Notts County(A).31/03/62.

That Notts County centenary season would have been one of the first such events outside of Sheffield. And it was "an England XI" which provided the opposition for the special match held in May 1962.

Notice how Tommy Northcott is bigged-up as our main man. I only caught the tail end of Tommy's career and it took me many years to appreciate how highly he'd been regarded. His time away from Plainmoor - at Cardiff and Lincoln - shouldn't be lightly dismissed. Both clubs were punching above their respective weights at the time and Tommy would have played in some of the finest sides fielded by either club. Indeed I think we've previously discussed how he must rank as one of the best-ever Torquay-born players.

Great profile of tommy northcott in the nots county programme.i would rate him in the top five legends in our history. From a sporting family, brought up in hele village. His brother was a solid uncompromising centre half for the gulls. His sister Peggy was a fantastic player herself and was usually picked before the boys in the kick about games at Barton downs.
Certainly if she was around today she undoubtably would be an international for the ladies team.
Tommy was always the classiest of the two brothers playing for England youth. Only 5 ft 8 ins, but supreme in the air, seem to linger in the air, a little bit like Steve cooper and Kevin hill in later years. Another legend, robin Stubbs would be the first to acknowledge he owed so many of his goals to the talents of tommy.lummaton is correct that Lincoln City and more so Cardiff were big teams in Tommy's time there, Cardiff being in the old first division.
It's such a shame that in the wall at the end of bristows bench, Tommy's name has been added. But would you believe it has the inscription Tommy Northcott Torquay united GOALKEEPER. Yes I mean GOALKEEPER?

Correct stefano, I remember don mills extolling the virtues of George northcott. He was a a bit in the Arron downes mould. Tough.,never missed a thing in the air. I remember him playing centre forward in one match as well. He used to take the occosionall penalty and nearly broke the net he hit it so hard. Don mills also told me he rated very highly a full back we had on our books called Frank Austin. I believe he didn't play that many games for us but Don really rated him. Who could argue with the number one legend that was the DON. In my opinion of course.

There was indeed tremendous excitement generated by Tommy's return. It was reported at the time that the fee was in the region of £5000, which I believe was a record for the gulls,although I could be corrected on that. I was at the game when he made his return. We were 0-1 down to Southampton and it turned out to be a happy day when tommy scored to make the final score 1-1.
It was quite a simple goal but the fans behind the babbacombe end were ecstatic. The babbacombe end had high terracing in those days and I would imagine there would have been around 2000 gulls fans there. There would not have hardly been a saints fan in sight. The only games when away fans were in evidence was in local Derbys v Exeter or Plymouth.
Of course they were not segregated in those days, joined in together with just some good natured banter.

I'll answer my own question. Redimps.com records that Tommy Northcott made his final appearance for Lincoln on the day we played at Peterborough. That confirms what Phipsy says about the Southampton game. Was that George playing up front against Port Vale?

I am pretty sure the Southampton game was Tommy northcotts homecoming game.
It would seem logical that it was Brother George who was currently playing in the number 9 shirt. The Peterborough cup matches I vaiguely remember. The were a non league team at the time, but a great cup team with scalps of big teams taken.
So when we were drawn away at London road we feared the worst.
So when we went down 3-0 it seemed to be all over. We had an incredible comeback led by a fine performance by watch be boy Ernie Pym. Final result 3-3. The replay ,probably the following Wednesday afternoon. I remember not being able to get the afternoon off of school. We scraped through 1 -0.
The goal scored by Eric Johnson, I believe in quagmire conditions. Johnson was signed from Coventry as a right winger. A less likely winger you would not like to see, slow as a boat.
However Eric Webber turned him into a midfielder and what a transformation. Totally inspiring, certainly one of the best wing halves or inside forwards in the last sixty years or so.
Sadly Eric was dogged by injuries and we only saw the best of him for a short time.