Ian James Griffiths (born 17 April 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 Tranmere Rovers,

Rochdale Rochdale ( ) is a large town in Greater Manchester, England, at the foothills of the South Pennines in the dale on the River Roch, northwest of Oldham and northeast of Manchester. It is the administrative centre of the Metropolitan Borough ...

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 ...

Wigan Athletic Wigan Athletic Football Club () is an English professional association football club based in Wigan, Greater Manchester, England. The team competes in the Championship, the second tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1932, ...

, Mazda Hiroshima, and

Wrexham Wrexham ( ; cy, Wrecsam; ) is a city and the administrative centre of Wrexham County Borough in Wales. It is located between the Welsh mountains and the lower Dee Valley, near the border with Cheshire in England. Historically in the count ...

. A winger, he scored 23 goals in 340 league and cup games in the

English 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 Engl ...

between 1978 and 1992. He spent most of his career in the

Third Division In sport, the Third Division, also called Division 3, Division Three, or Division III, is often the third-highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Association football *Belgian Thir ...

and

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 ...

, though he did manage to win a league title in Japan and also appeared in the

1991 Welsh Cup final The 1991 Welsh Cup Final saw Swansea City win the Welsh Cup for the tenth time, by beating Wrexham 2–0 at National Stadium in the 104th Welsh Cup Final. This was Wrexham's second consecutive final, having lost 2–1 to English side Hereford Un ...

Career

Griffiths began his career with John King's Tranmere Rovers, who were relegated out of the

at the end of the 1978–79 season. Rovers finished 15th in the

in 1979–80, before slipping into the re-election zone in 1980–81 under the stewardship of new

manager Management (or managing) is the administration of an organization, whether it is a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government body. It is the art and science of managing resources of the business. Management includes the activities o ...

Bryan Hamilton Bryan Hamilton (born 21 December 1946) is a Northern Irish former professional football player and manager. He gained 50 caps for Northern Ireland between 1969 and 1980, and later managed the national team for four years. He later became Techn ...

. They rose to 11th in 1981–82, but ended the 1982–83 season just one point and one place above the re-election zone. He scored five goals in 116 league games in his five-year stay at

Prenton Park Prenton Park is a large outdoor seated association football stadium in Birkenhead, England. It is the home ground of Tranmere Rovers, as well as Liverpool's women and reserves teams. The ground has had several rebuilds, with the most recent o ...

. He then spent the 1983–84 campaign with

, and scored five goals in 41 league games for

Jimmy Greenhoff James Greenhoff (born 19 June 1946) is an English former association football, footballer. He was a skilful Forward (association football), forward and although capped five times at England national under-23 football team, under-23 level, once a ...

's "Dale" in what turned out to be a brief stay at

Spotland Spotland ( ) is a district of Rochdale in Greater Manchester, England. The Rochdale ward name is Spotland and Falinge. The population of this ward at the 2011 census was 10,805. It lies on the River Spodden, and is the home of Spotland Stadium ...

. He joined Fourth Division side

on trial in October 1984. He scored on his full debut at Vale Park, in a 4–1 win over

Scunthorpe United Scunthorpe United Football Club is a professional association football club based in the town of Scunthorpe, Lincolnshire, England. The side currently competes in the National League, the fifth tier of the English football league system. The tea ...

in a second round FA Cup game on 7 December 1984. He enjoyed fairly regular first-team action but suffered a bizarre injury on 5 February 1985; he required a skin graft after he trapped a finger in the toilet door of the team coach. The following month he damaged his knee

ligament A ligament is the fibrous connective tissue that connects bones to other bones. It is also known as ''articular ligament'', ''articular larua'', ''fibrous ligament'', or ''true ligament''. Other ligaments in the body include the: * Peritoneal li ...

s and never played for the club again. He played only 12 league and three cup games and was released at the end of the 1984–85 season by "Valiants" manager John Rudge. He re-joined former boss Bryan Hamilton at Third Division

, who went on to finish the 1985–86 season one point and one place outside the promotion places. New boss

Ray Mathias Raymond Mathias (born 13 December 1946) is an English football coach and former player. He has spent most of his career in the lower leagues of English football. Mathias played for Tranmere Rovers between 1964 and 1985, and remains their recor ...

led the club to a fourth-place finish in 1986–87, which earned the "Latics" a place in the newly created

play-offs The playoffs, play-offs, postseason or finals of a sports league are a competition played after the regular season by the top competitors to determine the league champion or a similar accolade. Depending on the league, the playoffs may be eithe ...

, though they were beaten by Swindon Town in the two-legged semi-finals. Wigan only managed a seventh-place finish in 1987–88 and missed out on the play-offs by a three-point margin. Griffiths scored seven goals in 82 league games during his first spell at Springfield Park. He then took off to Japan to spend two seasons with

JSL JSL may refer to: * JSL, Joint Station LAN, International Space Station * JSL S.A., a Brazilian logistic company * '' Japanese: The Spoken Language'', a Japanese textbook ** JSL romanization, the romanization system used in the text * Jamaican Sig ...

side Mazda Hiroshima. Playing under former

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

international

Kazuo Imanishi is a Japanese former Association football, footballer and manager. He played for the Japan national football team, Japan national team. Club career Imanishi was born in Hiroshima on January 12, 1941. After graduating from University of Tsukuba, ...

, Mazda finished as Second Division (West) champions in 1988–89 and then finished third in the amalgamated Second Division in 1989–90, just two points behind promoted Toyota Motors. He returned to Wigan, now back under the stewardship of Bryan Hamilton, to play 12 league games in the 1990–91 season, He spent the 1991–92 season with Welsh side

, and played 14 Fourth Division games for

Brian Flynn Brian Flynn may refer to: * Brian Flynn (footballer) (born 1955), Welsh football manager * Brian Flynn (baseball) (born 1990), American baseball player * Brian Flynn (cricketer) (1929-1986), Australian cricketer * Brian Flynn (ice hockey) Brian ...

's "Dragons", and also appeared in the

defeat to

Swansea City Swansea City Association Football Club (; cy, Clwb Pêl-droed Cymdeithas Dinas Abertawe) is a professional football club based in Swansea, Wales that plays in the Championship, the second tier of English football. Swansea have played their ho ...

at Cardiff Arms Park. After departing the

Racecourse Ground The Racecourse Ground ( cy, Y Cae Ras) is a football stadium in Wrexham, Wales. It is the home of Wrexham A.F.C. It is the world's oldest international football stadium that still hosts international matches, having hosted Wales' first home i ...

, he retired from professional football.

Career statistics

Source:

Honours

Mazda Hiroshima *

Japan Soccer League , or JSL, was the top flight association football league in Japan between 1965 and 1992, and was the precursor to the current professional league, the J.League. JSL was the second national league of a team sport in Japan after the professional ...

Second Division (West): 1988–89 Wrexham *

Welsh Cup The FAW Welsh Cup ( cy, Cwpan Cymdeithas Pêl-droed Cymru), currently known as the JD Welsh Cup for sponsorship reasons, is a knock-out football competition contested annually by teams in the Welsh football league system. It is considered the most ...

runner-up:

1991 File:1991 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Boris Yeltsin, elected as Russia's first president, waves the new flag of Russia after the 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt, orchestrated by Soviet hardliners; Mount Pinatubo erupts in the Phil ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Griffiths, Ian 1960 births Living people Footballers from Birkenhead English men's footballers Men's association football wingers Tranmere Rovers F.C. players Rochdale A.F.C. players Port Vale F.C. players Wigan Athletic F.C. players English expatriate men's footballers English expatriate sportspeople in Japan Expatriate men's footballers in Japan Sanfrecce Hiroshima players Wrexham A.F.C. players English Football League players Japan Soccer League players