Since the abolition of regionalisation in the Football League in 1958, the paths of Uniteds of Torquay and Hartlepool have crossed on a regular basis.
For several of those years Hartlepool went under the name of 'Hartlepools United' - the 's' reflecting that the team was representative of the boroughs of Hartlepool and West Hartlepool, and was eventually dropped in 1968 following the amalgamation of the two boroughs.
The 1965-66 season fixtures between the two sides saw Frank O'Farrell and Brian Clough face each in opposing managerial dugouts - six years before they would meet again the 'old' First Division as managers of Manchester United and Derby County.
Legendary goalkeeper Kenny Allen, who earned cult hero status amongst Torquay fans for his role in their 'Great Escape' of the 1986-87 season and their run to the Sherpa Van Trophy final in 1989, appeared for both clubs, and made his debut for Hartlepool against Torquay in 1968 and his debut for Torquay against Hartlepool in 1984.
Probably the most bizarre encounter between the two sides took place in the 1982-83 season at Plainmoor, which saw Hartlepool take a two-goal lead inside the opening 15 minutes. However, they contrived to lose 3-2 as they went down to eight men, as Roy Hogan, Trevor Smith and Kevin Johnson were dismissed - the latter two received their marching orders for arguing with each other.
In the 1990-91 season, Torquay and Hartlepool both won promotion from the 'old' Fourth Division and their meeting at Plainmoor on December 1st, 1990 saw then Gulls manager Dave Smith come up against his predecessor in the Torquay hot seat, the late Cyril Knowles.
On March 27th, 1999, one of most memorable meetings occurred - especially for Gulls' fans - on a day that two debutants by the names of Eifion Williams and Jean-Pierre Simb made their first starts for Torquay.
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, who were 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 on 38 minutes.
In the second half, Williams completed his brace for the afternoon when nodded home a left wing cross from deep from Robbie Herrera in the 59th minute. Williams later completed his hat trick by latching onto a precision pass from Simb on 73 minutes 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.
Their most recent meeting came on April 21st, 2018 at Hartlepool's Victoria Park and ended in a 1-1 draw which saw the Gulls relegated to National League South.
With Torquay back in the National League and Hartlepool now on a sounder financial footing after a brush with liquidation in 2018, Saturday's encounter has the potential to match the previous memorable encounters between the two sides.
