MENTION THE NAME of Robin Stubbs to anybody connected with Aldershot Town FC in the 'Swinging Sixties', and they'd almost certainly break out in a cold sweat.

Torquay United's centre-forward terrorised the Shots' defence, and today's edition of United's Greatest Games may highlight one match in particular, but actually covers a remarkable period in Torquay's history and Stubbs' own career.

On Boxing Day 1964 United beat Aldershot 5-2 at Plainmoor, with Stubbs scoring FOUR goals.

Two months later United travelled to the Recreation Ground and repeated the scoreline – they won 5-2 again and this time Stubbs hit THREE.

As if scoring seven goals against one side in the same season wasn't enough, Stubbs then hit the net in both games the following year, making a tally of NINE goals in four matches against the Shots.

They must have been relieved that United won promotion in 1965-66 and left them behind in the old Fourth Division.

Stubbs' goalscoring in his first four seasons, after signing from Birmingham City in the summer of 1963, seems barely credible by modern standards.

Here goes:

1963-64 – 25 goals in 37 games

1964-65 – 39 goals in 45 games

1965-66 – 17 goals in 37 games

1966-67 – 22 goals in 44 games

During that salvo of scoring, much of it done alongside the late Tommy Northcott, Stubbs scored FIVE, a club record, in an 8-3 home rout of Newport County in October 1963.

He also scored another four in a 5-2 victory over Walsall at Plainmoor in September 1966.

But it was during those first two golden seasons that Stubbs really ran riot.

From September to December 1963 he hit 19 goals in 17 games.

And the following year, October 1964 to January 1965, he scored 21 in 18 games.

Three of them, of course, came in the unforgettable FA Cup Third Round tie with Spurs in January 1965, when he scored twice in a 3-3 draw at Plainmoor and once in the replay at White Hart Lane.

All of it was done with a mixture of pace, power and opportunism which made him virtually unstoppable when he was on top form.

And, as befitted a young man who enjoyed life off the pitch as much as on it, it was also done with a smile on his face.

Robin, a hale and hearty 70 and still living in retirement in Torquay, remembers that Boxing Day hammering of Aldershot – and a little 'boost' he had beforehand.

"It was a morning kick-off in those days, eleven o'clock I think, and on the way up to Plainmoor I called in on a friend," he said.

"I did have a glass of sherry, shall we say, while I was there – well, it was Christmas after all!

"I remember it was a crisp winter's day, and the pitch was just zippy on top, perfect for me.

"We always used to really go at teams from the kick-off.

"After only a few minutes John Benson lifted a ball down the side of a defender, I got onto it and hit a cracking shot with my left foot.

"It took a slight deflection and flew over the 'keeper.

"I never looked back after that.

"I even flicked my head at a shot by Trevor Wolstenholme, and that flew in as well."

Stubbs does have one regret about that 39-goal season.

"I was chasing Sammy Collins' club record of 42 goals (1955-56), and I might have done it if I hadn't chipped a bone in my ankle.

"I had to miss the last five games of that season."

Robins also recalls how his previous campaign (1963-64) was interrupted by serious illness.

He'd scored 20 goals by Christmas, before two holiday games against Oxford United away and home.

"I had a temperature for the game up there and didn't feel right," he said.

"I was seeing two or three balls at times, went for one of them in front of goal and ended up heading their goalie in the throat.

"Ron Atkinson (future Aston Villa and Manchester United manager) took umbrage, and we both got sent off.

"I played in the home game against them a couple of days later and then keeled over during dinner at the Redcliffe Hotel (Paignton) in the evening.

"By the next morning I had a temperature of 107F, an ambulance was called and I was carted off to Torbay Hospital with pleurisy and pneumonia.

"I was out for a month, a shame really because I was going quite well at the time."