Thanks to Dave Rowntree for many of the player images after 1984.
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DARCY BLAKE
Born: 13 December 1988
Came from: Cardiff City Went to: Cardiff City
First game: 29 August 2009 Last game: 12 December 2009
Appearances: 7 (5/2) Goals: 0
A product of the Cardiff City youth academy, Blake came to Argyle on loan in August 2009, playing primarily at right-back. Born in New Tredegar in the Rhymney Valley, he joined Cardiff City's youth development programme at the age of ten. He signed his first professional contract seven years later in 2005 and also became a Wales international at under-17, 19 and 21 levels. Whilst he struggled to make an impact in his first four years in Cardiff's first team squad, his ability to play in several different positions, including full-back, centre-back and right-wing, made him an ideal loan signing. By the end of 2009, Argyle were keen to extend the deal for the entire season but a temporary transfer embargo made that impossible. By the time the embargo was lifted, Blake was back in the Cardiff side, where he stayed for the remainder of the season, helping the club reach the Championship play-off final.
Blake made a total of 118 appearances for the Bluebirds in his seven senior years with the club, playing in three of the ties that led Cardiff to the FA Cup Final in 2008 and winning a League Cup runners-up medal in 2012. Even though he won his first full international cap for Wales in September 2010 and went on to earn 13 more, he became a bit-part player for Cardiff. Rejecting talks about his future in August 2012 (with a year left on his contract), he instead signed for Crystal Palace later that month for a reported fee of £350,000. By the end of the 2012-13 season he had played 11 times for the Selhurst Park side under former Argyle manager Ian Holloway, as Palace returned to the Premiership via the play-offs.
In January 2014 his contract at Selhurst Park was terminated by mutual consent and two months later he signed for Newport County on a non-contract basis until the end of the season. In July 2014 Blake returned to Home Park to train with Argyle under John Sheridan - almost five years after he had left - but he failed to earn a deal and spent the following six months without a club.
In January 2015, having played amateur football for Tredegar Arms FC in the North Gwent League, he went back to Newport to try to win a new contract there, but after a fortnight's training his attempts were rejected. He had also been playing amateur rugby for New Tredegar (seconds) in Division Two of the Gwent, Newport & Pontypool District League and in 2015 also played football for Aberbargoed Buds in the Welsh League Division One, where in October 2015 he became the club's player-coach.
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APPEARANCE DETAILS [reselect competitions]
The details below reflect appearances in all first-team competitions.
I'm very grateful to many who have helped write GoS-DB's player pen-pictures, and to Dave Rowntree, the PAFC Media Team and Colin Parsons for their help with photos. Thanks also to staff at the National Football Museum, the Scottish Football Museum and ScotlandsPeople for their valuable assistance.
The following publications have been particularly valuable in the research of pen-pictures: Plymouth Argyle, A Complete Record 1903-1989 (Brian Knight, ISBN 0-907969-40-2); Plymouth Argyle, 101 Golden Greats (Andy Riddle, ISBN 1-874287-47-3); Football League Players' Records 1888-1939 (Michael Joyce, ISBN 1-899468-67-6); Football League Players' Records 1946-1988 (Barry Hugman, ISBN 1-85443-020-3) and Plymouth Argyle Football Club Handbooks.
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