Bobby Moncur

1981-1983

Bobby Moncur, who is also an accomplished golfer and sailor, went into football management after a distinguished career as a player for both club and country.

Moncur hailed from Perth, where he was born in January 1945, and made five appearances for Scotland Schoolboys. He joined Newcastle United as an apprentice at the age of fifteen, and was to stay with the club for fourteen years, making nearly 300 League appearances. Whilst at St James' Park, he scored the winning goal in the 1962 FA Youth Cup final, and bagged a Second Division Championship medal in 1965. Three years later, he was capped for the Scotland Under 23 side and appointed captain at Newcastle, leading them to victory in the 1969 Fairs Cup and to the 1974 FA Cup final, where they lost to Liverpool. He scored three goals for the Magpies, all of them in the two legs of that Fairs Cup Final.

On the pitch, Moncur was a tough tackling centre back who managed to look elegant while taking no prisoners. His greatest strength lay in his ability to read the game and react to situations ahead of opponents. Although he could also play at centre forward and left back, it was this central position which suited him best, and which enabled him to orchestrate play.

Moncur won his first senior Scotland cap in May 1968, for a friendly with the Netherlands in Amsterdam. Nearly eighteen months later, he got his second call up, and, from April 1970, he was a regular member of the squad, winning a total of sixteen caps, plus one unofficial cap, and captaining the national side for seven games. He retired from the international game in 1972.

In 1974, Moncur left Newcastle for rival club Sunderland, playing a key role in gaining promotion to the First Division in 1975-1976, when he was Player of the Year. In November 1976, he became player manager of Carlisle United, staying on as manager after hanging up his boots in September 1977. Under him, Carlisle were relegated to the Third Division in 1976-1977, but challenged for promotion in the following three seasons.

In February 1980, Moncur returned to Scotland to manage Heart of Midlothian, taking them to the Scottish First Division championship of 1979-1980, but finishing last in the Scottish Premier Division the following season. He did enough, however, to attract the attention of the Plymouth Argyle board, who were seeking a replacement for Bobby Saxton.

Moncur took up the Argyle reins in June 1981. His first season at Home Park started badly, but results improved and the club finished tenth in the Third Division. 1982-1983 was not much different, the team's fortunes fluctuating wildly through the season, but they ended in eighth place. Early in 1983-1984, however, Moncur found himself in dispute with the board over the signing of Tommy Tynan and the failure to sign Tynan's former Newport County strike partner John Aldridge. Just six games into the season, Moncur was dismissed.

Following spells as coach of non League side Whitley Bay and manager of Fourth Division Hartlepool United, Moncur left football to open squash and yachting clubs on Tyneside, and to concentrate on his sailing, taking part in the Fastnet and Round Britain races and the 1993 Round the World race.

Bobby Moncur was diagnosed with colon cancer in 2007, but given the all clear in June 2008. He continues to work as a football commentator on radio and television, and to skipper chartered sailing trips around the Caribbean.

[Kindly supplied by Peggy Prior, author of The Gaffer Tapes, a series on Argyle's managers that first appeared in matchday programmes in 2007-08]