Playing Career
A winger, Hodges began his career as a schoolboy with local club Bournemouth. He appeared for them in the FA Youth Cup as a 15-year-old before the club scrapped its youth team in 1978 as part of a cost-cutting exercise. He followed one of his former coaches, Bobby Howe, to Plymouth Argyle to sign his first professional contract. He would go on to represent the club with distinction for the next fourteen years, making a total of 620 appearances in all competitions, scoring 87 goals.
Hodges is the club's all-time appearance record holder and eighth on the all-time goalscoring record list. He was a member of the Argyle squad which reached the semi-finals of the FA Cup in 1984. His best campaign came in the 1985–86 season under Dave Smith when the club won promotion from the Third Division. Hodges started in all 46 matches and scored 16 goals, an impressive return for a midfielder. In recognition of his performances that year, he won the club's Player of the Year award.
His service to the club was rewarded early on in the 1987–88 season when a testimonial match was played in his honour against the club he supported as a child, West Ham United. Hodges became one of the few players to ever receive a second testimonial match in 1992, against Luton Town, after fifteen years of service to the club. He was loaned to Torquay United in January 1992, with first-team opportunities being limited at Home Park, to help the Gulls in their battle against relegation back to the fourth-tier of English football. Hodges' final game for Plymouth Argyle came in the Second Division on 20 November 1992, as a substitute against Stockport County at Edgeley Park. He was then allowed to rejoin Torquay United on a permanent basis in December 1992, thus ending his fourteen year association with the Pilgrims. He finished his playing career at Plainmoor, scoring 5 goals in 81 appearances before officially retiring in 1997, in order to focus on coaching.
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