Albert Roy Linnecor (30 November 1933 – 25 November 2012) 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 le ...

who made 281 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, the league is the oldest such competition in the world. It was the top-level football league in Engla ...

playing for

Birmingham City Birmingham City Football Club is a professional football club based in Birmingham, England. Formed in 1875 as Small Heath Alliance, it was renamed Small Heath in 1888, Birmingham in 1905, and Birmingham City in 1943. Since 2011, the first te ...

and Lincoln City. He played as a

wing half A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

inside forward Forwards (also known as attackers) are outfield positions in an association football team who play the furthest up the pitch and are therefore most responsible for scoring goals as well as assisting them. As with any attacking player, the role ...

Career

Linnecor was born in the

Nechells Nechells is a district ward in central Birmingham, England, whose population in 2011 was 33,957. It is also a ward within the formal district of Ladywood. Nechells local government ward includes areas, for example parts of Birmingham city centr ...

district of

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...

. He attended Lea Village School and played representative schools football for

Saltley Saltley is an inner-city area of Birmingham, east of the city centre. The area is part of the Washwood Heath ward, and was previously part of the Nechells ward. It is part of the Ladywood constituency in the city. History Saltley was originally ...

Boys. When he left school he worked for the

Hercules Cycle and Motor Company The Hercules Cycle and Motor Company Limited was a British bicycle manufacturer founded on 9 September 1910 in Aston in England.Company registration 111679: Companies House – http://www.companieshouse.gov.uk/ The name Hercules was chosen for ...

, assembling bicycles, and played for his

works team A works team (sometimes factory team, company team) is a sports team that is financed and run by a manufacturer or other business. Sometimes, works teams contain or are entirely made up of employees of the supporting company. Association footb ...

on Saturday mornings and for Brookhill Juniors on Sundays. A

supporter, he signed for the club in 1950, initially as an amateur. After completing his

national service National service is the system of voluntary government service, usually military service. Conscription is mandatory national service. The term ''national service'' comes from the United Kingdom's National Service (Armed Forces) Act 1939. The l ...

in the

Royal Army Service Corps The Royal Army Service Corps (RASC) was a corps of the British Army responsible for land, coastal and lake transport, air despatch, barracks administration, the Army Fire Service, staffing headquarters' units, supply of food, water, fuel and dom ...

, he turned professional in May 1952. He had to wait nearly four years for his first-team debut, which came on 7 March 1956, deputising for the injured Roy Warhurst in a First Division game at

Huddersfield Town Huddersfield Town Association Football Club is a professional football club based in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, England, which compete in the . The team have played home games at the Kirklees Stadium since moving from Leeds Road in 1994. The ...

which finished 1–1. One of several players tried in the half-back line in the run-up to the

1956 FA Cup Final The 1956 FA Cup Final was the final match of the 1955–56 staging of English football's primary cup competition, the Football Association Challenge Cup, better known as the FA Cup. The showpiece event was contested between Manchester City a ...

, Linnecor was not selected for that game. He played 11 times in the following season, and in April 1957 was sold to Lincoln City as a makeweight in the £15,000 deal which took Dick Neal in the opposite direction. After narrowly avoiding

relegation In sports leagues, promotion and relegation is a process where teams are transferred between multiple divisions based on their performance for the completed season. Leagues that use promotion and relegation systems are often called open leagues. ...

from the

Second Division In sport, the Second Division, also called Division 2 or Division II is usually the second highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Following the rise of Premier League style compet ...

in 1957, Linnecor remained at Lincoln for the rest of his

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, the league is the oldest such competition in the world. It was the top-level football league in Engla ...

career, a further seven full seasons, during which he scored 55 goals from 287 appearances in all competitions. He is remembered for the

hat-trick A hat-trick or hat trick is the achievement of a generally positive feat three times in a match, or another achievement based on the number three. Origin The term first appeared in 1858 in cricket, to describe H. H. Stephenson taking three wic ...

he scored against

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...

Anfield Anfield is a football stadium in Anfield, Liverpool, Merseyside, England, which has a seating capacity of 53,394, making it the seventh largest football stadium in England. It has been the home of Liverpool F.C. since their formation in 1892. ...

in 1960 to give Lincoln a 3–1 victory and inflict on Liverpool their first home league defeat of the year. In the 1964 close season, Linnecor left Lincoln, by then in the

Fourth Division Fourth or the fourth may refer to: * the ordinal form of the number 4 * ''Fourth'' (album), by Soft Machine, 1971 * Fourth (angle), an ancient astronomical subdivision * Fourth (music), a musical interval * ''The Fourth'' (1972 film), a Sovie ...

, and moved into

non-league football Non-League football describes football leagues played outside the top leagues of a country. Usually, it describes leagues which are not fully professional. The term is primarily used for football in England, where it is specifically used to de ...

with

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

, newly formed and playing in the

Lincolnshire League The Lincolnshire Football League is an English football league. The league has one division, which stands at level 11 of the English football league system). History The League runs a representative side that compete in the FA Inter League Cup. ...

. He then played for Grantham Town, where he scored 11 goals from 88 appearances, helping the club reach the second round of the

1968–69 FA Cup The 1968–69 FA Cup was the 88th season of the world's oldest football cup competition, the Football Association Challenge Cup, commonly known as the FA Cup. Manchester City won the competition for the fourth time, beating Leicester City 1–0 i ...

, where they were defeated only in the last few minutes of the match by that season's

League Cup In several sports, most prominently association football, a league cup or secondary cup generally signifies a cup competition for which entry is restricted only to teams in a particular league. The first national association football tournament t ...

winners

Swindon Town Swindon Town Football Club is a professional Association football, football club based in Swindon, Wiltshire, England. The team currently competes in , the fourth tier of the English football league system. The club has played home matches at ...

, and to victory in the

Midland League The Midland Football League is an English football league that was founded in 2014 by the merger of the former Midland Alliance and Midland Combination. The league has four divisions that sit at levels 9–12 of the football pyramid. History Th ...

Cup. After that he played for

Worksop Town Worksop Town Football Club is an English football club based in Worksop, Nottinghamshire. As of the 2021–22 season the team plays in the . They are nicknamed ''The Tigers'' and play their home games at Sandy Lane in Worksop. History First clu ...

and Bourne Town, whom he assisted to successive

United Counties League The United Counties League (also known after its sponsor as the ''Uhlsport United Counties League'') is an English football league covering Northamptonshire, Rutland and Bedfordshire and most of Leicestershire as well as parts of Buckinghamshi ...

titles, and coached junior players at Lincoln City. After leaving full-time football, Linnecor worked as a salesman before becoming a storeman at Ruston's. He managed Ruston Sports football team for a number of years, and was a vice-president of the club. On retirement, Linnecor and his wife, Beryl, settled in the

Lincoln Lincoln most commonly refers to: * Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865), the sixteenth president of the United States * Lincoln, England, cathedral city and county town of Lincolnshire, England * Lincoln, Nebraska, the capital of Nebraska, U.S. * Lincoln ...

area. Linnecor died on 25 November 2012.

References

External links

Linnecor's profile and photo
at The Lincoln City FC Archive (via archive.org) {{DEFAULTSORT:Linnecor, Bert 1933 births 2012 deaths Footballers from Birmingham, West Midlands English men's footballers Men's association football inside forwards Men's association football wing halves Birmingham City F.C. players Lincoln City F.C. players Boston Town F.C. players Grantham Town F.C. players Worksop Town F.C. players Bourne Town F.C. players English Football League players Midland Football League players English football managers 20th-century British Army personnel Royal Army Service Corps soldiers United Counties League players