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Vincent Pericard's spell in Devon started with plenty of promise, but failed to live up to expectations

After getting the chance to see Vincent Pericard for a full 90 minutes at the Theatre of Greens, Plymouth Argyle fans must have thought they had one of the sharpest shooters in the division on their hands.

After coming off the bench to mark his debut for the club a week before, the Frenchman was given the nod by Tony Pulis for a home clash with Coventry City a week later, with major results.

Everything the forward did that day turned into goals, with a hat-trick against the Sky Blues the perfect way to endear himself to the onlooking Green Army, as he took home the match ball after a resounding day at the office.

But after that promising start, things never quite took off for Pericard at Home Park, with Argyle fans constantly waiting for another sprinkle of magic that never seemed to reappear.

Vincent Pericard’s tremendous first Home Park start

Having joined on loan from Portsmouth for the remainder of the 05/06 campaign, Pericard featured in two goalless draws to begin his life as green, with stalemates against former club Sheffield United, and future club Stoke City.

Having not looked overly threatening in either of his opening two matches as a Pilgrim, little was expected from the striker as Cov came to town, with the new arrival starting alongside stalwart Mickey Evans up top.

That in itself is the Pulis period at Home Park in a nutshell, with two aerial threats patrolling the frontline, the industry of David Norris and Tony Capaldi on the wings, while wily campaigners Paul Wotton and Lilian Nalis marauded in midfield.

The Welshman’s legacy from his time in Devon is his ability to retract a game down to its finest margins, with Argyle proving to be a hard nut to crack, but also failing to find the back of the net on a regular basis themselves.

As a result, the West Country side bagged just 39 goals across the campaign, with only relegated side Millwall registering fewer strikes in the second tier.

As a result, goalfests were a rarity at Home Park, so the home crowd must have been fizzing with anticipation when Pericard rifled in his first strike of the game after just 13 minutes.

The loanee was playing with a point to prove, and doubled his personal tally just before the break, as he curled home his second of the afternoon to double his side’s advantage.

The Devonport End was delirious at this point, The Lyndhurst waxing lyrical and The Mayflower, well… they were probably still moaning about something or other, most likely the quality of the pasties.

But whether the half-time grub was up to scratch or not, Pericard was the man having his own personal feast on the pitch that day, with his third goal coming midway through the second half, making the match ball his in his first start in front of his new fanbase.

It was the first time an Argyle player had hit three since David Friio ran riot at Port Vale two years before, and only the second time that Century following on from Paul McGregor’s efforts just three months into the new Millennium, which only goes to highlight the gravitas of the Frenchman’s antics.

With their new goal-getter in the ranks, Argyle fans were likely already booking their tickets to Wembley for the playoffs, and planning Premier League excursions once he had netted 20 more in the run-in, but the reality was a much different story, with that Coventry crowning proving to be a flash in the pan.

Vincent Pericard fails to live up to early Plymouth Argyle promise

In many ways, it must have been tough for Pericard to continue after that early display, with plenty expecting match-winning performances week after week due to the previous evidence on show.

But in reality, a frontman who had only notched 11 times in 55 league matches in English football before his move reverted to the norm, with his yearly quota of strikes seemingly used up against the Sky Blues.

From then on, the attacker had almost made himself undroppable, with both manager and fanbase never knowing if another goal-crazy afternoon was lying in store.

But the longer that initial Home Park outing stayed in the rear-view mirror, the more it became apparent that the goals weren’t flowing, with a single strike against Millwall in a 1-1 draw the only other showing of his efforts.

Not that the frontman was solely to blame, with Argyle’s scorelines from that season looking like a series of binary coding, such were the amount of zeros and ones that populated their results.

In fact, Pericard’s treble marked just the third time the Greens had plundered more than two goals in 90 minutes all season, and despite that occurring in February, it also turned out to be the last.

Despite his poor return, the forward was still the club’s third-highest scorer across the season, with Paul Wotton’s club-high seven goals proving how uneventful games were at that period of time.

In fact, Pericard notched more in 74 minutes of action than the majority of his teammates did throughout the season, although Argyle fans will still regret the fact that his wonderful start wasn’t the start of bright things to come.