Plymouth Argyle F.C..html |
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| Full name | Plymouth Argyle Football Club | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Nickname(s) | The Pilgrims, The Greens, Argyle, The Green Army |
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| Founded | 1886 as Argyle F.C. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Ground | Home Park Plymouth Devon, England (Capacity: 19,5001) |
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| Chairman |  Paul Stapleton |
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| Manager |  Paul Sturrock |
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| League | The Championship | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2007-08 | The Championship, 10th | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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- For details of the current season, see Plymouth Argyle F.C. season 2008-09
Plymouth Argyle Football Club, commonly known as Argyle, or the Pilgrims, is an English professional football club and is one of only two clubs in the Football League to play in a principally green home strip. (The other is Yeovil Town). It is the most southern and western league club, yet this has not stopped the Green Army (the colloquial name for Argyle fans) travelling in large numbers,citation needed despite the nearest away fixture for the 2007-08 season being 116 miles away in Bristol and the furthest being Norwich at 358 miles.
The club takes its nickname from the group of English Separatists that left Plymouth for the New World in 1620. The club crest features the Mayflower, the London-based ship, which carried the pilgrims to Massachusetts. The club mascot is named Pilgrim Pete.
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History
Foundation and formation
The club was founded in 1886 as Argyle Football Club, the first match taking place against Dunheved College (now Launceston College) in Launceston where many of the club's first members had been educated. They played several friendlies against local rivals, Plymouth United F.C., possibly the first ever football team to have the 'United' suffix. Poor performance on the pitch led to it going out of existence in 1894 before being resurrected in 1897. In 1898 it became one part of a general sports club, the Argyle Athletic Club. Much speculation and rumour surrounds the origin of the name Argyle. One explanation is that they were named after the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, an army regiment with a strong football side of its own. Another theory is given the respective geographical placements - suggests the name comes either from the nearby public house, The Argyle Tavern, where the founder members may have met, or the local street named Argyle Terrace.2
The club adopted its current name when it became fully professional in 1903 joining the Southern League. Argyle's first professional game was on September 1, 19033 against West Ham United resulting in a 2-0 win for Argyle with the first goal being scored by Jack Peddie. In 1920 Argyle entered the Football League Third Division as a founder member. Uniquely, between 1921-22 and 1926-27, they finished second in the Third Division South six seasons in a row, thereby missing promotion.
1984 cup run and 1987 promotion challenge
In 1984 Plymouth reached the FA Cup semi-final despite being in the Third Division. After a successful cup run in which they beat West Bromwich Albion, a top division team at the time, and Derby County, they lost to Watford in the semi-final. Three years later they finished seventh in the Second Division, just missing the division's new playoff zone and the chance to move to the First Division. But they were unable to keep up their good form, and were relegated in 1992 despite the appointment of legendary goalkeeper Peter Shilton as player-manager.
1995 relegation to Division Three
Shilton guided Plymouth to third place in in the new Division Two during the 1993-94 season, but they lost to eventual winners Burnley in the semi-finals. Their form slumped the following season and they were relegated a short time after Shilton left the club to be replaced (on a short-term deal) by player Steve McCall. McCall's contract was not renewed and in came Neil Warnock as his successor.
Up, then down again
Warnock took Plymouth to Division Three playoff glory in his first season as manager, but he was sacked within a year as the club narrowly avoided being relegated back to the basement division. They went down a year later under Warnock's successor Mick Jones, and Jones's successor Kevin Hodges lasted three years before a failure to attain promotion (or even a playoff place) cost him his job.
The Sturrock Revolution
The appointment of Paul Sturrock as manager in November 2000 marked a turning point in Argyle's history. After saving the club from relegation out of the Football League (they were 4th from bottom when he became manager), they finished 11th in his first season, and then collected a club and league record of 102 points to clinch the Division Three title in 2002 and gain promotion to Division Two. They narrowly missed out on the Division Two playoffs in 2003. Sturrock moved to Southampton in March 2004. Promotion as Division Two champions was sealed weeks later, perhaps uniquely, in Plymouth's first game under the management of Bobby Williamson.
Plymouth in the Championship
Williamson was never very popular with a large portion of Plymouth fans, who found it difficult to accept that Paul Sturrock had left the club.citation needed Williamson was sacked during the start of the 2005-06 Championship season after starting off the season with six straight losses. Williamson's tenure lasted just 18 months before he made way for Tony Pulis. Pulis was on his way out of the exit door in even less time, returning to Stoke at the end of the season to make way for Ian Holloway.
Plymouth made a strong start to the 2006-07 Championship campaign, and were soon looking capable of qualifying for the playoffs. The January transfer window saw considerable activity in the transfer market with the arrival of Hungarians Krisztián Timár and Péter Halmosi (initially on loan but both signed permanently in May 2007 as part of an option to buy arrangement), the signing of Rory Fallon from Swansea City, and Kevin Gallen and Scott Sinclair on loan from QPR and Chelsea respectively. Although they finished February in 12th place, a wide gap opened up between them and the teams in the top six, making their promotion bid more difficult than it had appeared earlier in the season. Despite this disappointment, the team made significantly better progress than in recent seasons in the FA Cup, reaching the quarter-finals after beating Championship league leaders Derby County in the 5th round. In the quarter finals of the FA Cup, they were drawn at home to Premiership strugglers Watford, but lost out to a Hameur Bouazza strike against the run of play. After a run of five consecutive wins, Argyle finished the 2006-07 in 11th place, their highest league finish for 20 years.
In late 2006, Viz magazine published a one-off comic strip, "The Pirates of Plymouth Argyle", depicting Plymouth Argyle as a shipload of 18th-century pirates. Several of the characters in this strip were given the names of then-current players on the real Plymouth Argyle team.
Plymouth made a good start to the 2007-08 season, staying near the playoff places for the first few months. However, on 21 November 2007 Ian Holloway resigned to take charge of Leicester City.
On 27 November 2007 Paul Sturrock resigned from Swindon Town to rejoin Plymouth Argyle, and guided the Pilgrims to 10th place in the final table, continuing the club's unprecedented record of improving their league position every season since the turn of the millennium.4
In the FA Cup 2007-08, they had the honour of being the only team to score against Portsmouth, the eventual winners.
However, despite the positive run under Sturrock, the following season started poorly for the Pilgrims. But form soon picked up with a 5 game unbeaten run as Sturrock's new Argyle side began to come together
Stadium
The original ground of the professional club at Home Park, was destroyed by German bombers during The Blitz on Plymouth in World War II. Having been rebuilt after the war, Home Park was largely demolished as part of an extensive process of renovation, and the first phase of a new stadium built by Barrs plc was completed in May 2002. The new Devonport End was opened for the 2001 Boxing Day fixture with Torquay United. The other end, the Barn Park End opened on the same day. The Lyndhurst stand reopened on 26 January 2002 for the game against Oxford United. Plans are currently under discussion regarding the completion of the refurbishment of the ground with the replacement of the Mayflower stand. The club is situated in Central Park, very near to the residential area of Peverell. Towards the end of the 2005/06 English Coca-Cola Championship season the club decided to buy the stadium for £2.7 million from Plymouth City Council, releasing the ground from a 125-year lease. This purchase was concluded in December 2006.
In the summer of 2007, Argyle's failure to persuade the UK authorities 5 of the case for retaining a standing terrace decided to add 3,500 temporary seats to the Mayflower enclosure 6. This is likely to drop the capacity to just under 20,000 from the previous 20,922 (an exact figure is not yet available) for the 2007/08 season.
Away from Home Park, in the 2004/5 the Argyle fanbase, known as the Green Army, were voted as being the best away fans in the Football League, due to both the numbers travelling and the distance that Argyle's geographical isolation necessitates.
Rivalries
The club's traditional rivals are fellow Devon sides Exeter City and Torquay United, Bristol City (sometimes referred to as "The Turnips") and Portsmouth F.C. (the Plymouth-Portsmouth game is known as the Dockyard Derby). The last competitive meeting between Argyle and Exeter was held in 2002 at Home Park in a league game when Argyle won 3-0 and the rivalry between Argyle and their fellow Devon clubs has been blunted in recent years as Torquay and Exeter have been playing in lower divisions. A distinct rivalry arose between Argyle and Luton Town F.C. after inflammatory comments made by Joe Kinnear who was manager of The Hatters during the 2001-02 promotion season, although this mutual antipathy has now largely abated. Similarly, after the departure of Ian Holloway to Leicester City in November 2007 a noticeable mutual dislike arose, culminating in Argyle's 1-0 victory at the Walkers Stadium in early February 2008 .
Players
- As of 9 September 2008.
Current squad
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Players out on loan
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Reserves
The Plymouth Argyle Reserves play in the Pontin's Holidays Combination. The club also entered a team in the South Western League, but withdrew from that competition in 2007.
Player of the Year
Since 1966 the player of the season award has been given by Plymouth Argyle fans to the best player of the past season.
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Team of the century
For the centenary celebrations, an all time best team of Plymouth Argyle players was chosen by fans of the club.7
| 1 | |
GK | Jim Furnell |
| 2 | |
DF | Gordon Nisbet |
| 3 | |
DF | Jack Chisholm |
| 4 |  |
DF | Graham Coughlan |
| 5 | |
DF | Colin Sullivan |
| 6 | |
MF | Ernie Machin |
| 7 | |
MF | Kevin Hodges |
| 8 | |
MF | Johnny Williams |
| 9 | |
FW | Paul Mariner |
| 10 | |
FW | Tommy Tynan |
| 11 | |
MF | Sammy Black & |
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MF | Garry Nelson |
Manager: Paul Sturrock
Notable Former Players
Fred Binney- Jack Cock
- Jack Robinson
Sammy Black- Paul Mariner
- Bill Harper
Bruce Grobbelaar- John Hope Peddie
- David Jack
Archie Goodall- Jack Leslie
- Forbes Phillipson-Masters
- Billy Rafferty
- Tommy Tynan
- Peter Shilton
- Andy Morrison
Taribo West
Mickey Evans
David Friio- Paul Wotton
Peter Halmosi- Ákos Buzsáky
Club officials
Boardroom
- Chairman: Paul Stapleton
- Vice Chairman: Robert Dennerly
- Board of Directors: Phillip Gill, Tony Wrathall,
Yasuaki Kagami - Chief Executive: Michael Dunford
- President/Ambassador: Yasuhiko Okudera
Management
- Manager: Paul Sturrock
- Assistant Manager: Kevin Summerfield
- First Team Coach: John Blackley
- Goalkeeping Coach: Geoff Crudgington
- Chief Scout: Andy King
- Physio and FA Fitness Coach: Paul Maxwell
- Youth Team Physio: Claire Turner
- Head of Youth Development: Gordon Bennett
- Head of Youth Coaching: Mike Pejic
- Centre of Excellence Manager: Allan Evans
- Youth Development Officer/Youth Scout: John James
- Kit Manager: Ian Leigh
Managerial history
Team managers of Plymouth Argyle and the dates they took over.