Mike Trebilcock - professional footballer, scoring twice in 1966 FA Cup Final for Everton

Mike Trebilcock was born on 29th November 1944 in Gunnislake in Cornwall.

A 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 second black player to score in an FA Cup Final (Bill Perry of Blackpool being the first in 1953).

Mike Trebilcock 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 4 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 5 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 3 goals in only 11 league games for Everton, he moved to Portsmouth for a fee of £40,000. 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 10 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.

This article has been kindly provided by Kernow Matters to Us and is the eighth in a series on Famous Folk of Kernow (Cornwall).