Micky Evans

Today there is a glowing tribute to Trigger on the official website. Quite right too.

The legend that is Micky Evans has decided that it is time for him to go. Whether he intends to hang his boots up or not is not made clear so we can only assume that he intends to play on elsewhere should he receive an offer.

A sad day, really. I realise that the time comes for them all but Trigger has been there so long he's part of the furniture. He has played in some of the grearest ever Argyle occasions and scored some of my favourite all-time goals and is still our record transfer fee recieved (£650K from Southampton).

He was there at Wembley, The Battle Of Saltergate and the recent two Championship titles. That sending off v. Luton. In fact he is the most promoted ever Pilgrim. He's in the top 10 goal scorers for the club and top 10 most appearances. I'll add some proper stats at a later date.

My favourite goals?

5. Lob/volley over the Coventry goalie from 25 yards.
4. The back heel against Wycombe.
3. The goal against Swindon where he knocked it in off their goalie. Trigger's goal in all but name. And even then it nearly was - Evans o.g.
2. The volley in the 2nd minute v. Colchester in the play offs.
1. That header v. QPR.

The only cloud at this time seems to be the unrealistic contract offer made to him by the club for another season. It may only be a rumour but it taints what should be a very special send off in the final game of the season v. Ipswich on Sunday.

Thanks for the memories and good luck in the future.

Gate Receipts

This is going to tie together a couple of earlier themes: What Next? and Football On The Telly - A Rant.

Inspired by a piece in JBE's blog about greed and the so-called G14 I was reminded of a question that popped up on P@soti recently: When did the home team start keeping all the gate receipts?

He goes...

Mike Sainsbury (I'm sure he won't mind being quoted):

I see your point. Problem with this, of course, is that it doesn't help the club at all. I can't remember now when/why the rules were changed and the away side no longer took a share of the gate receipts. With our larger than average away support, this is yet another example of how we get stuffed. In this case its a double whammy, because our remoteness means we don't benefit from big away attendances at HP.

Me:

This was the first step, a toe in the water to feel the temperature if you like, taken by the big clubs but led by Mancester United (natch) to keep all of the cake for themselves. The move pre-dated the formation of the PL and so was sanctioned by the Football League (hence it applied across the board in all 4 top flight divisions). Manyoo just couldn't see why they should share their huge gate reciepts with the likes of little Swindon (or whoever was the smallest Div 1 club at the time) when they got naff all back in return when they went there. Once the gate money was stitched up and the big clubs had trampled all over the Football League they decided to go for the TV money. The FL wouldn't agree, the top clubs resigned, formed the PL and affiliated themselves to the FA. The rest I'm sure you know.

Well you'll know it if you read the Football On The Telly bit in this blog anyway or if you have half a brain yourself. If you've not seen either of the pieces referred to here now go and read them. JBE's blog can be found among the links on mine or under "The Rev" amongst the links on P@soti.