Brian Pilkington (soccer player)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Brian Pilkington
Personnel
birthday February 12, 1933
place of birth Leyland ,  England
date of death February 7, 2020
Place of death Adlington ,  England
position Winger (left)
Juniors
Years station
Leyland Motors
Men's
Years station Games (goals) 1
1951-1961 Burnley FC 300 (67)
1961-1964 Bolton Wanderers 82 (11)
1964-1965 Bury FC 20 0(0)
1965-1967 AFC Barrow 87 0(9)
Leyland Motors
National team
Years selection Games (goals)
1954-1957 England B 2 0(1)
1954 England 1 0(0)
Stations as a trainer
Years station
Leyland Motors
Chorley FC
1 Only league games are given.

Brian Pilkington (born February 12, 1933 in Leyland , † February 7, 2020 in Adlington ) was an English football player . As a left winger , he was a member of the 1960 championship team for Burnley FC . In total, he completed exactly 300 league games for the "Weinroten".

Athletic career

Like many who grew up in Leyland, England, the career path for Pilkington was mapped out with an apprenticeship at Leyland Motors . At the same time, he was positively noticed as the left wing of the factory soccer team and when talent scouts from the first division club Burnley FC examined him, Pilkington joined this club in January 1951. At a time when he was celebrating his 18th birthday, he was under coach Frank Hill as an "investment in the future" and so Pilkington started his career initially in the reserve team.

At the beginning of the 1952/53 season, Pilkington was striving towards the first team and when Billy Elliott, who was normally set in his position , was traveling for a selection game in the Football League , he made his debut in September 1952 against Tottenham Hotspur at White Hart Lane . His opponent was the later English world champion coach Alf Ramsey and although the game was lost in the 1: 2, Pilkington showed a good performance. Although Elliott remained a regular after his return, Pilkington earned four more appearances during the season and it became clear that a duel for the "jersey with the number 11" was now on. As a result, Elliott, who was after all a crowd pleaser, was sold to Sunderland AFC in the summer of 1953, making Pilkington suddenly “first choice”. His style of play was different from that of Elliotts, because Pilkington was faster, which included his passing game. While both behaved similarly in duels with opposing full-backs and with crosses, Pilkington often moved inward to look for the goal himself there. He scored nine competitive goals in the 1953/54 season. So he even attracted national attention and in addition to a use for the English B selection, he completed his first (but ultimately only) A international match in October 1954 as a replacement for Tom Finney against Northern Ireland .

Several coaching changes from Frank Hill to Alan Brown and Billy Dougall to Harry Potts did not change the fact that Pilkington continued to be a constant on the offensive left of Burnley FC. When the overall up-and-coming club won the English championship in the 1959/60 season , he only missed a single league game (due to an injury, Gordon Harris replaced him in the 0-0 win against West Bromwich Albion in January 1960 ). In the decisive 2-1 win at Manchester City , he played a leading role with his 1-0 lead. In the subsequent 1960/61 season, things initially remained largely unchanged and in the European Cup , Pilkington was very noticeable, especially with his two goals in the 3-1 quarter-final first leg win against Hamburger SV .

In the second leg against HSV, which ended with the elimination, he was sorely missed after he was sold to Bolton Wanderers in March 1961 . Allegedly, the transfer was carried out against Pilkington's wishes and he found the three years he was active for Bolton comparatively uncomfortable - shortly after his departure in February 1964, the team was relegated to the second division . Then he let his career end in the lower professional leagues at Bury FC and Barrow AFC . He then returned to Leyland Motors in his home country, where he worked as a trainer and for Chorley FC . He then turned his back on football and worked as a businessman in Chorley (also as a justice of the peace ).

Title / Awards

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ "England - International Results B-Team - Details" (RSSSF)
  2. ^ Chorley and Leyland footballing great Brian Pilkington has died
  3. ^ "Brian Pilkington" (Clarets Mad)
personal data
SURNAME Pilkington, Brian
BRIEF DESCRIPTION English soccer player
DATE OF BIRTH February 12, 1933
PLACE OF BIRTH Leyland , England
DATE OF DEATH February 7, 2020
Place of death Adlington