Brian Joicey
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Brian Joicey was a professional footballer who played for Coventry City, Sheffield Wednesday and Barnsley in a career that lasted from 1969 to 1979. Joicey was a centre forward who did not play league football until he was 23 years old, he made 277 league appearances and scored 100 goals.
Brian Joicey was born in the Winlaton area of Blaydon, Tyne and Wear on the 19th of December 1945. 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.
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 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 Fairs Cup victory over Trakia Plovdiv at Highfield Road in October 1970.
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 August 27th for a combined fee of £100,000. Joicey made his first team debut for Wednesday four days later in an away match at Middlesborough and scored his first goal on September 4th 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 19th February 1973.
Brian’s fourth season with Wednesday was not a success as the team were relegated to the Third Division, he scored two goals in 25 appearances as the club tried numerous permutations in the forward line. Another unsuccessful season (1975-76) led to Joicey being sold to Fourth Division Barnsley on a free transfer in March 1976, his time with Barnsley was successful, scoring 43 goals in 93 league appearances and being Division Four’s top scorer in 1976-77 with 26 league goals, he also scored an FA Cup hat-trick against Boston United that year. His career was sadly cut short by injury in October 1979 when he collapsed on the field in Barnsley’s away match with 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 sufferred a (minor) stroke. Brian was forced to retire from professional football although he did make some appearances later for non league Frickley Athletic. Barnsley organised a testimonial match against a combined Sheffield Wednesday and Sheffield United side to mark the end of his career with Mick Channon and David Speedie taking part amongst other stars.
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.
