Josh Dacres-Cogley

Joshua Jacob Dacres-Cogley (born 12 March 1996), sometimes referred to as Josh Cogley, is an English professional footballer who plays as a full back for club Bolton Wanderers. He spent ten years with Birmingham City, making 30 first-team appearances, including 23 in the Championship, and had a loan spell with Crawley Town of League Two in the 2019–20 season. Released in 2021, he spent two seasons as a regular with League Two club Tranmere Rovers before moving up a division to join Bolton Wanderers.

Life and career

Early life and youth football

Dacres-Cogley was born in Coventry and attended Myton School, Warwick. He joined Birmingham City F.C.'s academy in 2011, and took up a scholarship in July 2012. Interviewed in January 2014, the player assessed his strengths as speed, stamina, getting forward and defending, but felt he needed to improve his passing. When some of his peers signed their first professional contracts, Dacres-Cogley accepted a third-year scholarship. He played in the Birmingham teama mixture of first-team and reserve players that won the 2014–15 Birmingham Senior Cup, and signed his first professional contract, of one year, a few days later. According to coach Steve Spooner, Dacres-Cogley had an unsuccessful trial with Birmingham as a winger, but when he returned as a full back, "he did very well so we signed him as a scholar. He has really progressed well and worked on his overall game and his variety of passing. That part of game has really come to fruition. He is a wonderful athlete, he's quick and has the ability to get forward and back quickly, which is a prerequisite for a modern day full-back.

He performed well in pre-season matches, and manager Gary Rowett had hoped to loan him out to a Football League team, but an injury prevented any such move. At the end of the 2015–16 season, Dacres-Cogley was an unused substitute for the Birmingham reserve team that lost the 2016 Birmingham Senior Cup final to National League North champions Solihull Moors, and the club took up their option for another year on his contract. Ahead of the 2015–16 season, he was one of three youngstersthe others were Dom Bernard and Wes Hardingwho began their pre-season training with the first team, and he impressed enough to be included in first-team friendlies. Against Port Vale, he provided the crosses that led to both Birmingham's goals, and a couple of days later was given a squad number.

First-team football with Birmingham City

Dacres-Cogley made his senior debut on 9 August 2016 in the EFL Cup first-round match at home to Oxford United. He played the whole 120 minutes of the match, which Birmingham lost 1–0 after extra time. With Jonathan Spector suspended and Paul Caddis injured, he made his first Football League appearance on 26 November, starting the visit to Brentford at right back. Birmingham won 2–1, and Rowett praised Dacres-Cogley's performance, saying "he played with a lot of composure at times, showed good energy, got through the game in terms of his athleticism and fitness. And when he had to defend and win some headers he certainly did that." Rowett left the club soon afterwards, and his successor, Gianfranco Zola, continued with Dacres-Cogley in the starting eleven for a time, but the team struggled. An experiment with Dacres-Cogley on the right of a back three was not successful, and he made only two brief substitute appearances in the last two months of the campaign. In February 2017, he signed a three-and-a-half-year contract with Birmingham.

The arrival of several defensive players during the 2017 summer transfer window pushed Dacres-Cogley down the pecking order, and his first appearance of the new season did not come until December, starting in central defence in a 1–0 loss to Fulham. In what remained of the 2017–18 season and the whole of the next, he made four appearances in cup competitions and played just 12 minutes of Championship football.

Crawley Town (loan)

After playing in Birmingham's EFL Cup defeat at Portsmouth on 6 August, Dacres-Cogley signed a one-year contract extension and joined League Two club Crawley Town on loan to the end of the 2019–20 season. During his third appearance, he fractured an ankle. He returned to first-team action on 1 January 2020, playing the first 71 minutes of a 1–1 draw away to Colchester United. He returned to action in January 2020, and had made 16 appearances by the time the League Two season was first suspended and then ended early because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Return to Birmingham

Dacres-Cogley made his first league appearance for Birmingham for nearly two years when he started at right back and was involved in the build-up to the opening goal in the 2–1 win away to Preston North End on 31 October 2020. He was a regular in the matchday squad and made two more starts in the first half of the season, but then dropped out of contention. After Birmingham avoided relegation, new manager Lee Bowyer used the two remaining matches as an opportunity to look at his fringe players, and Dacres-Cogley started in both. In May 2021, Birmingham confirmed that Dacres-Cogley would leave the club when his contract expired at the end of the season.

Tranmere Rovers

Dacres-Cogley signed a two-year contract with League Two club Tranmere Rovers in June 2021. He made his debut on the opening day of the season, playing the whole of the 1–0 win at home to Walsall.

Bolton Wanderers

On 21 June 2023, Bolton Wanderers announced that Dacres-Cogley would join them on a two-year deal on 1 July at the end of his Tranmere contract. He scored Bolton's second goal in a 2–1 win over Derby County on 2 September, but the goal was not initially credited to him by some sources. It was eventually awarded to him by the dubious goals panel later in the month.

Career statistics

Honours

Individual
* EFL League One Team of the Season: 2023–24

References

External links

Profile
at Birmingham City F.C. website

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dacres-Cogley, Josh
1996 births
Living people
Footballers from Coventry
English men's footballers
Men's association football defenders
Birmingham City F.C. players
Crawley Town F.C. players
Tranmere Rovers F.C. players
Bolton Wanderers F.C. players
English Football League players
Black British sportsmen
21st-century Black British people
21st-century English sportsmen