Plymouth Argyle Football Club is an English association football club based in Plymouth, Devon. Founded in 1886 as Argyle Football Club,[2] they became a professional club in January 1903,[3] and were elected to the Southern League ahead of the 1903–04 season. The club won the Southern League championship in 1913 and finished as runners-up on two occasions,[4] before being elected to the Football League in 1920, where they compete to this day,[5] as a founder member of the Third Division.[6] Argyle won their first Football League championship, and promotion to the Second Division for the first time, ten years later in 1930.[7] As of May 2011, the club has won five championships in the Football League, gained promotion on eight occasions, and been relegated nine times.[8] Four of those league championships were won in the third tier, which is a divisional record.[9] Argyle have made one appearance at Wembley Stadium, in which they won the 1996 Third Division play-off final.[10] The club has also achieved moderate success in domestic cup competitions; they reached the semi-finals of the FA Cup in 1984,[11][12] and the quarter-finals in 2007.[13][14] Argyle have also reached the semi-finals of the League Cup twice, in 1965 and 1974.[15][16]
Since introducing professionalism, more than 900 players have made a competitive first team appearance for the club. All players who have featured in 100 or more such matches are listed below. The club's all-time appearance record is held by Kevin Hodges, who made 620 appearances for Argyle between 1978 and 1992.[17] Nine other players have made at least 400 appearances for the club, with the two most recent being born and raised in Plymouth; Mickey Evans and Paul Wotton, with the latter being the club's most successful captain.[18] The all-time goalscoring record is held by Sammy Black,[19] who scored 184 times between 1924 and 1938. He is also second on the all-time appearance list, having played in 491 matches for Argyle. Four other players have scored at least 100 goals for the club, with the most recent being Tommy Tynan.[20] As of 2010, Tony Capaldi is the club's most capped international player,[21] having made 21 appearances for Northern Ireland during his Argyle career.[22] Eight players have gone on to become the club's manager; including caretakers, 11 former players have held responsibility for first-team selection.[23] Rory Fallon is the only player listed who has represented his country at the World Cup while with the club.[24] He scored the goal that secured New Zealand's place in the 2010 tournament,[25] and played in all three of their matches in the group stage.[26]
Capaldi for Northern Ireland
was invoked but never defined (see the help page).