Michael Evans

Three promotions, two spells – only one Michael Evans. 

Plymothian Evans made his Argyle debut in 1990, aged 17, and sporadically played over the next three seasons, but it was in 1993/94 when he truly began to break through. Shortly after Christmas in the that season, with Argyle playing free-flowing attacking football under Peter Shilton, Dwight Marshall got injured, opening a space for Evans to burst through. 

In 12 starts from February onwards, Evans scored eight times and, although Argyle did not obtain promotion, Michael had arrived. Although not a regular in the tempestuous relegation season of 1994/95, he was central to Argyle’s bounce back in 1995/96, leading the line as the Greens won promotion via a Wembley play-off final. Evans scored in a memorable semi-final encounter against Colchester United at Home Park. 

The following season, continuing to impress and getting into double figures of goals, Evans moved to Premier League Southampton, and made an immediate splash. He arrived in March 1997; by the season’s end he had scored four times, Southampton had stayed up against the odds, and Evans was the top flight’s player of the month for April. 

He won one Republic of Ireland cap, moved on to West Bromwich Albion and then Bristol Rovers, before Paul Sturrock moved to bring the man affectionately known as Trigger home. 

When Evans returned to Home Park, in March 2001, the Greens were stagnating in the bottom division. When he left, just over five years later, they had become established in the second tier. 

Evans was central to it all. He led the line for the impressive 2001/02 title win, and then again for much of 2003/04, when he was named Player of the Year. His goal against QPR, leaping to head home in front of the Devonport End to open the scoring on a day when Argyle achieved their second promotion in three seasons, will forever be one of the club’s great memories. 

In the Championship, it felt like a weekly occurrence that opposition managers praised the contribution of Evans as unfashionable Argyle found their feet in the second tier. 

By the final game of the 2005/06 season, it was known that Evans was leaving, and he had not scored since September – but in one of football’s beautiful stories, on his 435th and final game in green and white, he scored the winning goal against Ipswich Town, and bade farewell to the Green Army that adored him.