SAM COSGROVE

Full Name: Sam Benjamin Cosgrove

Born: 02 December 1996

Came from: Birmingham City   Went to: Birmingham City

First game: 03 September 2022   Last game: 25 April 2023

Appearances: 40 (18/22)   Goals: 12

Cosgrove became Steven Schumacher's seventh capture of the 2022 summer transfer window when he signed a loan deal from Birmingham City on the window's deadline day.

Born in Beverley in East Yorkshire, Cosgrove began his footballing journey as a schoolboy with Everton, where he was under the watchful eye of Neil Dewsnip, Argyle's future Director of Football. He was released at the age of 16 but then signed apprenticeship forms with Wigan Athletic in 2013, whilst also studying for his A-levels, which included marine biology - perhaps a fitting qualification for his future time in Britain's Ocean City.

Having scored 44 goals in 40 matches over two years with Wigan's under-18 side, whilst also spending time on loan at Barrow, Chorley, Nantwich Town and North Ferriby United, he earned his first professional contract in June 2016.

After a pre-season trial, Cosgrove then signed for Carlisle United in August 2017, and six months later joined Aberdeen in the Scottish Premiership, where he made an immediate impact when he was shown a red card eight minutes after coming on as a 76th minute substitute against Celtic.

After his over-enthusiastic start, Cosgrove's time at Pittodrie was a great success. In his first full season he scored 21 times, including 17 in the Scottish Premier League, which was the second highest total in the SPL that season. The following year he scored a total of 23 goals, six of them in six matches in the Europa League, including a European hat-trick. Overall, he notched up 47 goals in 103 appearances in his three years with the Dons.

Cosgrove's form in Scotland led to a move to Birmingham City in January 2021, for whom he made 12 Championship appearances in the remainder of that season, mostly from the bench. Two half-season loans followed in 2021-22, first with Shrewsbury Town and then AFC Wimbledon, giving him a season of League One experience.

Following three further substitute appearances for his parent club at the start of the 2022-23 season, the 25-year-old, six-foot-five centre-forward hoped to rekindle his north-of-the-border scoring form by becoming the Pilgrims' fifth full-season loanee for the 2022-23 campaign.

And what a start! Just two days after putting pen to paper, Cosgrove made his Argyle debut as a 75th minute substitute against Derby County at Pride Park and then scored twice for a memorable 2-3 victory.

He provided Argyle with an aerial threat perhaps not seen since the days of Mickey Evans, but he was adept with his feet too, as not just his Derby brace proved. In December 2022, he scored a second-half hat-trick against AFC Wimbledon in the EFL Trophy. With Argyle trailing 3-0 at half-time, Cosgrove's trio of goals against his former club took the tie to penalties, which Argyle won 4-3 to book a place in the quarter-finals. Creating perhaps a 'names on the trophy' moment, this was later dashed by the Wembley drubbing by Bolton in the EFL Trophy Final in May. However, players and fans alike would have probably traded that trophy for the League One title, which was duly delivered by Schumacher's rampaging Pilgrims, ending the season in first place on 101 points and giving Cosgrove a League One winners' medal.

Returning to his parent club once the promotion celebrations had subsided, he played twice for Birmingham in the 2023-24 League Cup and was a regular on the bench in Championship matches. However, he was released in September 2023 to enable him to join Barnsley in League One on a two-year contract. In total he had made 17 appearances at St Andrew's across four seasons, but without scoring. In his first season at Oakwell, he scored six goals in 38 appearances, ahead of his second season in South Yorkshire in 2024-25.