Torquay return to winning ways with a 3–0 win at Walton as Jay scores first

Sunday 1 November 2026 · By Clifford Langley

Torquay United won 3–0 at Walton & Hersham on Saturday, the club said its team “made a return to winning ways”, with Matt Jay scoring first in the 18th minute. The win came days after a 1–0 defeat at Totton on Tuesday 27 October.

Jay finished after a clearance from Toby Savin sent play “from one end of the pitch to the other”, calmly lifting the ball over the advancing Walton goalkeeper Dillon Addai, according to Torquay’s report. Substitute Cody Cooke headed in a Dom Bernard cross in the 71st or 72nd minute, and Jacob Beaumont-Clark, “the former Everton wideman”, switched to his right foot and shot past Addai in the 82nd or 83rd minute. The club said the woodwork denied Walton a late consolation.

Jay told the club website: “Toby kicked it really, really far!” He said he “just managed to judge the flight of it, and on artificial surfaces, the ball always spins back up”. On the result he said “that was something we needed, the fans needed and the club needed”, and on the next game: “We’re there or thereabouts.”

Jimmy Ball made five changes after the defeat at Totton, with Bernard, Beaumont-Clark, Dan Hayfield, Taylor Scarff and Tegan Finn coming in. Captain Matt Worthington had told supporters before the game: “We know you’ll be there in numbers, right behind us. It’s time for us to give you something back to cheer about.” The club’s preview said the Yellow Army would make a 360-mile round trip, and its report said the travelling support turned the ground into “Plainmoor 2.0”.

Torquay are 13th on 20 points from 14 games, with five wins, five draws and four defeats, four points behind seventh-placed Dorking Wanderers. Only the champions are promoted automatically, with second to seventh going into the play-offs and the bottom four relegated. They have scored 22 goals and conceded 17, with two wins from seven at home for 11 points and three from seven away for nine. Their last six league results, oldest first, are a draw, a defeat, a win, a draw, a defeat and the win at Walton.

On Thursday 29 October the club held its Retro Gulls event, with Dave Thomas speaking about the life and career of the club’s “legendary former striker Robin Stubbs”, who has passed away. Torquay’s website records that he scored 133 goals in 263 appearances across two spells and was known as “The Prince of Plainmoor”.

The next league game is away at Hemel Hempstead Town on Tuesday 10 November. Torquay are at Horsham in the FA Trophy second round on Saturday 14 November, a tie between two South clubs, at Braintree Town on Saturday 21 November and at home to Chesham United on Tuesday 24 November. Their home game with Dover Athletic, due on Saturday 7 November, is postponed and no new date has been announced.

Walton are 23rd on eight points.