John Edward Impey (born 11 August 1954) is an English former professional

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

player and manager. As player, he made 461 appearances in

the Football League The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, it is the oldest football league in the world, and was the top-level football league in England from ...

representing

Cardiff City Cardiff City Football Club () is a professional association football club based in Cardiff, Wales. It currently competes in , the third tier of the English football league system in the 2025–26 season following relegation. Founded in 1899 a ...

AFC Bournemouth AFC Bournemouth ( ) is a professional association football club based in Kings Park, Boscombe, a suburb of Bournemouth, Dorset, England. The club compete in the Premier League, the top tier of English football league system, English football. ...

Torquay United Torquay United Football Club is a professional association football club based in Torquay, Devon, England. The team currently compete in the National League South, the sixth level of the English football league system. They have played their ho ...

and

Exeter City Exeter City Football Club is a professional association football club based in Exeter, Devon, England. The team play in , the third level of the English football league system. Known as "the Grecians", the origin of their nickname is subject to ...

, and spent a season in the

North American Soccer League The North American Soccer League (NASL) was the top-level major professional soccer league in the United States and Canada that operated from 1968 to 1984. It is considered the first soccer league to be successful on a national scale in the ...

with the Seattle Sounders. As manager, he led Torquay United to

promotion Promotion may refer to: Marketing * Promotion (marketing), one of the four marketing mix elements, comprising any type of marketing communication used to inform or persuade target audiences of the relative merits of a product, service, brand or i ...

from the

Football League Fourth Division The Football League Fourth Division was the fourth-highest division in the English football league system from the 1958–59 season until the creation of the Premier League prior to the 1992–93 season. Following the creation of the Premier ...

. He represented

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

at Schools and Youth level.

Career

Impey joined

as a 14-year-old after being spotted playing at

Barnstaple Barnstaple ( or ) is a river-port town and civil parish in the North Devon district of Devon, England. The town lies at the River Taw's lowest crossing point before the Bristol Channel. From the 14th century, it was licensed to export wool from ...

for Exeter Schools against North Devon Schools. He turned professional with Cardiff in August 1972, moving on to

in July 1975 where he established himself as a

centre-back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield player whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Defenders fall into four main categories: centre-backs, full-backs, sweepers ...

. He spent the summer of 1979 on loan with the Seattle Sounders in the

. He made a total of 284 league appearances for Bournemouth before leaving to join

in August 1983. He moved to

in July 1985 for a season but returned to Torquay in July 1986 and was appointed as

captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader or highest rank officer of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police depa ...

by new manager

Cyril Knowles Cyril Barry Knowles (13 July 1944 – 30 August 1991) was a footballer who played left-back for Tottenham Hotspur and England. He was the son of the rugby league footballer Cyril Knowles, and the older brother of fellow professional football ...

a year later as Torquay almost reached the play-offs. He retired from full-time football after one more season, and joined

Conference A conference is a meeting, often lasting a few days, which is organized on a particular subject, or to bring together people who have a common interest. Conferences can be used as a form of group decision-making, although discussion, not always d ...

club Weymouth as player-assistant manager, spending a brief period as

caretaker manager In association footballing terms, a caretaker manager or interim manager is somebody who takes temporary charge of the management of a football team, usually when the regular manager is dismissed or leaves for a different club. However, a caret ...

in early 1989. In the 1989–90 season he played in the

Western Football League The Western Football League is a association football, football league in South West England, covering Bristol, Cornwall, Devon, Somerset, western Dorset, parts of Gloucestershire and Wiltshire. The league's current main sponsor is Jewson, so it ...

for Tiverton Town. Impey remained at Torquay United as youth coach under first Knowles and then Dave Smith. Smith was dismissed in April 1991 after Torquay's promotion push appeared to be falling apart and Impey was appointed manager, the first to be appointed by chairman

Mike Bateson Mike Bateson is an England, English businessman and former chairman of Torquay United F.C., Torquay United Football Club. Bateson was brought up in Blackpool and after a spell in the Scots Guards made his fortune selling double glazing in the Sou ...

, guiding them to the play-offs by finishing in seventh place in the Fourth Division. They beat

Burnley Burnley () is a town and the administrative centre of the wider Borough of Burnley in Lancashire, England, with a 2021 population of 78,266. It is north of Manchester and east of Preston, at the confluence of the River Calder and River B ...

in the play-off semi-final and on 31 May 1991 Impey led his side out at

Wembley Wembley () is a large suburbIn British English, "suburb" often refers to the secondary urban centres of a city. Wembley is not a suburb in the American sense, i.e. a single-family residential area outside of the city itself. in the London Borou ...

for the final against

Blackpool Blackpool is a seaside town in Lancashire, England. It is located on the Irish Sea coast of the Fylde peninsula, approximately north of Liverpool and west of Preston, Lancashire, Preston. It is the main settlement in the Borough of Blackpool ...

. The game went to a

penalty shootout The penalty shootout is a method of determining a winner in sports matches that would have otherwise been drawn or tied. The rules for penalty shootouts vary between sports and even different competitions; however, the usual form is similar to pe ...

, which went to sudden death.

Goalkeeper In many team sports that involve scoring goal (sport), goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie, or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or i ...

Gareth Howells scored Torquay's sixth penalty, Blackpool forward

Dave Bamber John David Bamber (born 1 February 1959) is an English former professional footballer. He played for nine clubs during a fifteen-year career. Over half of his 148 goals in the Football League were scored during his three spells with Blackpool. ...

missed, and Torquay were in the Third Division for the first time in 19 years. Impey was dismissed in October 1991 after Torquay had lost seven of the first eight games of the season. In July 1999 he was appointed manager of Totnes Town, a position he still held in April 2000. In May 2001, the ''Herald Express'' reported that Impey was still living in

Torquay Torquay ( ) is a seaside town in Devon, England, part of the unitary authority area of Torbay. It lies south of the county town of Exeter and east-north-east of Plymouth, on the north of Tor Bay, adjoining the neighbouring town of Paignt ...

References

External links

1979 Seattle Sounders roster

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Impey, John 1954 births Living people Footballers from Exeter English men's footballers Men's association football defenders Cardiff City F.C. players AFC Bournemouth players Seattle Sounders (1974–1983) players Torquay United F.C. players Exeter City F.C. players Weymouth F.C. players Tiverton Town F.C. players English Football League players North American Soccer League (1968–1984) players National League (English football) players English football managers Weymouth F.C. managers Torquay United F.C. managers English Football League managers English expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's soccer players in the United States English expatriate sportspeople in the United States