Brian Hornsby (born 10 September 1954) 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 as a

midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

for Arsenal,

Shrewsbury Town Shrewsbury Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in Shrewsbury, Shropshire, England. The team competes in League One, the third tier of English football. The club plays its home games at the New Meadow, having mo ...

Sheffield Wednesday Sheffield Wednesday Football Club is a professional association football club based in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. The team competes in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. Formed in 1867 as an offshoot ...

and Carlisle United in the English league. He also had short spells playing abroad for Edmonton Drillers (Canada),

IK Brage Idrottsklubben Brage, also known as IK Brage or simply Brage, is a Swedish football club located in Borlänge. The club is affiliated with Dalarnas Fotbollförbund and play their home games at Domnarvsvallen. The club colours, reflected in th ...

(Sweden) and

Falu BS Falu Bandysällskap, ''Falu BS'', is a bandy club from Falun in Sweden. Falu BS was founded as ''Falu Bollsällskap'' on 10 December 1935, by merging Falu BK, Holmens IF, Falu SK and IFK Falun. All these clubs were playing bandy. In 1936 ...

(Sweden) for whom he was

player-manager A player-coach (also playing coach, captain-coach, or player-manager) is a member of a sports team who simultaneously holds both playing and coaching duties. A player-coach may be a head coach or an assistant coach. They may make changes to the s ...

. Hornsby played 222 English league games and scoring 48 goals. His career was seriously curtailed by a hamstring injury when playing for Sheffield Wednesday in 1980.

Playing career

As a schoolboy Hornsby captained

Peterborough Peterborough () is a cathedral city in Cambridgeshire, east of England. It is the largest part of the City of Peterborough unitary authority district (which covers a larger area than Peterborough itself). It was part of Northamptonshire until ...

Boys and earned England caps at School boy and Youth level.

Arsenal

Hornsby joined Arsenal straight from school in 1970, he was member of the Arsenal team which won the FA Youth Cup in 1971, beating Cardiff City 2–0 over two legs. He signed as a professional for Arsenal in September 1971. Arsenal had just won The Double in the 1970–71 season and had a very strong team. Hornsby's chances of breaking into the first team were very rare and he did not make his debut until May 1973 in the final league game of the 1972–73 season in a 6–1 defeat at

Leeds United Leeds United Football Club is a professional football club based in Leeds, West Yorkshire in England. The club competes in the Premier League, the highest level of England's football league system, and plays its home matches at Elland Road ...

. He was very much a reserve and squad player for the Gunners making 26 league appearances in his almost five seasons at

Highbury Highbury is a district in North London and part of the London Borough of Islington in Greater London that was owned by Ranulf brother of Ilger and included all the areas north and east of Canonbury and Holloway Roads. The manor house was sit ...

, scoring six goals. Hornsby was released by Arsenal at the end of

Bertie Mee Bertram Mee OBE (25 December 1918 – 21 October 2001) was an English footballer who played as a winger for Derby County and Mansfield Town. Mee was also a manager, noted for leading Arsenal to their first Double win in 1971. Playing career Bor ...

's reign as manager and he signed for Shrewsbury Town in May 1976 for £40,000.

Shrewsbury Town

Hornsby while playing under Shrewsbury boss

Alan Durban William Alan Durban (born 7 July 1941) is a Welsh former international footballer and manager, whose career was at its peak between the 1970s and 1990s. He played in the Football League for Cardiff City, Derby County and was player-manager of ...

and was virtually ever present during his almost two years at

Gay Meadow Gay Meadow was the home ground of Shrewsbury Town football club in Shropshire, England. Just outside the town centre, on the banks of the River Severn, it opened in 1910. The ground closed at the end of the 2006-07 Football League season and t ...

playing in 75 league games and scoring 16 goals. He helped Town win the

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 mos ...

in 1977. In February 1978 Durban left to be manager of Stoke City and the following month Hornsby signed for Sheffield Wednesday in a £45,000 deal.

Sheffield Wednesday

Sheffield Wednesday manager

Jack Charlton John Charlton (8 May 193510 July 2020) was an English footballer and manager who played as a defender. He was part of the England national team that won the 1966 World Cup and managed the Republic of Ireland national team from 1986 to 199 ...

had been tracking Hornsby for some time and he finally got his man. There is a famous anecdote regarding Hornsby which sums up Charlton's laconic personality. Wednesday were playing Shrewsbury away at the end of February 1978, just before Hornsby's move to Sheffield. Charlton was giving his pre-match team talk and midway through turned to Wednesday midfielder Jeff Johnson and said, "You're up against the lad Hornsby, he's a very skilful player ... I'm buying him to replace you". As it happened there was room for both Hornsby and Johnson in the Wednesday team. Hornsby made his debut for Wednesday on 18 March 1978 in a 3–1 away defeat to Lincoln City, however after that Wednesday only suffered one more defeat in the remaining 12 matches that season. On signing, Hornsby had said on local radio that he would score plenty of goals from midfield, his first came on 25 March in a 2–0 away win at

Rotherham Rotherham () is a large minster and market town in South Yorkshire, England. The town takes its name from the River Rother which then merges with the River Don. The River Don then flows through the town centre. It is the main settlement of ...

. It was a 25-yard volley into the roof of the net which was named as Goal of the Season on

Yorkshire Television ITV Yorkshire, previously known as Yorkshire Television and commonly referred to as just YTV, is the British television service provided by ITV Broadcasting Limited for the Yorkshire franchise area on the ITV (TV network), ITV network. Until 19 ...

Martin Tyler Martin Tyler (born 14 September 1945) is an English football commentator. He has worked as a commentator for Sky Sports since 1990, covering the Premier League and UEFA Champions League, as well as other domestic and international competition ...

. Jeff Johnson scored the other goal that day. The 1978–79 season saw Hornsby finish as top scorer for Wednesday with 21 goals in all competitions including three in the

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual knockout football competition in men's domestic English football. First played during the 1871–72 season, it is the oldest national football competi ...

3rd round marathon against former club Arsenal. 1979–80 saw Wednesday promoted from Division Three but Hornsby's goal contribution was only three, missing a third of the matches through injury. The following season ( 1980–81) in Division Two started well for Hornsby scoring three goals in 12 matches, however in October 1980 he suffered a troublesome hamstring problem and missed the rest of the season. Hornsby made one more appearance for Wednesday, as a substitute at

Chelsea Chelsea or Chelsey may refer to: Places Australia * Chelsea, Victoria Canada * Chelsea, Nova Scotia * Chelsea, Quebec United Kingdom * Chelsea, London, an area of London, bounded to the south by the River Thames ** Chelsea (UK Parliament consti ...

in December 1981. A few weeks earlier he had made four appearances for Chester City on loan.

Latter career

Hornsby spent part of 1982 playing for the Canadian NASL team Edmonton Drillers but returned to England after they hit financial trouble and folded. He signed for Carlisle United in the summer of 1982 and spent two years there, making ten appearances and scoring one goal against Newcastle United, described as "a brilliant chip over Kevin Carr" by one football writer. in November 1982. After a brief spell on loan at Chesterfield, Hornsby moved to Sweden in 1984 to play for IK Brage for a season, making 20 appearances and scoring 1 goal. He then moved to the town of

Falun Falun () is a city and the seat of Falun Municipality in Dalarna County, Sweden, with 37,291 inhabitants in 2010. It is also the capital of Dalarna County. Falun forms, together with Borlänge, a metropolitan area with just over 100,000 inhabitan ...

to be player-manager of Falu BS (Bollsällskap). On returning to the UK he played non-League football for Spalding United and Holbeach United.

After football

Hornsby later lived in

. For more than 15 years he has been captain of the Arsenal F.C. former professionals and celebrity team raising money for charities and the Arsenal Trust. He is also involved with the charity Action Medical Research and along with friend

Tony Hadley Anthony Patrick Hadley (born 2 June 1960) is an English pop singer. He rose to fame in the 1980s as the lead singer of the new wave band Spandau Ballet and launched a solo career following the group's split in 1990. Hadley returned to the ban ...

undertook a trek to Machu Picchu to raise funds for the charity.

Honours

Arsenal * FA Youth Cup: 1971 Shrewsbury Town *

1977 Events January * January 8 – Three bombs explode in Moscow within 37 minutes, killing seven. The bombings are attributed to an Armenian separatist group. * January 10 – Mount Nyiragongo erupts in eastern Zaire (now the Democrat ...

Sheffield Wednesday *

Football League Third Division The Football League Third Division was the third tier of the English football league system in 1920–21 and again from 1958 until 1992. When the FA Premier League was formed, the division become the fourth tier level. In 2004, following th ...

: 1980 Individual * Football League Third Division PFA Team of the Year: 1979

External links

Photos of Brian in his Arsenal days.Photo of Brian with Tony Hadley.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hornsby, Brian 1954 births Living people People from Great Shelford Footballers from Cambridgeshire English men's footballers Men's association football midfielders English Football League players North American Soccer League (1968–1984) players Allsvenskan players Arsenal F.C. players Shrewsbury Town F.C. players Sheffield Wednesday F.C. players Chester City F.C. players Edmonton Drillers (1979–1982) players Carlisle United F.C. players Chesterfield F.C. players IK Brage players Falu FK players Spalding United F.C. players Holbeach United F.C. players English expatriate men's footballers English football managers English expatriate sportspeople in Sweden Expatriate men's footballers in Sweden English expatriate sportspeople in Canada Expatriate men's soccer players in Canada