Brian Richard Gibbs (6 October 1936 – 27 January 2014) was an English professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby ...

who played as a

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People * Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Sm ...

Playing career

Born in

Gillingham, Dorset Gillingham ( ) is a town and civil parish in the Blackmore Vale area of Dorset, England. It lies on the B3095 and B3081 roads, approximately south of the A303 trunk road and northwest of Shaftesbury. It is the most northerly town in the coun ...

Gibbs began his career on the South Coast with non-league Gosport Borough. In 1957, he joined

Bournemouth & Boscombe Athletic AFC Bournemouth () is a professional association football club based in Kings Park, Boscombe, a suburb of Bournemouth, Dorset, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the highest division of English club football. Formed in 1899 as Bo ...

, scoring 15 goals in 58 appearances. In 1962, he joined the Kent club Gillingham, where he made over 250 appearances and scored 101 league goals. He left Gillingham in 1968 after aiding the team to the 1963–64 Fourth Division championship to join

Colchester United Colchester United Football Club is a professional association football club based in the city of Colchester, Essex, England. The team competes in , the fourth tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1937, the club spent its earl ...

, where he spent four years scoring 40 goals in over 150 league appearances. He won the

Watney Cup The Watney Mann Invitation Cup (normally referred to as simply the Watney Cup) was a short-lived English football tournament held in the early 1970s. It was held before the start of the season, and was contested by the teams that had scored t ...

in 1971 with the U's, before stepping out of league football to join Bletchley Town.

Managerial career

Gibbs became team manager of New Bradwell St Peter in 1975, and under his guidance the club won the

South Midlands League The South Midlands League was a football league covering Bedfordshire and some adjoining counties in England. It was founded in 1922 as the Bedfordshire County League and merged with the Spartan League in 1997 to form the Spartan South Midla ...

Division One title in the 1976–77 season.

Death

Gibbs died on 27 January 2014 at the age of 77.

Honours

Gillingham *

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. Whilst the division disappeared in name i ...

: 1963–64 Colchester United *

: 1971

References

1936 births 2014 deaths People from Gillingham, Kent Men's association football inside forwards English men's footballers Gosport Borough F.C. players AFC Bournemouth players Gillingham F.C. players Colchester United F.C. players Milton Keynes City F.C. players English Football League players New Bradwell St Peter F.C. managers English football managers {{england-footy-forward-1930s-stub