Plymouth Argyle must regret decision that allowed Derby County transfer | OneFootball

Paul Connolly was allowed to depart Home Park for free after the club failed to agree a new deal with the defender

Were you there when Shelly scored?

That was the big question for Plymouth Argyle fans of a certain generation, with legendary fullback Paul Connolly’s one moment in the limelight coming in a 3-0 victory over Norwich City in November 2007.

The affectionate nickname came from the Liverpudlians love for a shell suit during his time at the club, but as soon sung around the terraces as a serenade for the defender after years of service for the club.

With 162 league appearances at Home Park during his eight-year association with the football club, the right-back played a part in the all-conquering side that claimed the third tier title in 03/04, before becoming a Championship regular until his departure in 2008.

A move to recently relegated Derby County came that summer, before stints at Leeds United and Preston North End, but Argyle had the opportunity to keep him for longer, but let it slip by the wayside, something that they must have regretted in the years to come.

Paul Connolly thrives after earning Plymouth Argyle debut

Having made the move to Home Park at the age of 16, Connolly was an adopted Janner from an early age, and bided his time within the youth team before finally being given a shot at the big time by Paul Sturrock in the 03/04 campaign.

With the experience of David Worrell winning out in the battle for the right-back berth at the start of the campaign, the exuberant teenager soon made the post his own as the season progressed, and barely gave up the spot for the four years to follow.

With the likes of Paul Wotton, Graham Coughlan and Hasney Aljofree alongside him, the young star had the perfect teammates to bed him into first-team football, although his unwavering self-belief saw him flying from the second he took the pitch as an Argyle player.

Paul Sturrock was the man in charge at the time - the man widely considered as one of the greatest to ever sit in the dugout at the Theatre of Greens - and the Scot continued to keep faith in the defender, with his marauding runs on the flank becoming a trademark of the Pilgrims’ play.

The ability to deliver an inch-perfect cross on the run is something of an underrated skill in the game, but Connolly made it an art form, as he capitalised on the nature of David Norris to tuck in when playing in front of him.

Those two brought the absolute best out of each other during their respective times at the club, with the pair certainly not lacking in energy, and a win at all costs attitude that embodied Argyle at that moment in time.

Bobby Williamson, Tony Pulis, Ian Holloway… managers came and went, but still Shelly and Chuck [Norris] would remain a constant force, with the pair playing 144 times together during their respective Janner duties.

While his forays forward were always a joy to behold, the question continued to remain, will he ever get a goal for the club?

The appearances were racking up, and his importance to the side was never in doubt, but will we ever see Shelly hit the back of the net? As the time ticked on, it seemed less and less likely, with his 150th appearance slowly entering on the horizon.

It was not that the Pilgrims hadn’t seen the defender’s name on the scoresheet before, just not at the right end; with an unbelievable 40-yard own goal that lobbed goalkeeper Romain Larrieu against Brighton and Hove Albion in 2003 still a moment that lives in the memories of the Green Army.

But as Norwich City came to town in game number 149, Connolly finally got his moment, as he nodded a ball in from a Lee Martin delivery inside the six-yard box, and went on to claim that it was all part of the plan all along.

The defender said, via Greens on Screen: The gaffer was caning me at half-time, saying I had not scored after playing x amount of games. I actually said to him that I would score in the second-half.

“I told him the last time I scored was when I was playing against my granddad in the kitchen as a seven year-old. As soon as the gaffer started killing me at half-time, I should have had a bet with him.

“I have got a sneaky feeling some of my family back home might have had a bet. They normally have a bet on me scoring at about 66/1, so I am hoping they are going to phone me with a nice cheque.

“It is too many games before your first goal, but I am so glad it finally came. I thought it was a decent connection with the header after a great ball from Lee, but, goodness knows what I was doing in the six-yard box. It was a good goal and a good win."

Home Park erupted as they saw who had put the ball in the back of the net, Shelly had scored, Shelly had finally scored.

Ian Holloway departure begins the start of the end for Paul Connolly’s Plymouth Argyle career

Maybe it was the fact that his right-back had broken his barren spell that boss Holloway felt there was something bad brewing, for the Bristolian had left for Leicester City before the Greens played another league game later that month.

With the club flirting with the Championship play-offs at the time, Argyle were riding as high as they ever had been during the halcyon days of Home Park, but it wasn’t long before a mass exodus halted everything in its tracks.

While hindsight makes it clear and obvious that the money was running out at the club, the January of 2008 saw the likes of Ashley Barnes, Akos Buzsaky, Dan Gosling, Sylvan Ebanks-Blake and David Norris [pictured] leave the club, as the Pilgrims saw the core of their side stripped away.

Connolly was one of those that hung on until the end of the season before moving to Derby, but things could have been so different if they had the foresight to protect their top talents.

The defender told The Argyle Podcast recently: “We got so close, but it was never run properly, it was the wrong people in charge of the football side of things, behind the scenes it was a shambles.

"If it was run better, we would have kept the core of those players, there were probably four players who would have stayed if they were rewarded financially.

“If we had that time back and it was run properly, we could have easily got to the Premier League.”

The right-back wasn’t alone in departing the club that summer, with Peter Halmosi, Lilian Nalis and Jimm Abdou also setting sail, but it turned out the tight pockets of the Argyle board are to blame for the defender’s departure.

He continued: “I was in the team regularly under Holloway and we were flying, and I turned down a contract offer of something like three or four years, but it was the exact same money for those years.

“It’s not about money - it really isn’t - that club out me on a great pedestal for life, but I rejected the contract, and Ian Holloway told me I needed to sign the contract.

“I knew the wage structure, and all you want when you are part of a successful club and I played a part to get the club there, all you want is parity.

“You don’t want special treatment, just parity, and my agent told me to just sign a one-year contract, and hopefully things change behind the scenes and the club will offer a better contract.

“They gave me another year’s contract on the same money, but then they had me unhappy when they had players on all kinds of money, after I’ve played in League One all the way up.”

So after his eight years of service to the club, Connolly was then allowed to leave for nothing to a Championship rival, having played over 150 times for the Greens.

In truth, it sums up the mismanagement of Plymouth Argyle during that period, with the rug pulled under their feet at a time when the Premier League seemed a realistic possibility for the first time in their history.

That summer marked the start of the end, with relegations and financial battles to follow in the years to come, while Connolly proved himself to be a capable defender across the Championship.

They were there when Shelly scored, and they were there when times got tough, but the Green Army will feel aggrieved about yet another example of the club’s hierarchy letting them down, as the club continued to spiral before its very existence was in danger.