Ian Christopher Elsby (born 13 September 1960) 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 for

Port Vale Port Vale Football Club are a professional football club based in Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent, England, which compete in . Vale are the only English Football League club not to be named after a place; their name being a reference to the valley o ...

, Cleveland Cobras,

Macclesfield Town Macclesfield Town Football Club was an English professional association football, football club based in Macclesfield, Cheshire, that was liquidation, wound-up after a High Court of Justice, High Court ruling on 16 September 2020. Initially kno ...

and

Congleton Town Congleton Town Football Club is an association football club based in Congleton, Cheshire, England. They currently play in the and are full members of the Cheshire County Football Association. The club have played in a number of regional league ...

. His uncle is the former footballer Jim Elsby.

Career

Elsby graduated from the

youth team to sign as a professional in May 1978. He was immediately sent out to the USA on loan with Jimmy Melia's American Soccer League side Cleveland Cobras, but returned to Vale Park by August of that year. He played five

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 ...

games under

Dennis Butler Dennis Anthony Butler (born 24 June 1944) is an English former football player and manager. He played as a winger for Bolton Wanderers between 1959 and 1968, before ending his playing career following a five-year spell at Rochdale. Later wor ...

in 1978–79 before becoming a first-team regular under new boss John McGrath from February 1980 to the end of the 1979–80 season. He scored his first goal 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 ...

on 9 February 1980, in a 1–1 draw with Huddersfield Town. He fell out of favour the next season though, and was restricted to 23 appearances before being handed a free transfer in May 1981. He moved on to

(

Northern Premier League The Northern Premier League is an English football league that was founded in 1968. It has four divisions: the Premier Division (which stands at level 7 of the English football league system), Division One East, Division One West and Divisio ...

) and

. He was voted Macclesfield's Player of the Year in 1981–82 and won the Cheshire Senior Cup in 1983. In summer 1986 he was in a car crash with teammates

Nigel Shaw Nigel Shaw is a Canadian Anglican Bishop. Shaw was educated at the University of Toronto; and ordained Ordination is the process by which individuals are consecrated, that is, set apart and elevated from the laity class to the clergy, who ...

Steve Waddington Steven Waddington (born 5 February 1956) is an English former footballer. His father is former Stoke City manager, Tony Waddington. A midfielder, he made 201 league appearances in an eight-year career in the Football League. He began his car ...

and

Trevor Brissett Trevor Anthony Brissett (2 January 1961 – 17 May 2010) was an English footballer. He played in the Football League for Port Vale and Darlington in the early 1980s. He remained involved with football for the rest of his life, playing for S ...

Career statistics

Source:

Honours

Individual *

Macclesfield Town F.C. Macclesfield Town Football Club was an English professional football club based in Macclesfield, Cheshire, that was wound-up after a High Court ruling on 16 September 2020. Initially known as Macclesfield F.C., the club was formed in 1874 and ...

Player of the Year: 1981–82 Macclesfield Town * Cheshire Senior Cup: 1983

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Elsby, Ian Footballers from Stoke-on-Trent English men's footballers Men's association football midfielders Port Vale F.C. players English expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's soccer players in the United States Cleveland Cobras players Macclesfield Town F.C. players Congleton Town F.C. players English Football League players Northern Premier League players 1960 births Living people English expatriate sportspeople in the United States