It is often said that you never get a second chance to make a first impression, and this proved to be true for Eifion Williams when he netted a hat-trick on his Torquay United debut against Hartlepool United on March 27th, 1999.
A Wales B international, Williams had arrived at Plainmoor for a club record fee of £70,000 from League of Wales side Barry Town and came with Champions League pedigree, having netted for the south Wales side against a Dynamo Kiev side featuring Andrei Shevchenko and Sergei Rebrov.
Williams was one of four debutants who appeared for the Gulls that afternoon, the other was Frenchman Jean Pierre Simb who became the first of a number of French players to join the Gulls and would prove to be something of a cult hero.The other two were experienced centre back Lee Russell who arrived at Plainmoor from Portsmouth and Gary Neil, a Scottish defender signed from Leicester City.
Another interesting fact about this match is that 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. They were also team-mates at Everton between 1991 and 1993.
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, and you would be hard pressed to find one in League One as well.
Whilst Williams featured from the start, Simb entered the fray as a first half substitute for O'Neill Donaldson 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.
Torquay (3-5-2): Neville Southall; Gary Neil, Wayne Thomas, Lee Russell; Steve Tully, Brian McGorry, Brian Healy, Mark Platts (Kevin Hill), Robbie Herrera; O'Neill Donaldson (Jean Pierre Simb), Eifion Williams (Leon Hapgood)
Attendance: 1,957
