Mike Pejic

Stoke City

Pejic was born in Chesterton in Newcastle-under-Lyme on Wednesday, 25 January 1950, and supported Stoke City from an early age. His father, a Serbian immigrant miner from Yugoslavia, took him to watch the matches at the Victoria Ground. In his teenage years Pejic was playing for Newcastle-under-Lyme schools as a left-winger and signed professional forms with Stoke in 1967, where manager Tony Waddington decided to convert him into a left-back. After two years in the reserves he made his debut against West Ham United at Upton Park, helping Stoke keep a clean sheet against World Cup winner Geoff Hurst. He took over from the disappointing Alex Elder and established himself in the first-team. Pejic was a strong athlete with a sweet left foot and was compactly built at 5 ft 7in. Pejic was a 'hard player' and was a strong tackler who enjoyed letting his opposing winger know he was around with a scything tackle. He was a fitness fanatic who, unlike many of his Stoke teammates, had another job outside of football, as he kept a farm near Leek. He became a regular in the Stoke squad in 1969–70 and the early seasons in the 1970s. Stoke enjoyed a successful period, reaching the semi-final of the FA Cup twice and winning their first major trophy – the League Cup – in 1972. He played the whole ninety minutes of the final, as the "Potters" beat Chelsea 2–1 at Wembley thanks to goals from Terry Conroy and George Eastham. During two seasons, 1970–71 and 1971–72, Pejic…

Pejic won eight caps for the England under-23 team. Alf Ramsey handed him his full England debut in a friendly against Portugal in Lisbon on 3 April 1974; the game finished 0–0. After appearances against Wales and Northern Ireland, he won his fourth and final cap on 18 May 1974, in a 2–0 defeat to Scotland at Hampden Park that left England to share the 1973–74 British Home Championship. Ramsey's successor, Joe Mercer, dropped him in favour of Alec Lindsay.

Leek Town manager

Pejic took charge at North West Counties League side Leek Town and led the "Blues" to a ninth-place finish in 1984–85. His stay at Harrison Park was brief, as he resigned to take over as manager of Northwich Victoria. He took the "Vics" to a 16th-place finish in the Alliance Premier League in 1985–86. He also ran a fruit and veg business.

Port Vale coach

He was appointed youth team coach at Port Vale in July 1986, being promoted to first-team coach in December 1987. He helped manager John Rudge to lead the club to promotion in 1988–89. However, he was sacked in March 1992, twelve months later an employment tribunal ruled that he had been unfairly dismissed and Vale were forced to pay a four-figure compensation sum.

When I moved up to coach the first team I was still doing the youth team, the reserves, the goalkeeping coaching and also the centre of excellence along with Neil Baker and Richard O'Kelly. It was a seven-day-a-week job, so it's fair to say I was heavily involved. I also introduced a fitness programme and worked really hard with the first team on dividing them into units and concentrating on their jobs in each third of the pitch. There were a few argie-bargies at first, but they accepted what I was doing and all worked really hard at it.

Chester City manager

Pejic was named Chester City manager in June 1994 after the shock resignation of Graham Barrow. He inherited a very bare side after the loss of several key…

He took up the martial art of taekwondo at 62 and earned a place in the national team for the over-60 age group. In April 2019, he became the over 65's Taekwondo European champion after winning the gold medal in Antalya, Turkey.