Gerry O'Brien

Last updated

Gerry O'Brien
Personal information
Full name Gerald O'Brien
Date of birth (1949-11-10) 10 November 1949 (age 74)
Place of birth Glasgow, Scotland
Height 5 ft 6 in (1.68 m) [1]
Position(s) Winger
Youth career
Drumchapel Amateurs
Senior career*
YearsTeamApps(Gls)
1968–1970 Clydebank 60 (8)
1970–1976 Southampton 78 (2)
1974 → Bristol Rovers (loan) 3 (0)
1976–1977 Swindon Town 27 (0)
1977–1978 Clydebank 24 (1)
1978–1979 Hibernian 7 (0)
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Gerald O'Brien (born 10 November 1949) is a Scottish retired professional footballer, who played as a winger for various clubs in Scotland and England in the 1960s and 1970s, including Clydebank, Southampton and Swindon Town.

Contents

Career

Early career

O'Brien was born in Glasgow and trained as a bricklayer, playing his youth football with Drumchapel Amateurs before joining local club Clydebank in May 1968. At Clydebank, he was only a part-time professional but was spotted by Southampton's scout (and former player) Campbell Forsyth. O'Brien was also attracting interest from Coventry City and Nottingham Forest so the Saints' manager Ted Bates travelled to Glasgow himself to watch him (in a 1–1 draw with East Fife). [1] Bates liked what he saw and signed O'Brien that same evening for £22,500, a then record for the Scottish Second Division.

Southampton

He made his Division One debut at The Dell on 11 March 1970 in a 1–0 defeat by Liverpool replacing the injured Terry Paine on the right wing. Bates had justified the large fee to the board of directors claiming that once O'Brien trained full-time, "he could become a younger version of Paine". [2]

According to Chalk & Holley, "the little Scotsman was a clever, skilful player who at times looked capable of turning a game completely, although his slight build appeared to handicap him." [3] After a few intermittent appearances, he replaced Brian O'Neil at inside-right in December 1971 and retained his place for the rest of the season. He scored one of his few goals against Derby County on 8 January 1972 with shot from outside the area. At the start of the next season, O'Neil regained his place and O'Brien again spent much of his time in the reserves.

He spent the end of the 1973–74 season on loan to Bristol Rovers before returning to Southampton for the start of the 1974 season. Although not a regular first team player, he was selected for a Texaco Cup match at Ibrox against Rangers on 18 September 1974, and scored the third goal, a tap in from inside the box. It was not until November 1974 that he again had a long spell in the Southampton first team (now in the Second Division) with a run of fifteen games, this time replacing Paul Gilchrist. He scored his second league goal with a header against Cardiff City on 22 April 1975. He retained his place for the start of the following season, but then lost his place to his good friend and fellow Glaswegian, Hugh Fisher. His only involvement for the rest of the season was as a substitute, including appearances in the FA Cup fourth and fifth round matches against Blackpool and West Bromwich Albion.

In March 1976, he was offered a move to Swindon Town and accepted what he described as "a good offer" [2] from manager Danny Williams. In his seven years with the Saints, he made a total of 96 appearances, scoring three goals.

Later career

His move to Swindon was not a great success, missing a lot of games as a result of a cartilage injury. In 1977, he was given a free transfer back to Clydebank before finishing his career at Hibernian, quitting football in 1979 with arthritis.

Life after football

After leaving football, he started a building business in Glasgow before settling in Duntocher, in West Dumbartonshire with his wife, Maureen and has two sons. After a hip replacement, he is now a regular golfer. [2]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Martin Chivers</span> English footballer

Martin Harcourt Chivers is an English retired professional footballer from the 1960s and 1970s.

Hugh Donnelly Fisher is a Scottish former professional footballer who played as a midfielder. He began his career at Blackpool before moving to Southampton in 1967. During his time with Southampton, he was a substitute in the 1976 FA Cup final.

David Sidney Peach is an English former professional footballer who played as a full-back. He notably appeared for Southampton in the FA Cup final in 1976.

James McCalliog is a Scottish former football player and coach. He played in the Football League for Chelsea, Sheffield Wednesday, Wolverhampton Wanderers, Manchester United, Southampton and Lincoln City, as well as in the United States with Chicago Sting and in Norway with Lyn.

Nicholas Charles Holmes is an English former professional footballer. He spent the majority of his playing career with Southampton, where he won the FA Cup Final in 1976. In 1987, he joined East Cowes Victoria for a season before retiring. From July 2002 to July 2009, Holmes was manager of Salisbury City.

Francis Burns is a Scottish former footballer.

Anthony Brendan Byrne was an Irish professional footballer. He won a total of 14 caps for the Republic of Ireland and during his career from 1963 to 1978 played for Millwall, Southampton, Hereford United and Newport County. He was originally a midfield player who switched to left-back and he had a career total of 229 league games scoring 4 goals.

David Gort Burnside was an English footballer, who played as an attacking midfielder. He made a total of 405 appearances in the Football League for West Bromwich Albion, Southampton, Crystal Palace, Wolverhampton Wanderers, Plymouth Argyle, Bristol City and Colcester United. He then moved into non-League football becoming player-manager at Bath City and later became a youth trainer with England and briefly manager at Bristol City. He also made appearances for Los Angeles Wolves as a guest.

Harry James Osman was an English footballer who played as an outside left for Southampton for two seasons in the 1930s and went on to become manager of Winchester City where he "discovered" future England international Terry Paine.

Thomas George Lewis was a Welsh footballer who played as a centre-forward for Watford in the late 1930s, before joining Southampton for a brief period after World War II.

Douglas McGibbon was an English footballer who played at centre forward for Southampton, Fulham and Bournemouth & Boscombe Athletic in the years just after the Second World War. He once scored six goals in a match, one of which was timed at under 5 seconds from the second half kick-off.

Bernard Reginald Stanhope Harrison was an English sportsman who played first-class cricket for Hampshire and professional football with Crystal Palace, Southampton and Exeter City. As a cricketer he was an opening batsman who played a part in Hampshire winning the County Championship in 1961, whilst in football he played at outside right.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Harry Offer</span> English footballer (1871–1947)

Henry Thomas Offer was an English footballer who scored Arsenal's first-ever goal in the FA Cup "proper" rounds in 1891, and Southampton's first-ever league goal in 1894.

James Ross McKenzie was a Scottish professional footballer who played as an outside-forward for various clubs in Scotland and England in the 1890s.

John Frederick Hoskins was an English footballer who played at outside-left in the 1950s, making over 230 appearances for Southampton followed by a brief spell at Swindon Town.

Charles Edward Bromley was an English footballer. Originally from Southampton, he played as a forward for local side St. Mary's between their formation in 1885 and 1889.

James McGowan was a Scottish footballer who played as an inside forward in the 1940s and 1950s. After starting his professional career in his home city with Celtic, he moved to England in 1946 where he played for Grimsby Town and Southampton. He died shortly after his 60th birthday from drowning.

Frederick George Kemp is an English retired footballer who played as a half-back in the 1960s and 1970s. He started his professional career with Wolverhampton Wanderers, before joining Southampton for five years. He then had three years with Halifax Town, for whom he made over 100 appearances followed by a short spell at Hereford United, before winding up his career in non-league football.

John Joseph McGuigan was a Scottish footballer who played as an inside-forward in the 1950s and 1960s. He started his career in the Scottish Football League with St Mirren before moving to England in 1955, where he played for several Football League clubs, including Southend United, Newcastle United, Scunthorpe United, Southampton and Swansea Town.

Thomas Welsh McGarrity was a Scottish footballer who played as an inside forward in the 1940s and 1950s. After starting his professional career with Morton, he moved to England in 1952 where he played for Southampton. He later became the physiotherapist for Oxford United.

References

  1. 1 2 Duncan Holley & Gary Chalk (2003). In That Number – A post-war chronicle of Southampton FC. Hagiology Publishing. p. 559. ISBN   0-9534474-3-X.
  2. 1 2 3 Tim Manns (2006). Tie a Yellow Ribbon: How the Saints Won the Cup. Hagiology Publishing. p. 144. ISBN   0-9534474-6-4.
  3. ↑ Gary Chalk & Duncan Holley (1987). Saints – A complete record. Breedon Books. p. 291. ISBN   0-907969-22-4.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.