Michael Evans (footballer)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Personal information
Michael Evans
Full name	Michael James Evans
Date of birth	January 1, 1973 (age 34)
Place of birth	Plymouth, England
Height	6 ft 0 in
Nickname	Trigger
Playing position	Striker
Club information
Current club	Retired
Senior clubs¹
Years	Club	App (Gls)*
1991-1997 1992 1997-1998 1998-2000 2000-2001 2001-2006 2006	Plymouth Argyle Blackburn Rovers (On loan) Southampton West Bromwich Albion Bristol Rovers Plymouth Argyle Torquay United	162 (39) 0 (0) 22 (4) 63 (6) 21 (4) 176 (31) 14 (1)
National team²
1997	Ireland	1 (0)
¹ Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of November 26, 2006. ² National team caps and goals correct as of November 26, 2006. * Appearances (Goals)

For other persons named Michael Evans, see Michael Evans (disambiguation).

Michael (Mickey) Evans (born 1 January 1973) is a former professional footballer. Nicknamed "Trigger" after a character from Only Fools and Horses, Evans is a striker who last played for Devon club Torquay United, but also had spells with Southampton, West Brom, Bristol Rovers and spent a large part of his footballing career at Plymouth Argyle.

Despite being born and bred in Plymouth and living in Britain for most of his life, he has one cap for the Republic of Ireland.

1 Playing career
2 Honours won as a player
3 External Links
4 References

[edit] Playing career

[edit] Plymouth Argyle

Evans originally joined Plymouth Argyle in December 1987 as an associate schoolboy, and signed as a professional in March 1991.

He was a member of Neil Warnock's Plymouth side which won promotion from the Third Division via the play-offs in 1996. Following that success, in March 1997 he was signed by Graeme Souness at Southampton for £650,000.

[edit] Southampton

Souness signed Evans to add a bit of muscle to the forward line as Southampton entered the final lap of a desperate fight to avoid relegation from the Premier League in the 1996-97 season.

He was a big and brave striker and scored four crucial goals as Saints successfully beat the drop, finishing in 16th position. His greatest game in a Saints shirt came at Nottingham Forest's City Ground, where he scored a brace. For the second goal, he sprinted from the half-way line, taking a pass from Eyal Berkovic to beat goalkeeper Mark Crossley who could only half block the shot.

He followed this up with 2 more goals against West Ham United and Coventry City, and his form in April 1997 was such that he was awarded the Premiership Player-of-the-Month Trophy.

The following season, Souness had been replaced as Saints' manager by Dave Jones and Evans lost his place to Kevin Davies. Although he was to make a handful of appearances in the 1997-98 season, his career at The Dell only lasted just over 6 months and in October 1997 he moved on to West Bromwich Albion for a fee of £750,000.

A few days before his transfer to The Hawthorns, he won a Republic of Ireland cap against Romania.

[edit] West Bromwich Albion and Bristol Rovers

He spent largely unsuccessful spells at West Brom and Bristol Rovers before returning to Plymouth as one of the first signings of Paul Sturrock.

[edit] Back to Plymouth

Although not a prolific goalscorer, Evans played an important role in the Pilgrims' recent success; in particular his hold-up play and lay-offs created numerous goalscoring opportunities for his teammates. He scored the opening goal in Argyle's 4-1 Third Division Championship sealing victory at Darlington in the 2001-02 season.

He was named Argyle's "Player of the Year" during their title-winning Division Two campaign in 2003-04. He scored the opening goal in the 2-0 home victory over Q.P.R which was decisive in confirming Plymouth Argyle as that season's Division 2 champions.

The 33-year-old Plymothian announced his decision to leave Plymouth Argyle, saying "the time is right for me to move on", with effect from the Pilgrims' final Championship game of the season on Sunday 30 April 2006.

Evans scored the winning goal with a "diving header" in his last appearance for Plymouth Argyle against Ipswich Town, to secure the club a 14th place finish in the Football League Championship (the highest finish for the club in two decades) and forever sealing his status as a Plymouth Argyle legend amongst the club's fans.

[edit] Torquay United

On 18 May 2006 Evans signed on a free transfer for local rivals Torquay United. On November 24, 2006, he decided to retire from professional football ^[1], a decision coinciding with a period of deep unrest among Torquay United's players.