Gary Briggs (footballer)

Gary Briggs

Personal information
Full name	Gary Briggs
Date of birth	(1959-06-21) 21 June 1959
Place of birth	Leeds, England
Height	6 ft 3 in (1.91 m)
Position(s)	Centre back (retired)
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
1977-1978	Middlesbrough	0	(0)
1978-1989	Oxford United	418	(18)
1989-1995	Blackpool	137	(4)
1995-19??	Chorley	?	(?)
Total		555	(22)
*Club domestic league appearances and goals, correct as of 23 July 2006

Gary Briggs (born 21 June 1959 in Leeds, West Riding of Yorkshire) is a retired English professional football player. He made over 500 league appearances in an eighteen-year playing career, during which he became known as a no-nonsense, tough-tackling defender, hence his "Rambo" nickname.

Career

In the 1977-78 season, at the age of eighteen, Briggs signed for Middlesbrough but didn't make any first-team appearances for the club. Later that season, he moved to Oxford United. The fee was settled at the Football League's first-ever transfer tribunal. Briggs spent eleven years at the Manor Ground, where he received the nickname "Rambo" and became a cult hero. He formed a successful central-defensive partnership with club captain Malcolm Shotton as United won three trophies between 1984 and 1986: the Division Three championship in 1983-84, the Division Two championship the following season, and the League Cup in 1986.

In May 1989, after 418 league games and eighteen league goals for Oxford, Briggs moved back north to Blackpool, where he saw out the rest of his career. "'Pool looked a club going places — and I want to go with them," he said at the time.

His first season in Lancashire was not a successful one: the Seasiders finished second-bottom of Division Three and were relegated to the league's basement division. Briggs made seventeen league appearances and scored two goals. His season was ended by injury in late January. One bright note was his goal against Barnsley in the second round of the League Cup at Bloomfield Road on October 3, 1989. The game finished 1-1 and went to a penalty shootout, which the Tangerines won 5-4 and progressed to a third-round meeting with Exeter City.

Graham Carr was installed as the new manager prior to the 1990-91 season, but he too left just five months into the job. Carr's assistant, Billy Ayre, was promoted to the hot seat. It was under Ayre's guidance that Briggs' career would once more flourish. After Ayre's appointment (at which point the team lay eighteenth in the table), Blackpool went on to lose only five of their remaining thirty league games. It was during this period that a new (and still existing) club record was set: thirteen consecutive home wins during an eventual twenty-four-game unbeaten run at Bloomfield Road. Blackpool finished the season in fifth place, missing automatic promotion by a single point, and qualified for the play-offs. After defeating Scunthorpe in the two-legged semi-final, Blackpool were returning to Wembley for the first time in thirty-eight years, where they would face Torquay in the final. Briggs missed out on the crunch match due to an injury sustained in the second leg of the semi-final against Scunthorpe. He made thirty appearances during the league campaign. In the final, Torquay won on penalties and Blackpool were condemned to another season of Fourth Division football.

The 1991-92 season followed along the same lines. After finishing fourth (again missing out on automatic promotion by a point), Blackpool made the play-offs. After defeating Barnet in the semi-final, the Tangerines met Scunthorpe in the final. Frustratingly for Briggs, he sat out a second Wembley appearance because of injury, this one picked up in a defeat at Rotherham with only two games remaining. He made twenty-six appearances in a start-stop season, and was voted the club's Player of the Month for September, October and November 1991.

In the final, and in another penalty shoot-out, Blackpool this time came out on top and would be playing the 1992-93 season in the new Division Two.

Briggs' fourth at the seaside saw Blackpool finish in eighteenth place, just four points above the relegation zone. Local rivals Preston North End were one of the four teams that made the drop.

The 1993-94 campaign ended in nailbiting fashion. A final-day 4-1 victory over Leyton Orient at Bloomfield Road meant the Seasiders had avoided relegation by one point.

Billy Ayre ended his three-and-a-half-year association with Blackpool in the summer of 1994 and was replaced by Sam Allardyce. Briggs ended his professional career the following May. His league record for Blackpool: 137 games and four goals. He joined Chorley to see out the remainder of his playing days.

In March 2005, Briggs unveiled Executive Box 27 at Oxford United's Kassam Stadium in his name.

In 2006, Briggs played for Bispham Juniors, whom he also managed.

Personal life

Briggs lives in Bispham and currently works as a caretaker.

Honours

Oxford United

• Division Three championship: 1983-84
• Division Two championship: 1984-85
• League Cup winner: 1985-86

Blackpool

• Division Four play-off winner: 1991-92
• Lancashire Cup winner: 1993-94, 1994-95

References

• Calley, Roy (1992). Blackpool: A Complete Record 1887-1992. Breedon Books Sport. ISBN 1-873626-07-X. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
• Briggs' profile at soccerbase.com
• Oxford United profile

External links

• Oxford Legends
• A photograph of a bloody Briggs in an Oxford shirt in the late 1980s