John Edward Impey (born 11 August 1954 in Exeter) is an English former professional football player and manager. As player, he made 461 appearances 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 ...

representing Cardiff City, AFC Bournemouth,

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 ...

and

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 ...

, and spent a season in the North American Soccer League with the

Seattle Sounders Seattle Sounders Football Club is an American professional men's soccer club based in Seattle. The Sounders compete as a member of the Western Conference of Major League Soccer (MLS). The club was established on November 13, 2007, and began ...

. As manager, he led Torquay United to

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 ...

from the Football League Fourth Division. He represented

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

at Schools and Youth level.

Career

Impey joined Cardiff City as a 14-year-old after being spotted playing at Barnstaple for Exeter Schools against North Devon Schools. He turned professional with Cardiff in August 1972, moving on to AFC Bournemouth in July 1975 where he established himself as a centre-back. He spent the summer of 1979 on loan with the

in the North American Soccer League. He made a total of 284 league appearances for Bournemouth before leaving to join

in August 1983. He moved to

in July 1985 for a season but returned to Torquay in July 1986 and was appointed as captain by new manager

Cyril Knowles Cyril Barry Knowles (13 July 1944 – 30 August 1991) was a footballer who played left-back for Tottenham Hotspur and England. He was the son of the rugby league footballer; Cyril Knowles, and the older brother of fellow professional footballe ...

a year later as Torquay almost reached the play-offs. He retired from full-time football after one more season, and joined Conference club Weymouth as player-assistant manager, spending a brief period as caretaker manager in early 1989. In the 1989–90 season he played in the

Western Football League The Western Football League is a football league in South West England, covering Bristol, Cornwall, Devon, Somerset, western Dorset, parts of Gloucestershire and Wiltshire. The league's current main sponsor is Toolstation, so it is also known as ...

for Tiverton Town. Impey remained at Torquay United as youth coach under first Knowles and then Dave Smith. Smith was dismissed in April 1991 after Torquay's promotion push appeared to be falling apart and Impey was appointed manager, the first to be appointed by chairman

Mike Bateson Mike Bateson is an English businessman and former chairman of Torquay United Football Club. Bateson was brought up in Blackpool and after a spell in the Scots Guards made his fortune selling double glazing in the South-West of England. In May 199 ...

, guiding them to the play-offs by finishing in seventh place in the Fourth Division. They beat

Burnley Burnley () is a town and the administrative centre of the wider Borough of Burnley in Lancashire, England, with a 2001 population of 73,021. It is north of Manchester and east of Preston, Lancashire, Preston, at the confluence of the River C ...

in the play-off semi-final and on 31 May 1991 Impey led his side out at

Wembley Wembley () is a large suburbIn British English, "suburb" often refers to the secondary urban centres of a city. Wembley is not a suburb in the American sense, i.e. a single-family residential area outside of the city itself. in north-west Londo ...

for the final against Blackpool. The game went to a

penalty shootout The penalty shootout is a method of determining a winner in sports matches that would have otherwise been drawn or tied. The rules for penalty shootouts vary between sports and even different competitions; however, the usual form is similar to pe ...

, which went to sudden death.

Goalkeeper In many team sports which involve scoring goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or intercepting o ...

Gareth Howells Gareth Jonathan Howells (born 13 June 1970) is an English former footballer who played in the Football League for Torquay United Torquay United Football Club is a professional football club based in Torquay, Devon, England. The team curren ...

scored Torquay's sixth penalty, Blackpool forward

Dave Bamber John David Bamber (born 1 February 1959) is an English former professional footballer. He played for nine clubs during a fifteen-year career. Over half of his 148 goals in the Football League were scored during his three spells with Blackpool. ...

missed, and Torquay were in the Third Division for the first time in 19 years. Impey was dismissed in October 1991 after Torquay had lost seven of the first eight games of the season. In July 1999 he was appointed manager of Totnes Town, a position he still held in April 2000. In May 2001, the ''Herald Express'' reported that Impey was still living in

Torquay Torquay ( ) is a seaside town in Devon, England, part of the unitary authority area of Torbay. It lies south of the county town of Exeter and east-north-east of Plymouth, on the north of Tor Bay, adjoining the neighbouring town of Paig ...

References

External links

1979 Seattle Sounders roster

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Impey, John 1954 births Living people Sportspeople from Exeter Footballers from Devon English footballers Association football defenders Cardiff City F.C. players AFC Bournemouth players Seattle Sounders (1974–1983) players Torquay United F.C. players Exeter City F.C. players Weymouth F.C. players Tiverton Town F.C. players English Football League players North American Soccer League (1968–1984) players National League (English football) players English football managers Weymouth F.C. managers Torquay United F.C. managers English Football League managers English expatriate footballers Expatriate soccer players in the United States English expatriate sportspeople in the United States