John Taylor (footballer, born 1964)

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John Taylor (born 24 October 1964) is an English former professional footballer. As a player, striker Taylor made over 500 league appearances, scoring 153 goals, the majority of which were for Cambridge United.

Playing career

Taylor started his career as a trainee with

Cambridge United

Taylor had joined a young team hungry for success and after a season on the fringes of the side, he quickly built up a partnership with

Taylor carried on where he left off for Rovers under their manager John Ward. He scored 44 goals in 95 appearances for the club before being sold to Bradford City for £300,000 after a proposed move to Middlesbrough fell through. A further 11 goals in 36 games followed at Bradford before Luton Town paid £200,000 to bring him back to East Anglia.

Luton Town

His time at Luton was a struggle and he suffered from injuries that contributed to his return of just 3 goals in 37 games. Loan spells at Lincoln City (who were now managed by John Beck) and Colchester United followed. Both were successful and both clubs wanted to sign him on a permanent basis. It was Cambridge United manager Roy McFarland that won the race for his signature however and he made a welcome return home to the Abbey Stadium on a free transfer in January 1997.

Back to Cambridge United

Taylor's playing career was resurrected at Cambridge. Playing with youngsters such as Trevor Benjamin, Martin Butler and Michael Kyd he was able to lend his experience and score some vital goals along the way. Taylor's goals helped United to promotion from Division 3 in 1999 and in total he went on to score a further 40 goals for the club, beating Alan Biley's long standing club record of league goals – Taylor finished his Cambridge career with 86 league goals for the club. Taylor had also been appointed Reserve Team manager after hanging up his boots and spoke of his keenness to one day go into management.

Following Roy McFarland's sacking, John Beck was once again appointed to the club as manager and Taylor remained in his role with the Reserve Team. Beck's second coming was short lived and he was sacked in November 2001. Taylor expressed his desire for the job and after an initial caretaker appointment, the role was given to him on a permanent basis in January 2002, the resounding choice of the fans.

Taylor's first game in charge was a 6–1 defeat at Tranmere Rovers and the season didn't get any easier as the club were relegated to Division Three. One highlight was an appearance in the final of the

After a brief spell at Dagenham & Redbridge at the start of the 2004–05 season, Taylor became player-coach at Mildenhall Town. In August 2005 he joined Long Melford, becoming player-coach in November.^[1] He became manager of the club in February 2006.^[2] In February 2007 he left Melford to become manager of Newmarket Town but was sacked just three games into the 2007–08 season.^[3] He returned to playing, rejoining Mildenhall Town and scoring the winner on his debut, a 1–0 Eastern Counties League Premier Division victory at Lowestoft Town on 8 September 2007.^[4] He later became manager of the club.^[5]

In July 2011 he was appointed assistant manager of Walsham-le-Willows,^[6] also occasionally playing for the club.^[7] He left Walsham in 2014 after having a heart attack.^[5] His recovery was such that in August 2021, as Assistant manager of Thetford Town F.C., 56 year-old Taylor was able to select himself to play against Lakenheath F.C.^[8]

Honours

As a player

Cambridge United^[9][10]

• Football League Third Division: 1990–91
• Football League Division Three
  runner-up: 1998–99
• Football League Fourth Division play-offs: 1990

As a manager

Cambridge United

• Football League Trophy runner-up: 2001–02^[11]

External links

• John Taylor at Soccerbase
• John Taylor management career statistics at Soccerbase