Thomas Edward Tynan (born 17 November 1955) is an English retired professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby ...

. A hard working striker with flowing blonde hair, Tynan was signed as an apprentice for

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by manager Bill Shankly after winning a talent contest run by the ''

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'' newspaper, but he never made a first-team appearance for the Reds, and was transferred to

Sheffield Wednesday Sheffield Wednesday Football Club is a professional association football club based in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. The team competes in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. Formed in 1867 as an offshoot ...

in 1976, where he spent two years and scored 31 goals. After just nine appearances for Lincoln City in 1978, Tynan moved on to Newport County where he formed a dynamic striking partnership with

John Aldridge John William Aldridge (born 18 September 1958) is a former football player and manager. He was a prolific, record-breaking striker best known for his time with English club Liverpool in the late 1980s. His tally of 330 Football League goals is ...

as the Newport team gained promotion from Division 4, won the

Welsh Cup The FAW Welsh Cup ( cy, Cwpan Cymdeithas Pêl-droed Cymru), currently known as the JD Welsh Cup for sponsorship reasons, is a knock-out football competition contested annually by teams in the Welsh football league system. It is considered the mos ...

and reached the quarter finals of the

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. Tynan scored both goals in the away leg against Carl Zeiss Jena of

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, the equalising goal being in the 90th minute but Newport lost the home leg 1–0. In total Tynan scored 66 goals in 183 matches during the most successful period in the club's history. In 1983, Tynan moved on to Plymouth Argyle where he became a cult figure during the 1980s and is frequently named by Argyle fans as one of the club's all-time greatest players. He was a member of the side which reached the semi-finals of the

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual knockout football competition in men's domestic English football. First played during the 1871–72 season, it is the oldest national football competi ...

in 1984, scoring the goal which beat then top flight

West Bromwich Albion West Bromwich Albion Football Club () is an English professional football club based in West Bromwich, West Midlands, England. They compete in the EFL Championship, the second tier of English football. The club was formed in 1878 and has pl ...

in the fifth round of the competition. Argyle went on to beat

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in the quarter finals before losing to

Watford Watford () is a town and borough in Hertfordshire, England, 15 miles northwest of Central London, on the River Colne. Initially a small market town, the Grand Junction Canal encouraged the construction of paper-making mills, print works, and ...

in the penultimate stage of the competition. In the 1984/85 season, Tynan was joint top scorer in all 4 divisions of the Football League with 31 goals, level with Tranmere's

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. Clayton, ironically, joined Argyle as Tynan's replacement, when Tynan signed for

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in the summer of 1985. However, Tynan rejoined Argyle in early 1986, initially on loan, as the club pushed for promotion to the second tier. His excellent goalscoring record continued at that level and he became a club legend. In total Tynan scored 126 goals in 262 appearances for Plymouth. Former England manager

Graham Taylor Graham Taylor (15 September 1944 – 12 January 2017) was an English football player, manager, pundit and chairman of Watford Football Club. He was the manager of the England national football team from 1990 to 1993, and also managed Lincoln C ...

described him as one of the best natural finishers he had ever seen. Tynan spent a season as manager of Goole Town in the Northern Premier League between 1993 and 1994.1993–94 Season
Goole Town FC. Retrieved 21 February 2010. As of January 2017 he was working as a taxi driver in Plymouth. He previously wrote a regular column about Argyle for local newspaper, the '' Plymouth Evening Herald''. Tynan's biography was published in March 2009, entitled "''The Original Football Idol: The Tommy Tynan story''" by Ryan Danes (Breedon Books ). He was also the subject of the 1990 book ''Tommy: A Life at the Soccer Factory'' by Richard Cowdrey (Bud Books )

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tynan, Tommy 1955 births English footballers English expatriate footballers English Football League players North American Soccer League (1968–1984) players Liverpool F.C. players Swansea City A.F.C. players Dallas Tornado players Sheffield Wednesday F.C. players Lincoln City F.C. players Newport County A.F.C. players Plymouth Argyle F.C. players Rotherham United F.C. players Torquay United F.C. players Doncaster Rovers F.C. players Living people Footballers from Liverpool Expatriate soccer players in the United States Association football forwards English expatriate sportspeople in the United States British taxi drivers