fullname years death_date death_place clubs birth_place caps goals nationalteam position nationalcaps manageryears nationalyears birth_date managerclubs article_title name nationalgoals
brian cameron godfrey 1958 1967 -- 1971 1971 -- 1973 1973 -- 1975 1975 -- 1976 -- 1978 1960 1960 -- 1963 1963 -- 1967 11 february 2010 cyprus everton rovers newport county portland timbers bath city scunthorpe united preston north end aston villa bristol flint , wales 1 77 127 143 81 118 20 27 0 24 52 22 16 14 3 2 wales striker 3 1976 1987 -- 1991 1992 -- 1994 -- 1978 1979 -- 1983 1983 -- 1987 1964 -- 1965 01 may 1940 bath city exeter city weymouth gloucester city brian godfrey
 brian godfrey 2
brian godfrey

brian cameron godfrey -lrb- 1 may 1940 -- 11 february 2010 -rrb- was a welsh international footballer .
brian was an inside forward who started his league career at everton where he only made one appearance before joining scunthorpe united in june 1960 .
he made his league debut for the iron on the opening day of the season away to charlton athletic on 20 august 1960 , scoring on his home debut five days later against ipswich town .
he partnered ace marksman barrie thomas in the iron 's attack and helped them nearly reach the top flight when finishing 4th in the second division in 1961 -- 62 .
this is scunthorpe 's highest ever position and resulted in him being spotted by the welsh under-23 selectors , becoming the first united player ever to receive such an honour .
his last league game for the iron was at home to portsmouth on 21 september 1963 .
preston north end paid # 8,000 for him in october 1963 .
he made his debut for preston a couple of weeks later away at northampton town .
he scored ten goals in his first fourteen league games for the club , including a hat trick against ipswich town in a 5 -- 1 away win .
in the 1965 -- 66 season , godfrey was preston 's leading goalscorer including a four-minute hat trick in the last game of the season : a 9 -- 0 win against cardiff city .
his goalscoring exploits did not go unnoticed , as he certainly impressed the welsh selectors after joining the famous lilywhites , gaining three full international caps .
two of these were in 1964 : against northern ireland in april 1964 at swansea , scoring one goal on his international debut , and against denmark in copenhagen in the october .
his third and final welsh appearance came against italy in florence in may 1965 , godfrey getting the consolation goal in a 4 -- 1 defeat .
everton apart , his entire career was spent with clubs outside the first division .
his biggest disappointment was on signing for second division preston , and not being in the side that made its way to wembley , losing in the fa cup final to west ham united , after scoring in the sixth round victory over oxford united .
he did , however , help preston finish third in the second division , just missing out on promotion .
godfrey was transferred , with brian greenhalgh , to aston villa in september 1967 .
he scored on his villa debut , and he and greenhalgh scored 18 goals between them in their first 17 games in villa colours .
unfortunately , despite their efforts , villa were relegated to the third division at the end of the 1969 -- 70 season for the first time in the club 's history .
he managed to play and captain villa at wembley in the 1970 -- 71 league cup final against tottenham hotspur while they were still a third division side , but finished on the runners-up side .
villa also just missed out on promotion , finishing in fourth place in the league .
he joined bristol rovers from aston villa for # 35,000 and ray graydon in part-exchange in september 1971 .
at eastville he became an immediate inspiration to a young , developing rovers team .
one early highlight was a hat trick in a 7 -- 1 home win over bradford city .
in the 1972 -- 73 pre-season watney cup tournament brian was a member of the team that beat sheffield united in the final 7 -- 6 on penalties , after the game finished scoreless in front of 19,768 spectators .
brian godfrey also played his part in rovers famous 2 -- 1 victory at old trafford over manchester united in a third round league cup replay , the united team including the likes of bobby charlton , george best and brian kidd .
he helped bristol rovers to sixth and fifth places in the third division in consecutive seasons .
they reached the fifth round of the league cup in 1971 -- 72 after beating three second division teams in sunderland , charlton athletic and queens park rangers before losing to first division opponents and eventual winners stoke city .
in total , godfrey scored 16 goals in 81 league games for rovers , prior to joining newport county for # 10,000 in june 1973 and becoming county 's record signing at the time .
from 1973 -- 74 he was ever-present in the county side making 46 league appearances and scoring 7 goals , including a hat trick against workington in a 4 -- 0 home win .
godfrey was selected in the 1974 fourth division pfa team of the year .
he left newport at the end of the 1974 -- 75 season having scored 18 goals in a total of 118 appearances for the club .
he then had a short spell in the north american soccer league during the summer of 1975 as captain of the expansion team portland timbers , leading the club to the nasl league final .
after that , godfrey tried his hand in management for the first time , joining bath city in july 1976 .
as a player-manager he guided bath to fourth position in the southern league in his first season , and then to the championship in 1977 -- 78 .
that year he also took bath to the 1st round of the fa cup , losing to plymouth argyle in a replay .
his success with bath did not go unnoticed , and in the middle of the following season he was approached by exeter city , and left to succeed bobby saxton as exeter manager in january 1979 .
he stayed for three and a half years until resigning in june 1983 .
godfrey 's most successful season was 1980 -- 81 , guiding exeter into the sixth round of the fa cup for only the second time in their history .
during their cup run they overcame first division leicester city 3 -- 1 and second division newcastle united 4 -- 0 , both in replays at st james park , before losing to first division tottenham hotspur at white hart lane , with graham roberts and paul miller scoring in their club 's 2 -- 0 victory .
spurs went on to win the cup that year .
godfrey took exeter to ninth in the league during his first season and eighth in 1979 -- 80 , city 's best ever finish in the division 3/4 structure .
he quit at the end of the 1982 -- 83 season after exeter marginally avoided relegation to the fourth division .
he had further managerial success at both weymouth and bath city again before joining gloucester city in 1987 .
he guided them to the southern league midlands title in 1988 -- 89 and won the dml midland division manager of the year -lrb- 1988/89 -rrb- .
the 1989 -- 90 season saw godfrey take gloucester city to the second round of the fa cup for the first time in the club 's history , losing 0 -- 1 at home to cardiff city after a 2 -- 2 draw at ninian park .
the tigers also finished ninth in the premier division .
the following year he built a side that came within three minutes of the southern league title and promotion to the gm vauxhall conference , eventually finishing runners-up to farnborough town after the hampshire side scored a late goal at atherstone town to give them the championship on the last day of the season .
godfrey was sacked in 1991 following the breakup of his side due to financial problems .
he was to return in february 1992 for a further spell before leaving the club in april 1994 .
he remained involved in football with shortwood united before moving onto cinderford town , and then taking up scouting for newport .
he returned once more to gloucester city as assistant manager , originally to tommy callinan until he resigned in 2001 , and then with chris burns who took the chance to begin his football management career .
godfrey retired at the end of the 2002 -- 03 season to start a new life in cyprus , and saw his long service to football rewarded with a testimonial between gloucester city and aston villa .
he died in a hospital near his home in cyprus after a long battle with leukaemia on 11 february 2010 .
he was remarried by this time , having previously been married for 32 years with a family of three daughters .
paying tribute to godfrey , dave phillips , then chairman of gloucester city , said that godfrey had `` played a dramatic part in the progress of the club . ''
`` he took us out of the doldrums during a period when we were n't doing that well .
he wiill be remembered mainly for winning the southern league midland division championship as manager in 1989 .
from my experience , he spoke it as it was , and he was a great favourite of the fans because of that .
he was football through and through .
