On paper it was the Football League’s ‘loser loses all’
contest - but to the fans of Barnet and Torquay United it was a game that
decided the destiny of the two clubs.
A 2-2 draw in their final home fixture against York City
meant that Torquay went into the match needing at least one point whereas the
Bees required all three. The Gulls were fighting to preserve a 74-year spell of
league football whereas Barnet were looking to maintain their ten-year stay in
the league.
Such was the importance of the game that 2,000 Gulls fans
saw the game from the stands.
Another 600 were locked out of Barnet’s small Underhill Stadium,
including one who witnessed the game from the top of a nearby tree.
Caretaker manager Colin Lee – who had taken sole control
of the team following the dismissal of Wes Saunders at the end of March – made
two changes to the side that faced York at Plainmoor the week before. Torquay-born
Lee had a brief spell with United as a player during the 1970s, which earned
him a £60,000 move to Tottenham Hotspur. He made a spectacular debut for Spurs
netting four times in a 9-0 win against Bristol Rovers in October 1977.
Eifion Williams returned to the starting line-up at the
expense of the suspended Khalid Chalqi, which meant Tony Bedeau switched to the
right hand side of midfield and Stuart Jones returned in goal in place of Ryan
Northmore. Jones had been absent for much of the calendar year due to injury
and had only made one appearance for the Gulls during that time against
Kidderminster Harriers.
Despite being up
against the strong gusts of wind which were sweeping Underhill, Torquay started
the match more positively than their hosts as Eifion Williams went close early
on.
Barnet were soon
forced into an early substitution after three minutes, as youngster Danny
Naisbitt replaced the injured Lee Harrison in goal.
Torquay took full advantage
of playing down Underhill’s famous sloping pitch, as David Graham had a good
claim for a penalty turned down after he was felled by Barnet skipper Greg
Heald.
The Gulls’ sustained pressure paid off when midfielder
Jason Rees opened the scoring with a 25-yard effort in the 10th
minute. Seven minutes later, Rees exited the field of play and
was replaced by Mick O’Brien who added extra guile to the midfield. Shortly
after coming on O’Brien came close to scoring one of his specialist free-kicks,
with an effort from beyond the half-way line which glanced narrowly wide.
In the 25th minute, the Gulls won a corner on
the right hand side, which was taken by Paul Holmes and found Kevin Hill who
nodded home his 10th goal of the season to give United a two-goal
cushion.
His effort put him top of the Gulls’ goal scoring charts
– one ahead of Williams on nine – not a bad feat for a midfielder.
Torquay continued to dominate the game territorially, but
the nerves of the travelling supporters were made to shake as referee Robert
Beeby penalised Player of the Year Jimmy Aggrey for hand- ball in the 40th
minute and pointed to the penalty spot.
Darren Currie then stepped up to take the penalty for the
Bees. Strangely enough Currie – the nephew of former England midfielder Tony
Currie who had a brief spell with the Gulls towards the end of his career – was
also the son-in-law of referee Beeby.
However, Jones in the Torquay goal guessed the direction
of his spot-kick correctly to pull off his third penalty save of the season.
This proved to be a crucial turning point in the game as
it started the move which led to Torquay’s third goal.
The Gulls were able to get the ball forward quickly
towards Williams, who then linked up with his fellow striker Graham who extended
United’s lead to three on 43 minutes.
Two minutes later, referee Beeby blew his whistle to mark
the half-time break and the Gulls’ fans who had made the journey to North
London could be reasonably confident that a three-goal cushion would be hard
for Barnet to overturn.
One obstacle that United would have to overcome in the
second 45 minutes, as well as the eleven men of Barnet, would be the famous Underhill
slope that they were now playing up instead of down.
Their travelling support certainly had their hearts in
their mouths on the hour mark, when on loan right-back Ryan Green inadvertently
stumbled and turned the ball past Jones to reduce the Bees arrears to two
goals.
Eight minutes later, the Gulls were forced into making a
second change as John Gayle came on to replace Williams who was struggling with
a rib injury.
Two male streakers then appeared from the Barnet crowd
and infuriated Bees skipper Heald, who displayed his anger at their presence
before they disappeared into the abyss of the home end Gents.
The hosts scored a controversial second goal in the 76th
minute through Wayne Purser, when it looked as though Jones had been fouled in
the build-up to it.
With Barnet in the ascendency, the Gulls’ rear guard
spent the final 14 minutes of the match defending as though their lives
depended on it. Skipper Lee Russell led by example producing a series of match
saving challenges and Aggrey and Bedeau both followed suit; Hill and Holmes
also made a series of important clearances which snuffed out Barnet’s chances of
equalising, or even going on to snatch a late winner.
When the final whistle blew, the 2,000 or so Torquay fans
who made the trek to Underhill breathed a huge sigh of relief as United pulled
off a ‘Great Escape’ that ranked alongside the Gulls’ 2-2 draw against Crewe
Alexandra in 1987.
After the game Chairman Mike
Bateson famously declared ‘never again.’
The win also confirmed their first double of the season in a
game which many feared would be their last as a League club. The fans felt an
enormous debt of gratitude to Colin Lee – the son of South Devon who returned
to save his local team. There was not a Gulls’ fan inside Underhill or in any
other part of the world that didn’t want him to stay as manager on a permanent
basis.
Unfortunately, it was a wish that would not be granted as
protracted talks between Lee and Chairman Mike Bateson broke down during the
summer, and Roy McFarland was appointed as manager of United ahead of
the 2001-02 season.
Torquay (4-4-2): Stuart Jones; Ryan Green, Jimmy Aggrey, Lee
Russell, Paul Holmes; Tony Bedeau, Richard Kell, Jason Rees (Mick O’Brien 30), Kevin
Hill; Eifion Williams (John Gayle 55), David Graham (Alex Watson 90);
Attendance: 5,523
