MEMORY LANE
Steve Harris – @steveharris84
Steve looks back to one of our best away performances in non-league football
HARTLERPOOL 0-5 TUFC, 31/10/2020
Encouraged by an opening day win over pre-season title favourites Stockport County, Torquay United made a positive start to the Covid-19 hit 2020-21 season – winning three of their opening four matches of the campaign.
Next up for the Gulls was a trip to Hartlepool United, where United hadn’t won since March 1989. However, after being inspired by a perfect hat-trick from Danny Wright, the Gulls moved five points clear at the top of the National League as they produced a five-star display to defeat the Pools.
Wright opened the scoring in the 12th minute when he latched onto a precision pass from Plymouth Argyle loanee Adam Randell to find the back of the net with his left foot. Four minutes later, Wright struck again, this time with his right foot for the Gulls after Ben Wynter headed the ball back across goal.
On 37 minutes, it was 3-0 to the Gulls as Ben Whitfield pounced on a loose ball to score with a quality strike. In the second half, a back heel from Connor Lemonheigh-Evans on 57 minutes enabled Whitfield to produce a cross that picked out Wright, who nodded home to complete his treble. Three minutes from time, substitute Gary Warren getting the final touch on a deflected header from Kyle Cameron before tapping home to seal an emphatic win for United.
Symbolically perhaps, United’s previous win at Victoria Park come under the managerial reign of the late Cyril Knowles, who would also have a spell in charge of the Pools. To emphasis what a different era it was, Margaret Thatcher was the Prime Minister of Great Britain, the Berlin Wall was yet to fall and Nelson Mandela was yet to be released from prison.
However, it wouldn’t turn out to be United’s most memorable encounter with Hartlepool that season!
COYY – Steve
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TORQUAYTALK 
Hartlepool United fan here. We thought we’d made a decent start to the season, so getting completely outplayed and hammered at home was a big shock to the system. Fortunately we had a good manager who did what was needed to make our team better.
Most Poolies are honest enough to admit that Torquay didn’t get the rub of the green in the play-off final at Bristol. It wasn’t quite a sliding doors moment (our chairman wasted the opportunity opened by promotion back to the EFL) but I’m glad Torquay’s slide looks to be over. Good luck for this season and look forward to playing The Gulls again in the NL or better still League 2.
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