Gary Johnson: Torquay manager to stay and keep 'continuity'
- Published
Gary Johnson has previously guided Torquay to promotion from the National League South and wants to try to repeat the feat
Torquay manager Gary Johnson has confirmed he will stay on at the club next season despite their relegation to the National League South.
Johnson has been at the helm since 2018 and led the Gulls to the National League South title in 2019.
He indicated prior to the team's final game of the season that he wanted to remain in his role.
Torquay's drop to the sixth tier was confirmed following their draw with champions Wrexham.
"Love me or hate me, you've got me and I promise I'll give you everything," Johnson told BBC Radio Devon.
"We need to keep as many of them (players) together as possible. We need to keep as many of the supporters here.
"It'll be great to keep the continuity because if we can keep enough of these players then we'll be a force and we'll have a bit of fun in coming back up.
"I say we because I've had a chat with George (Edwards, chief executive officer) earlier in the week and he wants to keep the continuity and I want to keep the continuity."
Torquay won five consecutive games from the end of March into April to boost their hopes of survival but a defeat and two draws in their final three games sealed their fate.
They finished the campaign two points from safety.
"The last eight games has shown us where we can get to and what we can do," Johnson said.
"We're gutted that we've gone down, a lot of things didn't go into our favour.
"People say about lady luck and sometimes you go down because of that, you go down because of injuries, you can go down because of the lack of form and we had our fair share of all them earlier on.
"Love me or hate me you've got me and I promise I'll give you everything. I love this place and I enjoy the loyal fans and the directors have shown loyalty for us and we've shown loyalty back saying thank you we'll take it on."