Frederick Edward Binney (born 12 August 1946) is an English former 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 in

the Football League The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional association football, football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, the league is the oldest such competition in Association football around the wor ...

for

Torquay United Torquay United Football Club is a professional football club based in Torquay, Devon, England. The team currently compete in the , the fifth tier of English football. They have played their home matches at Plainmoor since 1921 and are nicknamed ...

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

Brighton & Hove Albion Brighton & Hove Albion Football Club (), commonly referred to simply as Brighton, is an English professional football club based in the city of Brighton and Hove. They compete in the Premier League, the top tier of the English football league ...

, Plymouth Argyle and

Hereford United Hereford United Football Club was an association football club based in Hereford, England. They played at Edgar Street for their entire history. They were nicknamed 'The Whites' or 'The Lilywhites', after their predominantly white kit, or 'Th ...

, and in the North American Soccer League for the St. Louis Stars.

Early career

Binney was raised in the Barbican area of Plymouth. He was a prolific goalscorer in junior football whilst playing for CM Department juniors and was signed by South Western League side Launceston. He became an apprentice at Devonport Dockyard and whilst continuing to play for Launceston, also played for John Conway in the Devon Wednesday League. During the early years in the dockyard Fred was also involved in the music scene in Plymouth with the Hoe Nuts a very popular local group. It was playing for John Conway that Binney was spotted by

Don Mills Don Mills is a mixed-use neighbourhood in the North York district of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It was developed to be a self-supporting "new town" and was at the time located outside Toronto proper. In 1998, North York, including the Don Mills com ...

, by now acting as a scout for

. He signed for Torquay as an amateur, before turning professional in October 1966. Whilst a regular scorer for Torquay's reserve side, which played in the Western League, the form of Robin Stubbs meant that Binney's debut would have to wait. It finally came in September 1967, a 1–1 draw away to

Grimsby Town Grimsby Town Football Club is a professional football club based in Cleethorpes, North East Lincolnshire, England, that in the 2022–23 season will compete in , the fourth tier of the English football league system, following the victory in t ...

, but Binney could not gain a regular place in the side and was loaned to

in February 1969, scoring 11 goals in 17 league games. The following season Binney was still not a regular in the Torquay side and in March 1970, after scoring 10 goals in 34 league games for the Gulls, he moved to Exeter City for a fee of £35,000. In 1972–73, Binney scored 28 league goals for Exeter, making him the joint-top goalscorer for the season, alongside Pop Robson of

West Ham United West Ham United Football Club is an English professional football club that plays its home matches in Stratford, East London. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football. The club plays at the London Stadium, hav ...

. The following season, Binney was voted the PFA

Division Four 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 ...

Player of the Year as he scored another 25 times. Unsurprisingly he was noticed by a number of higher-level teams, and in May 1974 was signed by

Brian Clough Brian Howard Clough ( ; 21 March 1935 – 20 September 2004) was an English football player and manager, primarily known for his successes as a manager with Derby County and Nottingham Forest. He is one of four managers to have won the Engl ...

for

for a fee of £25,000 with John Templeman and

Lammie Robertson Archibald Lamond Robertson, also known as Lammie Robertson, (born 27 September 1947 in Paisley) is a Scottish retired footballer who played in the Football League for Burnley, Bury, Halifax Town, Brighton & Hove Albion, Exeter City, Leicester C ...

moving to Exeter in exchange. He had scored 90 goals in 177 league appearances for the Grecians. His second season at the Goldstone Ground was his most successful, Binney scoring 23 league goals as Brighton narrowly missed out on promotion to Division Two.

Big move

In 1977, after 35 league goals in just 70 games and after helping Brighton to promotion in his final season, he moved to the United States, playing for St. Louis Stars in the NASL; at around this time he also played alongside players like Pelé in New York where he powered a header in front of 68,000 people, before signing for Plymouth Argyle on a free transfer in October 1977. His first season with his hometown club was a struggle, both for the team as it battled against being relegated for the second successive season, and for Binney who initially could not hold down his place in the first team. The following season saw a turn around in Binney's fortunes, 28 goals resulting in the Plymouth Player of the Year award. However, Binney suddenly fell from favour at Plymouth, not fitting in with new manager

Bobby Saxton Robert Saxton (born 6 September 1943) is an English former professional footballer, manager and coach. Career Born in Doncaster, South Yorkshire, Saxton managed Blackburn Rovers for five seasons after a playing career as a utility defender wit ...

's plans for Argyle, and in January 1980, after 42 goals in 81 appearances, Binney was transferred to

for £37,000.Fred Binney
''Argyle Review''. Retrieved 24 January 2010.

Coaching

At Hereford he subsequently qualified as a coach and was appointed assistant manager to

Frank Lord Frank Lord (13 March 1936 – June 2005) was an English footballer who played as a centre forward. He made 354 appearances in the English Football League for Rochdale, Crewe Alexandra, Plymouth Argyle, Stockport County, Blackburn Rovers and ...

. In 1982 Lord left for

Malaysia Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federation, federal constitutional monarchy consists of States and federal territories of Malaysia, thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two r ...

and Binney soon followed, working as coach to the

national team before returning to

Devon Devon ( , historically known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South West England. The most populous settlement in Devon is the city of Plymouth, followed by Devon's county town, the city of Exeter. Devo ...

in 1985 as assistant manager to

Colin Appleton Colin Harry Appleton (7 March 1936 – 31 May 2021) was an English footballer and manager. He was captain of the celebrated Leicester side nicknamed the "ice kings" which chased the double in 1962–63 and he also captained the club to their f ...

at Exeter City. When Appleton was sacked in December 1987, Binney also left becoming Recreation Officer at Plymouth University where he later became president and coach of the University of Plymouth football club (UPFC) and still is today. Fred's eldest son, Adam, followed him into football coaching in 2004 as manager of the Longbrooke Football Club in Exeter.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Binney, Fred 1946 births Living people Footballers from Plymouth, Devon English footballers Torquay United F.C. players Exeter City F.C. players Brighton & Hove Albion F.C. players North American Soccer League (1968–1984) players St. Louis Stars (soccer) players Plymouth Argyle F.C. players Hereford United F.C. players People associated with the University of Plymouth Launceston F.C. players Men's association football forwards English expatriate sportspeople in the United States Expatriate soccer players in the United States English expatriate footballers