Former Swansea City, Brighton and Hove Albion, Chelsea and West Ham United manager Graham Potter will be taking charge of Sweden in this summer's World Cup in the USA, Canada and Mexico.
However, a quarter of a century ago, Potter had an indirect role in one of the most talked about matches in the history of Torquay United - as his goal for York City at Plainmoor on April 28, 2001 helped to set up United's final day decider against Barnet in the 2000-01 campaign.
The Gulls were battling relegation from the Football League in their last home game of the season against the Minstermen under the interim managerial reign of Colin Lee, after Wes Saunders was dismissed just over a month earlier.
After a 2-1 midweek win over Darlington at Plainmoor, the Gulls were searching for another win which would have taken them a step closer to survival against the Minstermen.
York started brightly and took the lead through Michael Basham before Kevin Hill headed home his ninth of the season on 59 minutes to level matters. The Gulls pushed and pushed for a winner and it looked as though that they had found one with four minutes to go when Jimmy Aggrey nodded home a corner to put United 2-1.
Sadly, that wasn't the end of the action as Minstermen left-back Potter got the final touch on a corner that ensured that the Gulls would need a result in the final fixture of the campaign against Barnet, who themselves needed all three.
As a 17-year old A-Level, with dreams of pursuing a career in Journalism, can remember getting off the train and heading straight to the ground as the game wasn't all ticket. There were several fans who weren't lucky enough to get inside Barnet's Underhill ground. One person decided to climb nearby tree, whilst others were forced to watch the game from an Indian wine bar, where they followed updates on Sky Sports Soccer Saturday.
For the match itself, Lee made three changes to the side that drew with York City as 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.
This proved to be a crucial turning point in the game as it started the move which led to Torquay’s third goal.
From the resulting goal kick the Gulls got the ball forward quickly towards Williams, who then linked up with his fellow striker David Graham to enable Graham to extend Torquay’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.
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.
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.
25 years on, memories of the game have greater poignancy as two of the players who featured, Paul Holmes and Tony Bedeau, are sadly no longer with us.
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);
United's clash with Barnet is one of the games featured in Torquay United: A History in 50 Matches which is available here: torquayunitedahistoryin50 — Torquay United: A History in 50 Matches
