2003/04 Flashback - The October Goalfest

The 2003/04 season was a huge success for Argyle, as the Pilgrims followed their Division Three promotion from two years prior with their second title win in three seasons. 

During this season, the 20th anniversary of that epic campaign, we will revisit key moments that shaped one of the most memorable times in our club’s recent history. 

Today, we go back to early October 2003, where a quartet of games brought one of the biggest goal rushes in Pilgrims history...

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Think of this for a set of statistics, over an 11-day span: Played four, won four, scored 18, conceded two. The 2003/04 season was an extraordinary one, and this spell during October surely the most remarkable period of it.

We may think back to that season, in which Argyle won the old Division Two (now Sky Bet League One) with 90 points to claim their second title and promotion in three seasons, as a campaign in which Paul Sturrock’s Pilgrims strolled to glory.

This was not so, at least not from the outset. As October dawned, Argyle began the month with a drab 0-0 draw at Wycombe Wanderers, and this took the total points from the season at that point to 18, from 12 games. At a rate of 1.5 points per game, this was a perfectly acceptable return, and placed the Greens in an adequate ninth place.

What was about to unfold was anything but merely adequate.

Tranmere Rovers were the first unwitting victims of the Greens’ purple patch. Tranmere arrived in Devon in a bit of disarray, having sacked manager Ray Mathias two weeks prior, and were under the temporary management of John McMahon, in 19th place, at the time of their visit to PL2.

It took only six minutes for Argyle to get in front, David Friio driving a ball into the roof of the net from a tricky angle to open the scoring. A second was added from a typical Paul Wotton free-kick that goalkeeper John Achterberg got his hands to, but could not keep out, before the Greens made it three before the interval.

The scorer of the third was Peter Gilbert, netting his first for the club. Remarkably, Gilbert, who had signed on loan for the season from Birmingham, and would soon make the deal permanent, was the only player in the entire season to make a debut for Argyle. His goal, on the stroke of the interval, was the best of the game, as he was involved in a slick move down the left which included involvements from Ian Stonebridge and Marino Keith.

Three up at the break – Stonebridge had hit the bar, too – Argyle were cruising, but not done. Keith scored four minutes after the restart, heading home from close range after Stonebridge’s deft cross offered the perfect scoring opportunity.

Michael Evans made it 5-0, finishing at the second attempt as the weary Wirrelers tried in vain to keep him out, and then David Norris, the sixth different goalscorer, rounded things off, latching onto a Nathan Lowndes throughball.

To Tranmere’s credit, they would rally and finish the season in eighth place, but on this day they would have needed to head for shallower waters just to call the gap a gulf.

Three days later, in the EFL Trophy, known at the time as the LDV Vans Trophy, Argyle delivered another truckload of goals.

Bristol City were the visitors, just a few weeks after they had become the first – and, as it would turn out by season’s end, the only – team to beat Argyle in league action at Home Park. We shall not pretend that a Trophy victory in any way becomes ‘revenge’ for the league loss, but a 4-0 win to keep the momentum going made for a sweet evening.

In the van that night were Keith and Lowndes, who scored three of the goals between them, Lowndes a brace, before Gilbert scored the fourth. Gilbert was a Pilgrim for two years, and played 84 times in the green and white, and yet his only goals for Argyle came approximately 78 hours apart.

On Saturday, 17th October, Argyle headed to Port Vale, and it was the Valiants who at that stage occupied a top-three position. With former Pilgrim Adrian Littlejohn among their ranks, Vale had won seven of their first 11 games, although they had lost the previous two before Argyle visited Burslem.

That was to become three in a row soon enough. It took Argyle 35 minutes to break Vale down, but when they did, the goals flowed freely. Having been goalless ten minutes before half-time, when the interval arrived Argyle were 3-0 up for the second Saturday running, and added a fourth two minutes after the break.

The goals included some familiar tropes. Marino Keith’s opener was a typically persistent affair, as he outhustled defenders and forced the ball home; the second goal featured Friio arriving at precisely the right time to head in; and the fourth was a standard Wotton cannonball from a direct free-kick.

Goal three was a bit of a collector’s item, though. Steve Adams' notable contributions to this era of Argyle are typically described as 'underrated'. However, they are probably so often referred to as 'underrated' that the term no longer applies. Anyway, the very-much-rated Adams swung a left foot at the ball, just outside the area, and saw it arc high into the net for his first of the season.

Vale got one back through Stephen McPhee to make it 4-1, but the game’s final goal, to seal a 5-1 Argyle victory, was an all-time classic.

Watching the video of the goals adds to the theatre of the whole thing. You see Evans rolling the ball back from the edge of the penalty area, but seemingly to no-one. Friio soon breaks the mise-en-scene by appearing, stage right as we look, to drive the ball goalwards.

In the 44 goals scored in his 185 games for Argyle, David never caught a ball more sweetly. Everything about the goal is perfection. The strike, the angle, even the way the Vale Park nets ripple on impact look sweet. The sun is out, it is in front of the Green Army, and it seals a 5-1 win. What more could you want?

Here’s an idea – what about going top of the league, four days later, at Hillsborough?

On a Wednesday against the Wednesday, Argyle headed to Sheffield in double-quick time. It is said that the team coach sprouted wings on the journey, such was the extent that everything associated with Argyle was flying at the time.

Friio, quelle surprise, was on target again, starting the scoring with another header from a another impeccably timed run.

Wotton scored again too, this time a penalty rather than a free-kick, but the drill was largely the same, as a thunderbolt from the skipper’s right boot was past the goalkeeper before the ‘sh’ of ‘shooooooot’ could be uttered.

To score a third, Argyle combined the two. This time the thwack of a black Copa Mundial sent the ball into the centre from a corner, to where Friio, resplendent in tangergreen in the dark South Yorkshire air, rose highest to head in a clincher.

Wednesday got one back - Michael Reddy, if you are interested – but it was Argyle’s night, Argyle’s week, Argyle’s fortnight.

And, frankly, Argyle’s season.

Thank you to Dave Rowntree for the archive images, and to Greens on Screen for being the best research resource for all Pilgrims!