Gary Johnson: Torquay boss aims to grow links with son Lee's Bristol City

Johnson senior (left) and his son faced each other in a competitive game when Gary's Yeovil Town side took on Lee's Oldham Athletic in April 2013

Torquay United manager Gary Johnson says he hopes to increase the links between the club and Championship side Bristol City, managed by his son Lee.

Johnson, 62, took over at the Gulls last week after Gary Owers was sacked.

He leads the ex-Football League side as they play in the second qualifying round of the FA Cup for the first time at ninth-tier Lymington Town.

"Not many managers at this level have got a manager in the Championship that wants to help," Johnson told BBC Sport.

"What Lee knows is that the way I work is similar to the way he works because he played for me for many years.

"So the club are comfortable giving me their young players because they know they'll be taught the right things for when they're ready for Bristol City.

"It's a little bit of an interim time where they can come here, get some football - it's better than under-23s even at this level - and when they're ready I'll tell them they're ready and they'll go back and hopefully be close to the first team."

'The pressure is to win the league'

Torquay's recent history has been far from fantastic.

Relegated from League Two in 2014, the club almost went to the wall after millionaire owner Thea Bristow left and a group of well-meaning supporters took over without enough financial backing.

Current owner Clarke Osborne took over in December 2016 and has proved to be a controversial figure among some fans as he plans to move the club from Plainmoor to a new ground.

Gary Johnson was sacked as manager of League Two club Cheltenham Town in August

Relegation to National League South - the club's lowest level for 89 years - followed last April, but the club has stayed full-time this season.

"This is a league club playing in a lower division. We're full-time, we've got everything you need," said Johnson.

"For a change I've come somewhere where the pressure is to win the league," he added.

"Every manager's pressure is to win the league, but here it's a realistic opportunity and we should think like that.

"We've got to believe that we're going to get where we want to get to straight away. "

Ending Torquay's FA Cup hoodoo

Torquay United have won just one FA Cup game since they lost to Crawley Town in the fourth round in January 2011

Torquay last won an FA Cup game in November 2011 - a 3-1 victory away at then-League One side Chesterfield, who have since dropped into non-league themselves.

Johnson is Torquay's sixth manager since then, but Saturday's tie at Lymington - live on the BBC Sport website, the Red Button and Connected TVs from 12:20 BST - represents their best chance to end that barren run.

"We've got to go into it knowing we've got to give it our best efforts as you can be embarrassed and get beaten," said Johnson, who was part of the Cambridge United set-up in the late 1980s and 1990s that twice made the FA Cup quarter-finals and reached round four on another occasion.

"We don't go into it 'Billy Big Time' and we have to make sure we perform.

"I've had some good times in the FA Cup, the FA Cup's been good to me.

"It's a new era, a new regime and again we'll be saying it's another game we need to win."