Mike Trebilcock

Mike Trebilcock
Personal information
Full name	Michael Trebilcock
Date of birth	29 November 1944 (age 79)
Place of birth	Gunnislake, Cornwall, England
Position(s)	Winger
Youth career
1960–1962	Tavistock
Senior career*
Years	Team
1962–1965	Plymouth Argyle
1965–1968	Everton
1968–1972	Portsmouth
1972–1973	Torquay United
1973	→ Yeovil Town (loan)
1973–1974	Weymouth
1974–1976	Western Suburbs
Total
	*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Michael Trebilcock (born 29 November 1944) is an English retired professional footballer. He played primarily as a winger and is most famous for scoring twice in the 1966 FA Cup Final for Everton, becoming the first black player to score in an FA Cup Final.^[1] Trebilcock is described as a "black mixed heritage player" by sociologist Mark Christian, who notes that the label of first black Everton player is often wrongly given to Cliff Marshall, "due to [Trebilcock's] ambiguous black mixed heritage".^[2]

Career[edit]

Trebilcock was born in Gunnislake, Cornwall. He played for non-league Tavistock before joining Plymouth Argyle in December 1962. he scored 27 times in 71 league games for the Pilgrims, leading to a £23,000 move to Everton on 31 December 1965. He made his debut a few days later against Aston Villa, but was injured and spent much of the rest of the season on the sidelines. In the meantime, Everton had been progressing through to the FA Cup final, where they would meet Sheffield Wednesday.

Despite having only played four reserve games since his injury, Trebilcock was included in the squad and surprisingly picked ahead of England international centre-forward Fred Pickering to play in the final. Wednesday took a 2–0 lead with goals from Jim McCalliog and David Ford, but within five minutes of Ford's goal, Trebilcock had scored twice to level the scores. A goal from Derek Temple sealed the win for Everton.

Even after the cup final, he struggled to establish himself in the Everton side and in January 1968, after three goals in only 11 league games for Everton, he moved to Portsmouth for a fee of £40,000.^[3] He was a regular goalscorer at Portsmouth, netting 33 times in 109 league games, before a free transfer took him to Torquay United in July 1972. He spent just one season at Plainmoor, hitting ten goals in 24 league games, leaving in June 1973 to join Weymouth on a free transfer. In March 1974 he emigrated to Sydney, Australia where he played for Western Suburbs and won the NSW Rothmans Medal in 1974.

Having got involved in coaching, he moved in the early 1990s up to Darwin, where a professional club had been established to compete in the Singapore national league. After less than two seasons the Darwin Cubs folded due to financial problems^[4] but he stayed in the area and took various jobs.

References[edit]

^ See how your Everton FC knowledge compares to our FA Cup final fact file, Liverpool Echo, 28 May 2009.
^ Christian, Mark (2011). "Mixing up the game: Social and historical contours of black mixed heritage players in British football". In Burdsey, Daniel (ed.). Race, Ethnicity and Football: Persisting Debates and Emergent Issues. Abingdon: Routledge. pp. 131–144. ISBN 9780415882057.
^ "Transfer agreement for Michael Trebilcock between Everton F.C. and Portsmouth F.C." The Everton Collection. Retrieved 18 June 2013.
^ "Singapore 1995". RSSSF.

External links[edit]

Mike Trebilcock at Post War English & Scottish Football League A–Z Player's Transfer Database

[1] See how your Everton FC knowledge compares to our FA Cup final fact file, Liverpool Echo, 28 May 2009.

[2] Christian, Mark (2011). "Mixing up the game: Social and historical contours of black mixed heritage players in British football". In Burdsey, Daniel (ed.). Race, Ethnicity and Football: Persisting Debates and Emergent Issues. Abingdon: Routledge. pp. 131–144. ISBN 9780415882057.

[3] "Transfer agreement for Michael Trebilcock between Everton F.C. and Portsmouth F.C." The Everton Collection. Retrieved 18 June 2013.

[4] "Singapore 1995". RSSSF.

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