Where Are They Now – Sean McCarthy

Former Plymouth Argyle striker Sean McCarthy in next under the spotlight in Peverell Green’s Where Are They Now series.

SEAN McCARTHY – Born 12th September 1967 Bridgend, Wales.

Sean started his footballing career with his hometown club Bridgend Town, signing for Swansea when he was eighteen in 1985, he spent three seasons at Vetch Field making a total of 113 appearances scoring 38 goals, it was these goals that brought him to the attention of Argyle manager Ken Brown, he obviously liked what he saw and paid £50,000 to bring Sean to Home Park.

He made his debut on the opening day of the 1988-89 season in a 2-2 draw away to Walsall, his first goal came on 8th October in a 3-1 home win over Bradford City with his strike partner Tommy Tynan getting the other two.
In his first season he scored 14 goals, with six of them coming in the cup, he scored against Chelsea in the Simod Cup, against Hereford home (2) and away (1) and against Manchester City in the next round. His FA Cup goal against Everton at Home Park in front of 27,566 fans looked like it would cause a cup upset, unfortunately Adrian Burrows gave away a penalty after a handball in the area and Everton scraped a draw then easily beat Argyle 4-0 in the replay at Goodison Park. His 14 goals came from 46 league and cup appearances.

The next season again saw Sean among the goals, he scored a hat-trick at West Brom in a 3-0 win on Easter Monday and two days later got both goals in a 2-0 home win over Oldham. 1989-90 saw both of the clubs principal strikers leave at the end of the season, Tommy’s last ever match for the club was the last home game of the season against Watford which ended in a 0-0 draw.
Sean played in, and scored in the final game of the season, a 1-0 win at Bradford City. He played 32 times for the club in league and cup matches scoring 12 goals.

The goal that beat Bradford City obviously impressed them as they offered the Argyle manager, David Kemp, £250,000 for him, at the time this was a record fee for selling a player.
He soon became a regular goalscorer in the three and a half season he was at the club he made a total of 160 appearances scoring an impressive 89 goals.
His goalscoring was noticed by the Welsh selectors and on 5th February 1991 he was selected to play for the Wales B team against England at the Vetch Field Swansea, England won 1-0 with Arsenal’s Paul Davis getting the only goal of the game.
Again his goalscoring alerted other clubs, with his value now doubled; it took a £500,000 bid from Premiership side Oldham to persuade Bradford to sell him.

He continued to score regularly for his new team, and had the honour, if you can call it that, of scoring Oldham’s last Premier League goal in a 1-1 draw against Norwich at Carrow Road, Oldham needed to win to stay up.
He spent two seasons in Division 1, before the club suffered a second relegation in 1996-97 and he ended up back in Division two playing against Argyle.
In March 1998 Sean was loaned out to Bristol City where he played seven games and scored one goal.
While at Oldham he made 165 appearances and scored 48 goals.

He was released at the end of the 1997-98 season and his old team mate and now Argyle manager, Kevin Hodges, decided to bring him back to Home Park.
He re-joined the club on 7th August 1998, making his second debut the following day in a 2-1 home win against Rochdale, he scored his first goal in the 2-0 win over Barnet two weeks later.
In his first season back he made a total of 23 appearances and scored 5 goals, he scored three league goals all in 2-0 home wins and each one was the second decisive goal.

The following season 1999-2000 he made 33 league and cup appearances scoring six goals including two in the 5-0 thrashing at home to Leyton Orient, the winner in a 1-0 home win over Exeter and the first goal in a 2-2 draw against Torquay on Boxing Day.
2000-20001 was to be his last season at the club, approaching 33 he had lost the mobility that had served him so well in his earlier spell at Argyle although he still proved to have an eye for goal with 10 league and one cup goals coming from a total of 39 appearances, notable goals were both goals in a fine 2-0 win at Exeter and another two at home to Cardiff on Boxing Day in a 2-1 win, his final goal was the last one of the game in a 3-0 home win over Chesterfield. Sean`s final game for Argyle came in the last game of the season in a 0-0 draw at home to Rochdale.
In total he made 176 appearances for Argyle and scored 48 goals.

After being released by Argyle he moved up the A38 spending two seasons playing for Exeter making 26 league appearances and scoring six goals.
He had the pleasure of playing against Argyle twice in his first season, a 3-2 Argyle win at Exeter in September with goals from Martin Phillips, Mickey Evans and Ian Stonebridge was followed up with a comfortable 3-0 win at Home Park in February with Steve Adams and a Marino Keith double doing the damage.

After leaving Exeter he spent a season playing non-league football with Taunton Town
At the end of the 2007-08 season he was appointed manager of Truro then a Southern League Division One team after their manager Dave Leonard had resigned. His managerial debut didn`t work as expected and in December 2009 after a 7-2 defeat at Stourbridge Sean left the club by mutual consent.

After 12 months out of football he was offered the job of coach at Ipswich Town by his old playing colleague and then Ipswich manager, Paul Jewell.