Brian Godfrey

Playing career

He was an inside forward who started his league career at Everton where he only made one appearance before joining Scunthorpe United in June 1960. He made his League debut for the Iron on the opening day of the season away to Charlton Athletic on 20 August 1960, scoring on his home debut five days later against Ipswich Town. He partnered ace marksman Barrie Thomas in the Iron's attack and helped them nearly reach the top flight when finishing 4th in the Second Division in 1961–62. This is Scunthorpe's highest ever position and resulted in him being spotted by the Welsh Under-23 selectors, becoming the first United player ever to receive such an honour. His last League game for the Iron was at home to Portsmouth on 21 September 1963. Preston North End paid £8,000 for him in October 1963. He made his debut for Preston a couple of weeks later away at Northampton Town. He scored ten goals in his first fourteen League games for the club, including a hat trick against Ipswich Town in a 5–1 away win. In the 1965–66 season, Godfrey was Preston's leading goalscorer including a four-minute hat trick in the last game of the season: a 9–0 win against Cardiff City. His goalscoring exploits did not go unnoticed, as he certainly impressed the Welsh selectors after joining the famous Lilywhites, gaining three full international caps. Two of these were in 1964: against Northern Ireland in April 1964 at Swansea, scoring one goal on his international debut, and against…

Godfrey retired at the end of the 2002–03 season to start a new life in Cyprus, and saw his long service to football rewarded with a testimonial between Gloucester City and Aston Villa. He died in a hospital in Nicosia near his home in Cyprus after a long battle with leukaemia on 11 February 2010. He was remarried by this time, having previously been married for 32 years with a family of three daughters. Paying tribute to Godfrey, Dave Phillips, then Chairman of Gloucester City, said that Godfrey had "played a dramatic part in the progress of the club." "He took us out of the doldrums during a period when we weren't doing that well. He will be remembered mainly for winning the Southern League Midland Division Championship as manager in 1989. From my experience, he spoke it as it was, and he was a great favourite of the fans because of that. He was football through and through.

Aston Villa

Football League Cup runner-up: 1970–71