Torquay United v Lincoln City.10/02/62.

Many thanks yet again Timbo.

Great to learn that Britain's tennis ace Mike Sangster just made it back in time to be selected for our then "A" team who were playing in the South Devon league against Windsor and they won four nil at that wonderful idyllic football location Stoodly Knowle.

Jon, I think you are pushing things in asking for a detailed report on this match, but I do have a fairly clear memory of Torquay United's first venture into a higher division between 1960 and 1962, so will try to oblige.

One of the things which sticks in my mind is the sudden collapse which took place in the new year in 1961. After holding on to fourth place for many weeks up to then, the remaining games produced only 2 wins and a final position of 12th. Everything fell apart in the last four games, when 18 goals were conceded.

This was really a prelude to the following season of dire struggle. We fell into the relegation zone after only a month, and remained there for the rest of the season, except the penultimate match, when hopes were raised of escaping the drop. However, our fate was sealed by a 2-4 defeat at Barnsley, when a draw would have sufficed to remain in Division 3.

Every visit to London seemed to end in disaster: 2-7 at Crystal Palace, 0-6 at QPR, 1-4 at Watford. There was a brief revival in March, but it was a false dawn as a lot of the team at that time seemed out of their depth against former top level players.

I particularly remember the game against Hull City two weeks before the Lincoln match. Not only was this George Allen's debut after signing from Birmingham, but also Hull had some excellent players including Chris Chilton and Ken Houghton and none other than Doug Clarke, with whom Allen coped really well.

This was a really good win against an experienced team, and the result if anything slightly flattered Hull because of a late own goal by Alan Smith. Here we go, I thought, we'll be steaming up the table now. Plus ca change.

The only other problem was that I missed half the game after rushing down to Plymouth to get tickets for their FA Cup tie the following week against Tottenham Hotspur. No way was I going to miss the chance of a lifetime, at that point in my spectating career, to see the greatest team of the era in action.

And so on to the Lincoln City game, which I would have no hesitation in describing as "Albert Broadbent's match". Torquay actually went ahead quite early on and the records say that Ernie Pym scored, however I have no recollection of it all.

For the first 20 mintes or so, Broadbent got no change out of Colin Bettany, but then began to roam right across the back of the front line with devastating effect. Bettany, with no-one to mark, seemed to have no idea what to do or where to go, and I have never seen him looking so uncertain.

Before we knew what was happening, Lincoln were 3-1 ahead and this was the score at half time. Albert Broadbent had completely turned the game round for them and also scored with a thumping shot from a long way out. His movement, build and style of play was most reminiscent of Jan Ceulemans, the Belgian winger cum forward of the 1990s.

The second half continued in the same vein, but Torquay somehow clawed their way back into the game with a header by Brian Handley and a volley by Gordon Astall.

We could even have snatched a draw right at the end, but Handley, an uncoordinated version of Peter Crouch, somehow managed to knee the ball over the bar from about three feet in front of an open goal. I don't suppose it would have been much consolation to him that even a point from the game would not have saved us from relegation.

Albert Broadbent spent only two half seasons with Lincoln and was better known as a Doncaster Rovers player. He came back to haunt us a few years later, in fact the week before the famous United v Spurs cup match, with a similar performance in a 4-2 win for Rovers.

It's curious how certain players stick in the memory over the years when they produce either brilliant or unorthodox displays of football. Broadbent is certainly right up there in terms of influential performances in the hundreds of games I have watched.