Paul Fairclough decided to start with an attacking formation with loan signings Sam Deering and Anthony Pulis starting together in midfield.
It was the home side who started the match the better side, and after 5 minutes Clovis Kamdjo was able to find space from an acute angle before shooting wide.
As Barnet continued to see possession in their opponents half, some more good play from Kamdjo down the right hand touchline saw a good low cross spilled by Torquay goalkeeper Danny Potter but Mark Marshall couldn’t react to the loose ball quick enough.
After 24 minutes, it was Torquay who took the lead. Joe Devera couldn’t handle Lathaniel Rowe-Turner in the penalty area and the 21 year old Torquay defender was able to fire into the corner of the net from 12 yards out to score his first ever goal in professional football.
But perhaps the biggest turning point of the match came just five minutes later when the home side were reduced to ten men. Chris Zebroski and Anthony Pulis were both chasing the ball which Zebroski ended up winning, only for Pulis to go in with a reckless to footed challenge that left the referee with no option but to send the Barnet debutant off.
The rest of the first half swung in Torquay’s favour and after 41 minutes, Jake Robinson had a crashing shot parried by Jake Cole in the Barnet goal. Minutes later, Cole was called into action again when Zebroski produced a low shot from 25 yards which was well blocked by the former Queens Park Rangers keeper low down to his right.
After the interval, Paul Fairclough decided to reshape his team and replaced Sam Deering with Glen Southam.
After 52 minutes, Southam was involved in a big moment of the match when his ball was played over the top into the path of Izale McLeod who was pulled down by Craig Stanley, but the referee only showed a yellow card to the defender. From the resulting free kick, Danny Potter was easily able to hold onto Tommy Fraser’s effort.
With 54 minutes on the clock, Mark Marshall had a huge opportunity to get the equalizer. Marshall picked to ball up with 35 yards from goal and produced a brilliant weaving run before setting himself up for a shot from 10 yards out that he disappointingly dragged wide.
Barnet continued to press and with half an hour of the match remaining, Jordan Parkes produced a lingering cross which was eventually headed over by Tommy Fraser.
After seeing off that pressure, The Gulls began to push for a second goal and when a corner was scrambled away and eventually found its way to Billy Key on the edge of the area and his shot was eventually saved by Cole.
The Devon side eventually did double the advantage. A pinpoint ball from Ryan Gilligan was given to Key who took his shot first time and he was able to see the ball roll past the diving Cole and into the bottom right hand corner.
Even that wasn’t enough for the away side who got their third in injury time after some good play to see of Kamdjo by Chris Zebroski led to the Torquay fan favourite finishing well inside the near post to put the icing on the cake.
After Stockport’s win at home against Bury, Barnet ended the day propping the entire Football League up and now face two tricky away matches at Cheltenham Town and Southend United respectively.
Man of the Match: Billy Key