Woods has been with Torquay United since joining from Chesterfield in 2001

Torquay United's current longest serving player Steve Woods has played his last game for the club.

Woods, 32, who has played 281 games in eight seasons at Plainmoor, will not be offered a new contract when his current one expires in the summer.

And the club and Woods are believed to be in discussions about settling the remainder of his contract at the club.

"Steve's been a fantastic servant to Torquay United," manager Paul Buckle told BBC Radio Devon.

"All the time I've been here, 19 months, he's been a pleasure to work with but it's time to move on," added the Torquay manager.

"Steve asked me about his future about a month ago. He asked if he had a future beyond this season and I have to make the decision and I gave him that decision last Sunday after the Rushden game.

"It's the way forward. You see [Mark] Ellis and people like that now and they've got to come through and they're the future of the club."

And Buckle says it was only fair that he told Woods now that he would not be in his plans for the 2009-10 season.

"I knew that I ran the risk of Woods coming out of the squad for the whole run in was a big danger," he said.

"But it's the right way to manage and I certainly couldn't carry on until May knowing that I wasn't going to give him a new deal next year," he added.

Buckle says he has still not made a decision on the future of any of the club's other players whose contracts are up in the summer.

"If I knew that I wasn't going to give them a new deal I'd tell them. I don't know that yet with some of them and I've told them that," he added.

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