Gary Briggs (footballer)
- This article is about Gary Briggs, the former football player. For the guitarist, see Gary Briggs.
Gary Briggs (born June 21, 1959 in Leeds, Yorkshire) is a former professional football player. He made over 500 league appearances during an 18-year playing career. He would become known as a no-nonsense, tough-tackling defender.
Career
In 1977, at the age of 18, Briggs signed for Middlesbrough, but didn't make any first-team appearances for the club. Later that year, he moved to Oxford United. The fee was settled at the Football League's first ever transfer tribunal. Briggs spent eleven happy 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 Third Division championship in 1983/4, the Second Division championship the following season, and the League Cup in 1986 [1]).
In May, 1989, after 418 league games and 18 league goals for Oxford, Briggs moved north to Blackpool, where he would see out the rest of his career.
His first season in Lancashire was not a successful one. The Seasiders finished second-to-bottom in the Third Division, and were relegated to the league's basement division. Manager Jimmy Mullen had left the club with seven league games remaining.
Graham Carr was installed as the new manager prior to the 1990/91 season, but he too would leave 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 18th in the table), Blackpool went on to lose only five of the remaining thirty league games. It was during this period that a new (and still existing) club record of thirteen consecutive wins was set. Blackpool finished the 1991/92 season in 5th 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 38 years, where they would face Torquay in the final. Briggs missed out on the crunch match due to injury.
Torquay won on penalties (recent signing Dave Bamber put the final spot-kick well wide of the right-hand post), and Blackpool were condemned to another season of fourth-division football.
The following season followed along the lines of the previous one. After finishing 4th (again missing out on automatic promotion by a point), Blackpool made the play-offs again. 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. 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 season at the seaside saw Blackpool finish in 18th 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 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, and Briggs hung up his playing boots the following May. His league record for Blackpool: 137 games/4 goals.
Trivia
- In March 2005, Briggs unveiled Executive Box 27 at Oxford United's Kassam Stadium in his name [2].