Plymouth Parkway win over Torquay United exactly what club striving for

Carlo Garside’s strike midway through the second half settled the contest, but it was the overall display that delighted Godfree, with the win coming after Saturday’s 4-1 loss to Plymouth Argyle.

“We’re really pleased, but we’ve been pleased all along, ever since the first training session,” Godfree said. “The boys have given everything in the three and a half weeks and it was almost one of those cases where we’ve had to almost hold the boys back. They’re so, so hungry.

“They were great Saturday, we touched on a few things that we wanted to kind of address and they’ve gone out tonight and they’ve shown it again. When people say: “What does a Parkway team look like under us?” That is that.

“We bring a bit of blood and thunder, we’re high intensity, and we’re high pressing. But, like we showed there, we flipped it three times to match a very, very good team with great individuals. They are a great team and obviously a league above us, so yeah it’s a really pleasing evening with some brilliant individual performances.”

Many feel Parkway went away from their true roots with the appointment of Chris McPhee. However, Stuart Dudley’s outstanding temporary spell in charge at the back end of last season, in which he guided the club to safety when relegation looked a distinct possibility, and now the appointment of Karl Curtis as manager, it feels like the club are more like the Parkway of the Lee Hobbs era.

Godfree is someone else that knows the club well and those core Parkway values were certainly evident in Tuesday’s win against a strong Torquay side – and the smiles are back on the faces of everyone connected to the club.

“That’s what it’s all about and we talked about how you’ll only enjoy it - it’s the same against Ivybridge - you’ll only enjoy it if you’re physically and mentally drained because if you’re not, you’re kind of cheating yourself and you’re cheating your team-mates if you don’t come off the pitch and you’re absolutely spent,” Godfree said. “That sounds odd, but that’s when you enjoy football. That’s when you really enjoy it.

“The weather was ridiculous on Saturday, but I think the intensity from both teams was more realistic to what we’re both going to get week in, week out.

“We also talked between the staff of making sure we make this place a fortress and making it really difficult for teams to come down. Torquay are only up the road and you can call it a friendly, but again that is what teams will come up against week in, week out.

“But, I just talked about it then – and on Saturday after the game -making sure this isn’t a honeymoon period and making sure this is us. This is what it means to represent this club. There are always things to improve on, of course there is but, to a man, they were excellent tonight.”