Brian Joicey

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Brian Joicey
Personal information
Date of birth (1945-12-19) 19 December 1945 (age 78)
Place of birth Winlaton, England
Position(s) Forward
Youth career
Ashington
Blyth Spartans
Tow Law Town
North Shields
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1969–1971 Coventry City 39 (9)
1971–1976 Sheffield Wednesday 145 (48)
1976–1978 Barnsley 93 (43)
1978–? Bakewell Town
Frickley Athletic
Matlock Town
Total 277 (100)
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Brian Joicey (born 19 December 1945) is a retired professional footballer who played as a forward for Coventry City, Sheffield Wednesday and Barnsley in a career that lasted from 1969 to 1979. Joicey did not play league football until he was 23 years old. In professional football he made 277 appearances and scored 100 goals. Following his football league career he returned to high level non-league football.

Career

Amateur in the 1960s

Brian Joicey was born in the Winlaton area of

Northern League clubs Ashington, Blyth Spartans and Tow Law Town. He started to make a name for himself as a footballer when playing as an amateur for North Shields in the late 1960s. He was a member of the North Shields team that won the Northern League and the FA Amateur Cup in the 1968–69 season, Joicey scored one of the goals which beat Sutton United 2–1 at Wembley Stadium
to win the Amateur Cup that season and made a major contribution, scoring 44 goals as the team finished top of the Northern League.

Coventry City

Joicey's success with North Shields alerted some professional league clubs and he surprisingly signed for First Division Coventry City in preference to

Highfield Road in October 1970. During his time with Coventry Joicey was never an automatic selection for the first team and played a large amount of reserve team football as Neil Martin was preferred as first choice centre forward.[2]

Sheffield Wednesday

Joicey started the 1971–72 season with Coventry but before the end of August he had joined Second Division Sheffield Wednesday. Wednesday manager Derek Dooley was interested in signing City's Dave Clements and watched him in a game, he was impressed with Joicey's performance in the same game and it resulted in both players joining Wednesday on 27 August for a combined fee of £100,000. Joicey made his first team debut for Wednesday four days later in an away match at Middlesbrough and scored his first goal on 4 September against Portsmouth. Joicey finished leading scorer for Wednesday in each of his first three seasons with the club, one of the highlights of his stay at Hillsborough was a hat-trick in a 3–2 FA Cup 4th round replay victory over First Division Crystal Palace at Villa Park on 19 February 1973.

Brian's fourth season with Wednesday was not a success, he was plagued by injury and poor form as the team were relegated to the Third Division, he scored two goals in 23 appearances as the club tried numerous permutations in the forward line. Another unsuccessful season (1975–76) led to Joicey being signed by Fourth Division Barnsley on a free transfer in July 1976.[3]

Barnsley

Joicey's time with Barnsley was quite successful, scoring 43 goals in 93 league appearances. He was ever present in his first season (1976–77) and ended that campaign as Division Four's top scorer with 26 league goals, he also scored an FA Cup hat-trick against Boston United that year. His career was cut short by injury in November 1978 when he collapsed on the field in Barnsley's away match with

Wolverhampton Wanderers manager Mick McCarthy used to clean Joicey's boots during their time at Barnsley together, a humorous revelation that made BBC commentator Guy Mowbray laugh and vaguely reminisce, after Mowbray commented that Cardiff City captain Jay Bothroyd used to clean Chelsea defender Ashley Cole's boots during Bothroyd's time as a trainee at Arsenal
.

Retirement

After retiring Brian opened "Brian Joicey Motors" a second hand car dealership on Middlewood Road, just half a mile from the Sheffield Wednesday ground and now works as a car salesman for a Honda franchise in the south of Sheffield.[4][5] Brian retired on 24 December 2010 and enjoys life with his wife Sue in Dronfield Derbyshire.

References

  1. ^ Clara Vale F.C. Archived 3 July 2008 at the Wayback Machine Confirms that Joicey played for Clara Vale.
  2. ^ www.justcatnaps.com. Archived 14 November 2003 at archive.today Gives general information.
  3. ^ Sheffield Wednesday Archive. Gives details of Sheffield Wednesday career.
  4. ISBN 0-9547264-9-9
    Page 159 Gives biographical information.
  5. ISBN 978-0-7524-4156-6
    Gives details of Sheffield Wednesday career and biographical information.
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