KEN MALOY

Born: 16 September 1940

Came from: Ilford   Went to: Peterborough United

First game: 02 November 1960   Last game: 07 December 1963

Appearances: 73 (73/0)   Goals: 16

Born in Edmonton, then in Middlesex but in the present-day London Borough of Enfield, Maloy played for Ilford in the Isthmian League, before joining Argyle in 1959.

Spotted by Ellis Stuttard and known for his blistering pace, he had no professional grounding except for a brief spell with Southend United's youth team but through his performances in the Isthmian League was identified as having huge potential. Stuttard had also discovered both Mike Summerbee and Don Rogers, so knew a decent winger, when he saw one.

At Home Park, he became affectionately known as 'Bugsy', though somewhat unkindly due to his slightly protruding front teeth. He had a fine goalscoring record for the reserves during his four years at Home Park but could not hold down a consistent place in the first team. He was one of those classic footballing enigmas: fine wing-play one week and nothing would go right the next.

Maloy was, however, part of the team that nearly got Argyle into the First Division, in the 1961-62 season. Although falling short, no other team has managed to get as close since. Indeed were it not for tonsillitis ruling him out of three of the last seven games, there's many that felt the outcome could have been very different.

He was at Argyle for four seasons and played 73 times, scoring 15 goals but packed an awful lot into that time. He made his debut in a League Cup tie in an 'away' game against Torquay United, played at Home Park. He also played in a 'home' game against Ipswich Town that took place at Torquay. He played in the club's record Football League defeat, a 9-0 hammering at Stoke City, in December 1960, quickly followed by the incredible pair of amazing 4-6, 6-4 games against Charlton Athletic, just after Christmas 1960. He also played in, what is often acknowledged, as one of the club's best-ever performance, a 3-0 win over West Ham United in January 1962, which was a first home FA Cup victory against a top-flight side.

After leaving Argyle he played for Peterborough United in the 1964-65 season, making six appearances and scoring once. He then moved to Aldershot Town for a couple of seasons between 1965 and 1967, playing 52 times and scoring 11 goals. With finances always a challenge for the Hampshire side, he was released and the club house he lived in was required to be sold to try to balance the books, meaning a double whammy of being made jobless and homeless in one fell swoop, somewhat brutally.

His next move, perhaps unsurprisingly after the way things ended at Aldershot, was out of the English game and he ended up spending almost a decade in his chosen destination of Belgium. In July 1967 he signed for top-flight Royal Daring Club Molenbeek, based in Brussels, then managed by ex-Sunderland player Billy Elliot. They reached the 1969-70 Belgian Cup Final, though it was a step too far as they were hammered 6-1 by RFC Brugeois (now Club Brugge). Daring are now known as RWDM Brussels.

In Belgium, Maloy's contracts were effectively part-time enabling him to hold a job outside of football, thus doubling his income and going some way to repairing the financial impact of the way things ended at Aldershot and also an unpaid five-year tenure bonus which he missed out on at Argyle, which rankled.

In July 1971 he moved to second tier Racing Jet de Bruxelles. The modern-day club are now called Wavre Sports FC and have dropped as low as the third tier of amateur football in Belgium. Maloy remained at the club for five years from 1971 to 1976, potentially driven by a love of playing in green, as they did.

Returning to the UK, and settling in Plymouth, after a spell as a sales representative, he joined the Post Office, in Plymouth, where he stayed for 22 years.

Ken's son Kevin was also briefly an apprentice with Argyle in the 1980s and went on to turn professional, making four Football League appearances for Alan Ball's Exeter City in 1991-92, before later playing for non-league Cheltenham Town and Dorchester Town.

Maloy passed away, in Plymouth, at the start of September 2024, at the age of 83 just a few weeks shy of what would have been his 84th birthday.