View source for Brian Joicey

{{Short description|English footballer (born 1945)}}
{{Use British English|date=March 2023}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2023}}
{{Infobox football biography
| name = Brian Joicey
| image = 
| fullname = 
| height = 
| birth_date = {{Birth date and age|df=y|1945|12|19}}
| birth_place = [[Winlaton]], England
| death_date = 
| death_place = 
| position = [[Forward (association football)|Forward]]
| youthyears1 = 
| youthclubs1 = [[Ashington A.F.C.|Ashington]]
| youthyears2 = 
| youthclubs2 = [[Blyth Spartans A.F.C.|Blyth Spartans]]
| youthyears3 = 
| youthclubs3 = [[Tow Law Town F.C.|Tow Law Town]]
| youthyears4 = 
| youthclubs4 = [[North Shields F.C.|North Shields]]
| years1 = 1969–1971
| clubs1 = [[Coventry City F.C.|Coventry City]]
| caps1 = 39
| goals1 = 9
| years2 = 1971–1976
| clubs2 = [[Sheffield Wednesday F.C.|Sheffield Wednesday]]
| caps2 = 145
| goals2 = 48
| years3 = 1976–1978
| clubs3 = [[Barnsley F.C.|Barnsley]]
| caps3 = 93
| goals3 = 43
| years4 = 1978–?
| clubs4 = Bakewell Town
| caps4 = 
| goals4 = 
| years5 = 
| clubs5 = [[Frickley Athletic F.C.|Frickley Athletic]]
| caps5 = 
| goals5 = 
| years6 = 
| clubs6 = [[Matlock Town F.C.|Matlock Town]]
| caps6 = 
| goals6 = 
| totalcaps = 277
| totalgoals = 100
}}

'''Brian Joicey''' (born 19 December 1945) is a retired professional footballer who played as a [[forward (association football)|forward]] for [[Coventry City F.C.|Coventry City]], [[Sheffield Wednesday F.C.|Sheffield Wednesday]] and [[Barnsley F.C.|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 [[Blaydon]], Tyne and Wear on 19 December 1945. He played as a youth for [[Clara Vale]]<ref name="Clara Vale F.C.">[http://www.claravalefc.ik.com/home.ikml Clara Vale F.C.] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080703162048/http://www.claravalefc.ik.com/home.ikml |date=3 July 2008 }} Confirms that Joicey played for Clara Vale.</ref> On leaving school he played for the [[Northern League (football)|Northern League]] clubs [[Ashington A.F.C.|Ashington]], [[Blyth Spartans A.F.C.|Blyth Spartans]] and [[Tow Law Town F.C.|Tow Law Town]]. He started to make a name for himself as a footballer when playing as an amateur for [[North Shields F.C.|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 F.C.|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 [[Newcastle United F.C.|Newcastle United]] for the start of the 1969–70 season, he made 39 league appearances and scored nine goals in his two full seasons with Coventry as they finished sixth in Division One in his first season with the club and qualified for the [[Inter-Cities Fairs Cup]]. Joicey scored a goal in the [[Inter-Cities Fairs Cup 1970-71|Fairs Cup]] victory over Trakia Plovdiv at [[Highfield Road (stadium)|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 (footballer)|Neil Martin]] was preferred as first choice centre forward.<ref name="justcatnaps">[http://www.justcatnaps.com/collection/GoodisonCoventryBrianJoicey.html www.justcatnaps.com.] {{webarchive|url=https://archive.today/20031114145404/http://www.justcatnaps.com/collection/GoodisonCoventryBrianJoicey.html |date=14 November 2003 }} Gives general information.</ref>

===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 (footballer)|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 F.C.|Middlesbrough]] and scored his first goal on 4 September against [[Portsmouth F.C.|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 Stadium|Hillsborough]] was a hat-trick in a 3–2 [[FA Cup]] 4th round replay victory over First Division [[Crystal Palace F.C.|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.<ref name="SWFC Archive">[http://www.adrianbullock.com/swfc/stats/play0305.htm Sheffield Wednesday Archive.] Gives details of Sheffield Wednesday career.</ref>

===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 [[York City F.C.|York City]]. He was taken to hospital where initial tests indicated kidney damage. It was announced a few days later that the first diagnosis was wrong and he had suffered a (minor) stroke. Brian was forced to retire from professional football although he did make some appearances later in non-league football, most notably for [[Frickley Athletic F.C.|Frickley Athletic]] and [[Matlock Town F.C.|Matlock Town]]. Barnsley organised a testimonial match against a combined Sheffield Wednesday and [[Sheffield United F.C.|Sheffield United]] side to mark the end of his career with [[Mick Channon]] and [[David Speedie]] taking part amongst other stars. It was also revealed during the [[Football League Championship|Championship]] live on [[BBC Two]] between [[Nottingham Forest]] and [[Cardiff City]] on 5 April 2010 that [[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 F.C.|Chelsea]] defender [[Ashley Cole]]'s boots during Bothroyd's time as a trainee at [[Arsenal F.C.|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]].<ref name="Wednesday Boys">''"The Wednesday Boys"'', Jason Dickinson & John Brodie, {{ISBN|0-9547264-9-9}} Page 159 Gives biographical information.</ref><ref name="Tony Matthews">''"The Men Who Made Sheffield Wednesday Football Club"'', Tony Matthews, {{ISBN|978-0-7524-4156-6}} Gives details of Sheffield Wednesday career and biographical information.</ref> 
Brian retired on 24 December 2010 and enjoys life with his wife Sue in Dronfield Derbyshire.

==References==
{{reflist}}

{{navboxes
|title=Awards
|bg=gold
|fg=navy
|list1=
{{1976–77 Football League Fourth Division PFA Team of the Year}}
{{English Fourth Division top scorers}}
{{Barnsley F.C. Player of the Year}}
}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Joicey, Brian}}
[[Category:1945 births]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:People from Winlaton]]
[[Category:Sportspeople from the Metropolitan Borough of Gateshead]]
[[Category:English men's footballers]]
[[Category:Footballers from Tyne and Wear]]
[[Category:Footballers from County Durham]]
[[Category:Men's association football forwards]]
[[Category:English Football League players]]
[[Category:Ashington A.F.C. players]]
[[Category:Blyth Spartans A.F.C. players]]
[[Category:Tow Law Town F.C. players]]
[[Category:North Shields F.C. players]]
[[Category:Coventry City F.C. players]]
[[Category:Sheffield Wednesday F.C. players]]
[[Category:Barnsley F.C. players]]
[[Category:Frickley Athletic F.C. players]]
[[Category:Matlock Town F.C. players]]