knowing that the games on list should stay unaltered by cup priorities. “We didn’t go there to lose because you are so close to a Wembley final,” Gary told me on Tuesday morning.

“I spoke to the lads about things like this help your CV as players. You have to win something to show you have been part of winning something. But unfortunately on the day a lot of things went against us, including ourselves. We are disappointed to be out of the Trophy, but that’s football and we have just got to keep going and concentrate on the league – as they say...”

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Nine years is a long time in the life of a car – named after a goalscorer

4 1
17.01.2024

Every Wednesday in the Herald Express, our Torquay United correspondent Richard Hughes takes a sideways look at what's going on in the World of the Gulls - and this week, he talks about the return of Duane Ofori-Acheampong - who his car is named after

When my wife bought her car in 2015, she said it needed a name but didn’t know what to call it. I had the genius idea of calling it after the player who scored Torquay United’s next goal. And so, the second hand Peugeot 207 that is sitting outside our humble abode now, has been called Duane ever since.

In the last nine years that little car has seen a lot of miles – quite a few trips to Scotland, a lot of commutes to Exeter and Plymouth, a handful to London. It has been caught by speed cameras going a tiny bit faster than it should have been, and by congestion and clean air cameras when it has strayed into places we all try to avoid these days.

And in those nine years we have paid its fines and nursed it through bouts of injury and sickness, while getting........

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