Joe Laidlaw

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Joe Laidlaw
Personal information
Full name	Joseph Daniel Laidlaw
Date of birth	12 July 1950 (1950-07-12) (age 57)
Place of birth	Newcastle upon Tyne, England
Height	5 ft 8 in (1.73 m)
Playing position	Midfielder
Youth clubs
1965–1967	Middlesbrough
Senior clubs1
Years	Club	App (Gls)*
1967–1972 1972–1976 1976–1979 1979–1980 1980–1982 1982	Middlesbrough Carlisle Doncaster Rovers Portsmouth Hereford United Mansfield Town	109 (20) 151 (44) 128 (27) 060 (19) 062 0(8) 004 0(0)
1 Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. * Appearances (Goals)

Joe Laidlaw (born 12 July 1950) was a combative^[1] midfielder who played for six English league clubs over a 15 year period spanning three decades. He was one of that generation who bridged the gap between terminological eras, beginning his career as a wing-half and ending it as a midfielder^[2] despite playing a similar role throughout.^[3] He was born in Whickham and started playing locally for Swalwell^[4] before becoming an apprentice at Middlesbrough^[5]. He signed his first professional contract in August 1967 and went on make over 100 appearances for the club. In July 1972 he moved onto begin a four year stint with Carlisle ^[6] before a three year stint with Billy Bremner’s Doncaster Rovers. In June 1979 he moved to Portsmouth for a fee of 15,000 GBP ^[7]. Appointed club captain he quickly became a firm favourite with the Fratton Faithful. In a memorable roller-coaster first season he lead Pompey to promotion, this being achieved on the last day of the season after the club beat Northampton 2–0 and Bradford lost 1–0 to Peterborough. The following December Laidlaw was sold to Hereford for 15,000GBP, his last match having been a 1–0 defeat at Barnsley the preceding month^[8]. Laidlaw played a further 62 league games for The Bulls scoring 8 goals^[9]before ending his career with a very brief spell at Mansfield. After his professional career ended he returned to the south coast to live, his latest venture being as part of the management team at Chichester City United F.C., having left Fareham Town^[10] in somewhat acrimonious circumstances. In February 2008 he was sacked by Chichester City United with joint boss Louis Savage resigning.

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