To say that the 2017-18 season has been a difficult one for both Torquay United and Hartlepool United is certainly an understatement.
Following Barrow's win over Guiseley - the Gulls' National League status is hanging by a thread and the Pools have had brushes with both relegation and oblivion; the former was resolved on Tuesday night with a 1-0 win over Leyton Orient whilst former Darlington chairman Raj Singh's takeover, in partnership Sky TV's Jeff Stelling, saved the club from liquidation.
However, it wasn't always like this for Torquay and Hartlepool. In fact on March 27th, 1999, it was almost perfect - especially for Gulls' fans.
It was the day that Torquay fielded two debutants by the names of Eifion Williams and Jean-Pierre Simb.
Williams, a Wales B international, had recently arrived at Plainmoor for a club record fee of £70,000 from League of Wales side Barry Town. He also came with Champions League pedigree, having netted for the south Wales side against Dynamo Kiev, who featured Andrei Shevchenko and Sergei Rebrov in their playing ranks, in the competition's qualifying stage earlier in the season.
Simb, on the other hand, was the first of a number of French players to join the Gulls and would prove to be something of a cult hero.
As well as these two, former Everton and Wales keeper Neville Southall kept goal for Torquay and ex Liverpool, Everton and Newcastle United striker Peter Beardsley was in the Hartlepool side.
The pair would have faced each other a countless number of times in a number of higher profile encounters, including Merseyside derbies and England versus Wales international fixtures.
Very few modern day League Two fixtures in recent seasons have seen two players as highly decorated as those two line up against each other.
Whilst Williams featured from the start, Simb entered the fray as a first half substitute for Mark Platts and had a hand in creating the first goal, as his cross was flicked on by Brian McGorry and Williams was on hand to open the scoring for the Gulls.
In the second half, Williams completed his brace for the afternoon when nodded home a left wing cross from deep from Robbie Herrera and later completed his hat trick by latching onto a precision pass from Simb to coolly slot home to mark his Football League debut with a treble.
It was real Roy of the Rovers stuff!
However, his time at Plainmoor never quite hit those heights again. Although he did score twice against Blackpool in injury time on August Bank Holiday Monday in 2000, Williams' highest goal return in a season for the Gulls was nine in the 1999-00 and 2000-01 campaigns.
Nevertheless, Williams' connections with Hartlepool didn't end there and then on that day, as Pools manager Chris Turner, who was also in charge of Hartlepool on the day in question, paid £30,000 to bring him to Victoria Park in March 2002. In the 2002-03 season, he helped them to win automatic promotion and two years later, he also helped them to reach the League One play-off final where they were beaten by Sheffield Wednesday on penalties.
