Gerald William Taylor (born 15 August 1947) is an English former

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 played 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 ...

as a defender for

Wolverhampton Wanderers Wolverhampton Wanderers Football Club (), commonly known as Wolves, is a professional football club based in Wolverhampton, England, which compete in the . The club has played at Molineux Stadium since moving from Dudley Road in 1889. The club's ...

, where he spent the majority of his playing career, and

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 in the

United Soccer Association The United Soccer Association was a professional soccer league featuring teams based in the United States and Canada. The league survived only one season before merging with the National Professional Soccer League to form the North American S ...

league for the

Los Angeles Wolves The Los Angeles Wolves were an American professional soccer team that played for two seasons. In 1967 they played in the United Soccer Association, finishing as champions, and in 1968 they were founding members of the North American Soccer Leag ...

Career

Taylor was born in Hull, and began his football career at Wath Wanderers, the

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ; abbreviated Yorks), formally known as the County of York, is a Historic counties of England, historic county in northern England and by far the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its large area in comparison with other Eng ...

-based nursery club of

, before heading south to join them. After proving himself in the reserve ranks, he progressed to making his first team debut on 31 December 1966 in a goalless draw with

Ipswich Town Ipswich Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in Ipswich, Suffolk, England. They play in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. The club was founded in 1878 but did not turn profession ...

in 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 ...

. He remained in the team for the remainder of the 1966–67 season as the club won

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 ...

to the First Division, and was part of the squad that won the

league that summer under the

guise. The defender was often reserve to players such as Joe Wilson,

Bobby Thomson Robert Brown Thomson (October 25, 1923 – August 16, 2010) was a Scottish Americans, Scottish-born American professional baseball player, nicknamed the "Staten Island Scot". He was an outfielder and right-handed batter for the New York Giants ( ...

Bernard Shaw George Bernard Shaw (26 July 1856 – 2 November 1950), known at his insistence simply as Bernard Shaw, was an Irish playwright, critic, polemicist and political activist. His influence on Western theatre, culture and politics extended from ...

and

Derek Parkin Derek Parkin (born 2 January 1948) is an English former football player who made a record number of appearances for Wolverhampton Wanderers (609). He also played for Huddersfield Town and Stoke City as well as the England under-23 national s ...

in the Wolves defence over his career, but played in both legs of the

1972 UEFA Cup Final The 1972 UEFA Cup Final was the final of the first UEFA Cup football tournament. It was a two-legged contest played on 3 May and 17 May 1972 between two English clubs, Wolverhampton Wanderers and Tottenham Hotspur. This was the first UEFA club com ...

. With fewer opportunities in his latter years with the club, he spent time on loan at

in 1975. After 192 appearances in total for Wolves, he retired from the professional game in 1976. He spent 26 years in the police force, and then worked at the

RAF Museum The Royal Air Force Museum is a museum dedicated to the Royal Air Force in the United Kingdom. The museum is a non-departmental public body of the Ministry of Defence and is a registered charity. The museum is split into two separate sites: * R ...

in Cosford.

References

External links

League stats
at Neil Brown's site {{DEFAULTSORT:Taylor, Gerry 1947 births Living people Footballers from Kingston upon Hull English footballers Association football defenders Wolverhampton Wanderers F.C. players Los Angeles Wolves players Swindon Town F.C. players English Football League players United Soccer Association players English expatriate sportspeople in the United States Expatriate soccer players in the United States English expatriate footballers