Round two of the 2012-13 Johnstone’s Paint Trophy will see Torquay United face Yeovil Town in the competition for the second time, almost eight years to the date of their first.
On that day, only two league places separated the two sides as the Gulls lay 23rd in League One, after winning automatic promotion in the previous 2003-04 campaign, and the Glovers were top of League Two in what was only their second season as a league club.
A crowd of 1,610 poured into Plainmoor to see Torquay take the lead through Jo Kuffour on 17 minutes before Latvian international Andrejs Stolcers, who had represented his country in Euro 2004 during the close season, levelled for the visitors three minutes before half-time.
Early in the second half, two goals from skipper Craig Taylor and Bayo Akinfenwa, his first for the Gulls, in the 53rd and 59th minutes respectively gave Torquay a 3-1 lead.
However, the Glovers, famed for claiming a number of higher division scalps during their non-league days, weren’t to be undone as strikes from Adrian Caceres and Bartosz Tarachulski saw Yeovil level at 3-3 and sent the tie into extra time.
With four minutes remaining, and the game set to be heading for penalties, Akinfenwa scored a late winner for the Gulls.
Then, as part of his celebration, ran into the Family Stand behind the goal and sat down in an empty seat, a decision which earned him a red card as Torquay played out the final four minutes with ten men, but they still hung on to their slender advantage to win.
Torquay would exit the competition in the next round following a 3-1 defeat at the hands of Northampton Town and at the end of the season.
The two sides would swap divisions at the end of the season as a 2-1 defeat at Colchester on the final day of the campaign saw the Gulls relegated to League Two, whilst the Glovers clinched the League Two title with a 3-0 victory over Lincoln City in their final fixture.
Two years later, both Torquay and Yeovil would experience further contrasting fortunes as the Gulls lost their Football League status for the first time in 80 years whereas the Glovers found themselves one game away from a place in the Championship after reaching the League One Play-Off final where they were beaten by Blackpool.
Their paths would cross again in the first round of the following season’s FA Cup, the most recent encounter between the two sides, which saw Torquay win 4-1 as Chris Todd and Danny Stevens both scored doubles to cancel out Marcus Stewart’s opener for Yeovil.
Footnote: Bayo Akinfenwa would join Swansea City at the end of the 2004-05 campaign and scored for the Swans in the 2006 LDV Vans Trophy final against Carlisle United.
