List of Plymouth Argyle F.C. players

A man wearing a football shirt.
Bob Jack became the club's first professional player in 1903.[1]

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]

  1. ^ Danes (2009), Complete Record, pp. 144–145.
  2. ^ Danes (2009), Complete Record, pp. 10–11.
  3. ^ Danes (2009), Complete Record, pp. 14–15.
  4. ^ Cowdery & Curno (2009), Miscellany, p. 42.
  5. ^ "Plymouth Argyle". The Football League. 1 August 2010. Retrieved 4 August 2010.
  6. ^ "Plymouth Argyle" Archived 2008-06-14 at the Wayback Machine. Football Club History Database. Richard Rundle. Retrieved 12 October 2010.
  7. ^ Danes (2009), Complete Record, pp. 23–24.
  8. ^ "Plymouth Argyle" Archived 2011-07-17 at the Wayback Machine. Statto. Retrieved 8 August 2010.
  9. ^ "Past winners" Archived 2014-07-17 at the Wayback Machine . The Football League. 5 August 2008. Retrieved 8 August 2010.
  10. ^ "Pilgrims progress" Archived 1 December 2017 at the Wayback Machine. The Independent. Rupert Metcalf. 26 May 1996. Retrieved 4 August 2010.
  11. ^ Danes (2009), Complete Record, pp. 71–72.
  12. ^ "Where are they now?" Archived 29 March 2007 at the Wayback Machine. BBC Sport. Chris Bevan; Chris Charles. 8 March 2007. Retrieved 8 August 2010.
  13. ^ "Argyle 0–1 Watford" Archived 2012-09-15 at the Wayback Machine . Plymouth Argyle. 11 March 2007. Retrieved 8 August 2010.
  14. ^ "Plymouth 0–1 Watford" Archived 23 March 2007 at the Wayback Machine. BBC Sport. Mandeep Sanghera. 11 March 2007. Retrieved 8 August 2010.
  15. ^ "1964–65 results" Archived 2012-03-27 at the Wayback Machine. Statto. Retrieved 8 August 2010.
  16. ^ "1973–74 results" Archived 2012-03-27 at the Wayback Machine. Statto. Retrieved 8 August 2010.
  17. ^ "Kevin Hodges profile" Archived 2012-09-05 at the Wayback Machine . Plymouth Argyle. 19 October 2009. Retrieved 7 September 2010.
  18. ^ Danes (2009), Complete Record, pp. 124–125.
  19. ^ Danes (2009), Complete Record, p. 84.
  20. ^ "Tommy Tynan" Archived 2012-08-29 at the Wayback Machine . Plymouth Argyle. 16 November 2009. Retrieved 7 September 2010.
  21. ^ "Tony Capaldi returns to Argyle for trial" Archived 2010-07-17 at the Wayback Machine . The Plymouth Herald. 16 July 2010. Retrieved 18 August 2010.
  22. ^ Cite error: The named reference Capaldi for Northern Ireland was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  23. ^ Cowdery & Curno (2009), Miscellany, p. 45.
  24. ^ "Rory Fallon profile". International Federation of Association Football. Retrieved 7 September 2010.
  25. ^ "Rory Fallon – New Zealand's new sporting hero" Archived 27 April 2019 at the Wayback Machine. BBC Sport. Paul Fletcher. 1 December 2009. Retrieved 12 October 2010.
  26. ^ "Rory Fallon profile" Archived 2010-11-30 at the Wayback Machine . New Zealand Football. Retrieved 12 October 2010.