History of Plymouth Argyle F.C.

His effective style, precise judgement, accurate and timely clearances, powerful kicking and no less useful work with his head...one of the most wonderful backs and one of the brainiest players ever seen on the football field."

The Greens were actually 3–0 up at one stage (thanks to goals from Mike Dowling, Derek Rickard and Jimmy Hinch) but a penalty scored at the Barn Park End by Pelé helped a Santos fightback.

In the 1990s a new face took over the club: Businessman Dan McCauley became chairman, and his first major decision was to sack Dave Kemp and appoint England's record cap holder Peter Shilton as player-manager in the 1991–92 season.

Player Steve McCall became the club's manager on a short-term deal after Shilton's departure, but at the end of the season his contract was not renewed and Neil Warnock stepped in as his successor.

Mick Jones became his successor, and, that season, in February 1997 Argyle participated in 'The Battle of Saltergate' – in a 1–2 win at Chesterfield, an 88th minute fight broke out, involving all 20 outfield players.

The following season Argyle went down under Jones, and his successor Kevin Hodges (the club's record appearance holder) lasted three years before a failure to attain promotion (or even a play-off place) cost him his job.

On 17 November, Plymouth faced non-League Whitby Town in the FA Cup first round and were held to a 1–1 draw, and only just beat them 3–2 in the replay at Home Park.

His assistant, Jocky Scott, became caretaker manager, but his reign started with a 2–0 loss at Norwich City, before gaining a 1–1 draw at Home Park against fellow relegation rivals Crewe Alexandra.

But the turning point in Argyle's season was on 1 October, and was a 2–1 win at home to Pulis's former club Stoke City, as Hungarian international Akos Buzsaky scored a 77th-minute winner.

Argyle's biggest win of the season was a 3–1 success at home to Coventry City, and that game also saw on-loan striker Vincent Pericard score a hat trick on his full debut.

Some memorable results for the Green Army that season was the 2–0 win against high-flying Wolverhampton Wanderers and a 0–0 draw at Leeds United, who went on to reach the play-off final at the Millennium Stadium but lost 3–0 to Watford.

But their form dipped in the second half of the season–after 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.

But Argyle only won one of their final seven games, meaning that they missed out on the play-offs but finished 10th–continuing the club's unprecedented record of improving their league position every season since the turn of the millennium.

At a packed press conference on 2 July 2009, Sir Roy Gardner took over the chairman's role with Keith Todd CBE, Yasuaki Kagami and George Synan appointed as board directors.

Former player Paul Mariner was appointed the club's head coach in late October, after assistant manager Kevin Summerfield left when told that his current contract would not be renewed.

Paul Sturrock's second stint in charge came to an end on 10 December 2009, when a press conference confirmed he was relieved of his managerial duties due to two years of poor results and fan unrest and had taken up a 'business-support' role, working alongside Director and Chief Executive, Keith Todd.

However, Mariner lost his first two games–his first fixture resulted in a 2–0 loss at Preston North End and then Argyle were defeated 1–0 at home to Coventry, leaving the Pilgrims bottom of the table and six points adrift of safety.

They then lost 0–1 against second place West Bromwich Albion, however new loan signing David Stockdale did save a late penalty to restore some pride for Argyle.

But Stockdale, on loan from Fulham, was unable to save Shane Long's last-gasp spot kick at the Madejski Stadium, as the Pilgrims lost 2–1 at relegation rivals Reading.

Hugo Colace gave Barnsley the lead just before half-time, but Argyle responded well in the second period, and on 64 minutes team captain Carl Fletcher equalised with a strike from just inside the box.

But the Greens' good run failed to continue after an unlucky 4–3 defeat at Sheffield United (Argyle were 3–0 down before coming back to 3–2, but then went 4–2 down before the game finished 4–3), a 1–1 draw at home to Preston North End and a 2–0 loss at fellow strugglers Queens Park Rangers.

Yet again, Argyle's run was halted after a 2–1 defeat at fellow strugglers Scunthorpe United, but they then impressively won 0–2 away at Ipswich thanks to goals from Bradley Wright-Phillips and Joe Mason to move within three points of safety.

Peter Reid's career at Argyle got off to a good start as his team beat title favourites Southampton at St Mary's Stadium on the opening day of the season.

Three days later, after their financial incident, Argyle picked up a memorable victory – arguably their best performance of the season resulted in them beating fierce Devon rivals Exeter City 2–0 at Home Park, in a league fixture.

[10] On 4 January, Argyle propelled themselves up to 12th in League One – their highest position since August – after coming from 2 – 0 down at half-time to beat Westcountry rivals Bristol Rovers 2 – 3, thanks to goals from Bradley Wright-Phillips, Joe Mason and Stéphane Zubar.

[16] Plymouth had a poor start to the season, as a result Peter Reid was sacked on 18 September, whilst bottom of the League Two, with midfielder Carl Fletcher taking over as caretaker manager.

[24] The team's form greatly improved after the takeover, and while the eventual League finish of 21st was the lowest in the club's history, they still secured survival with three games to spare, which was quite an achievement considering they had been well adrift at the bottom for the first half of the campaign.

[30] The form of top goalscorer Freddie Ladapo was the shining light in a disappointing first half of the season, with a stand-out low point of a 5–1 defeat away to Luton Town.

[31] An injury to Letheren and a stop–start March followed with Argyle winning late on against Shrewsbury Town at home, before giving away a 2–1 and then a 2–0 lead to Bristol Rovers and then Blackpool in the dying minutes to draw both matches.

[32] Ahead of the 2019–20 season, Hallett appointed Ryan Lowe as Derek Adams' successor, signing the then 40-year-old Liverpudlian and his assistant manager Steven Schumacher from newly promoted but financially troubled Bury.