TAXI FOR KLOPP!
Scouser Tommy Tynan became a Plymouth legend and now the cabbie hopes it’s...
APlymouth Argyle supporter shields his young son from the icy wind lashing home Park and explains about tommy tynan. the father recounts stories of a blond striker, tough and industrious, a lower-league goal machine who scored the winner at West Bromwich Albion in the season when Argyle made it into the FA Cup semi-finals.
the boy nods and waits for an introduction as more fans notice the 61-year-old posing for photographs and linger.
tynan may have been banging in goals for Plymouth’s veterans team until recently but he confirms the obvious: there’s no chance of him pulling on his boots against Jurgen Klopp’s liverpool side for this week’s FA Cup third round replay.
he shakes some hands and huddles for selfies, spots his grandson and offers him a lift. he serves the city now behind the wheel of a taxi but as a real-life 10,000-to-1 shot, who better to inspire another FA Cup upset?
tynan was 15 when he collected 20 coupons from the Liverpool Echo and entered a talent competition called Search for a Soccer Star.
‘they sent you a form and had trials all over liverpool,’ he said. ‘From the 10,000 kids who entered I got down to the last 20. For getting through you got some gola boots, shin-pads and a bag.
‘At the training ground at melwood they had two five-a- side games, 15 minutes each way. my team won 5-0 and I scored all five but I went home and thought nothing of it.’
the next day, liverpool’s youth team coach John Bennison was at the door and his invitation to training was followed by the offer of an apprenticeship from Bill Shankly. ‘you got to know the big stars quite quickly,’ said tynan. ‘everyone trained together and I’d be paired off with Kevin Keegan or John toshack or emlyn hughes.
‘I never met anyone who thought they were above you. Bill Shankly had this air about him. he’d stride down the corridor and, as a kid, you’d get out of the way. What a presence he had.
‘once I was 13th man for a game and I’m in the team talk, expecting all this technical information and it was basically Shanks, ronnie moran, Bob Paisley and a little board with metallic things on it.
‘they’d set out the team, mention one or two players, free-kicks, corners and that was it, end of story, 10 minutes. they never got into tactics. So simple. get the ball and pass it to one of your players. they won everything.’
there is a strong liverpool connection in Plymouth via those who moved from merseyside to Devon to work in the Navy and Army or, more recently, construction. Argyle even have a supporters’ group called the Scouse greens with more than 200 liver pudlians who follow Plymouth home and away but cannot quite shake their roots.
tynan went along to the city’s Duke of Cornwall hotel in November to hear Jimmy Case, ronnie Whelan and terry Mcdermott regaling an audience of red and green shirts.
‘It’s always in you,’ said tynan. ‘I was never one of these to shout and bawl. I’d just watch the game. As a pro footballer I thought I was objective but the other year when liverpool should’ve won the league and finished second, I started shouting at the telly.
‘my missus said, “Why’ve you got like that?”. I didn’t know. I suppose after all these years you’ve got the chance to win the league again, it all came out.’
tynan was prolific in liverpool’s reserves but left Anfield without making a first-team appearance. As Paisley’s side conquered all before them, tynan forged a feared partnership with John Aldridge which fired Newport into europe via the Welsh Cup.
‘two people called Kenny Dalglish and Ian rush scored 55 goals between them and in the same year we got exactly the same, playing in the old third Division,’ said tynan.
Newport reached the last eight of the european Cup-Winners’ Cup in 1980-81 before losing 1-0 at home to east german side Carl Zeiss Jena, after a 2-2 draw away. ‘We should’ve won,’ grimaced tynan. ‘their keeper made a world-class save. I hit the bar. We hit the post. one-all and we’d have won on away goals.’
tynan has been taxi-driving for 15 years, changing trade from publican. ‘A mate of mine was doing this. So I passed the Knowledge and I’ve been doing it ever since,’ he said.
‘People get in and want to talk football, they want to know your opinion on what’s happening at Argyle. It’s a bit unfair really. When we played we were in the equivalent of the Championship and it was a lot
better football. The football in League Two is not very good but this year they’re one of the better sides. They don’t score many goals but they don’t give many away — as they proved at Anfield.’
Tynan is early for the pick-up from the station and aims his blue Ford Mondeo at Home Park, where workmen are fixing temporary seating into terracing which has stood empty for years. The Theatre of Greens is wilting. The main grandstand has barely been modernised since Tynan was in his pomp.
He arrived in 1983 from Newport, who were hard-up and needed the £55,000 fee, and stayed almost eight years, with a brief interlude at Rotherham, from where he returned on loan to score 10 goals in the last nine games as Argyle went up to Division Two in 1986.
‘I didn’t have the best of starts here,’ said Tynan. ‘But once I was settled I was the leading goalscorer for about eight years. I was the quickest ever to 100 goals in the club’s history, three and a bit seasons.
‘I always scored goals. One year I played nearly 30 games in midfield for Newport and still ended up with 22 goals. It’s always been there. Don’t ask me how. If you could write it down in a book you’d make a fortune.’
Besides promotion in 1986, his fondest Argyle memories are finishing seventh in the old Division Two a year later and, of course, the run to the FA Cup semi-finals in 1984.
As a third-tier team, Plymouth dumped out top-flight West Brom, courtesy of Tynan’s toe-poke, and beat Derby on a mud-heap at the Baseball Ground in a quarter-final replay before losing against Watford at Villa Park in the semi.
‘Walking out, I remember it was a sea of green, more Argyle fans than Watford,’ said Tynan. ‘It went by in a flash. Don’t think I had a chance.’
Plymouth had a strong team in the 1980s but the club slumped into administration in later years. ‘That was part of the reason I started playing with the veterans,’ said Tynan. ‘The office staff weren’t getting paid. So the ex-players would go around Devon and Cornwall and whatever they made we’d take a little bit and give it to Argyle to help pay wages.’
Six years ago, Plymouth were within 24 hours of liquidation, saved by James Brent’s takeover and the club is still finding its feet. Under manager Derek Adams they are going well in League Two and an estimated windfall of £1million from these two FA Cup games against Liverpool will make a difference.
‘It’s a big club,’ said Tynan. ‘The support has always been there. When I look at Bournemouth, second year in the Premier League on gates of 12,000, I’ve never understood why someone hasn’t come in for this club.
‘We took 37,000 to Wembley in the play-offs last year (where they lost to Wimbledon). We used to get an average of 15,000 in the old Second Division. This city could sustain a Premier League club, without a doubt. One day, it will happen.’
Plymouth Argyle v Liverpool, 7.45pm tomorrow, BT Sport 2 and BBC Radio 5 Live from 7pm.