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Wayne Biggins

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Wayne Biggins
Personal information
Full name Wayne Biggins[1]
Date of birth (1961-11-20) 20 November 1961 (age 63)[1]
Place of birth Sheffield, England
Height 5 ft 10 in (1.78 m)[1]
Position(s) Striker[1]
Youth career
Lincoln City
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1980–1981 Lincoln City 8 (1)
1981–1982 Matlock Town
1982–1983 King's Lynn
1983–1984 Matlock Town
1984–1985 Burnley 78 (29)
1985–1988 Norwich City 79 (16)
1988–1989 Manchester City 32 (9)
1989–1992 Stoke City 122 (46)
1992–1993 Barnsley 47 (16)
1993–1994 Celtic 9 (0)
1994–1995 Stoke City 27 (6)
1995 → Luton Town (loan) 7 (1)
1995 Oxford United 10 (1)
1995–1997 Wigan Athletic 51 (5)
1997–1998 Leek Town
1998–2003 Stocksbridge Park Steels
2004–2005 Buxton
Total 470 (130)
Managerial career
2002–2003 Stocksbridge Park Steels
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Wayne Biggins (born 20 November 1961) is an English former professional footballer born in Sheffield who made more than 450 appearances in the Football League and also played in the Scottish Football League.[2] He was a striker and was nicknamed "Bertie" throughout his career.[1][3]

Playing career

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Biggins was a latecomer to league football, for although he began his career with Lincoln City he played just eight games for them before he was released. He then played non-league football for Matlock Town and King's Lynn while working as a hod carrier.[3] Biggins found a way back into league football with Burnley, who signed Biggins from Matlock for a nominal fee in February 1984. He scored four goals in his first four appearances for the Lancashire club, including a hat-trick against his former side Lincoln. He was an ever-present for Burnley during the 1984–85 season but despite scoring 21 goals in all competitions he could not prevent the team being relegated to the Fourth Division for the first time in the club's history.[4] Biggins scored four goals in twelve matches at the start of the following campaign and his form attracted the attention of Norwich City, whose manager Ken Brown signed him in October 1985 for a transfer fee of £35,000.[5]

Norwich were re-building their squad after relegation from the first division and were looking to bounce back to the top flight at the first attempt. They succeeded, and Biggins ended the season with a second division championship medal.[3] He stayed at Carrow Road until the summer of 1988 when Manchester City's new manager Mel Machin – who had until that summer been Brown's assistant at Norwich – took him to Maine Road.[3] He scored 9 goals in 32 games for Manchester City before moving to Stoke City in August 1989 for a fee of £250,000. He was a number of expensive signings made by manager Mick Mills in the summer of 1989 as Stoke looked to gain promotion.[1] However results were very poor and cost Mills his job and the new manager Alan Ball failed to stop Stoke's slide and they ended up being relegated to the Third Division, Biggins top-scored in 1989–90 with 11 goals.[1] In 1990–91 Biggins was again leading goalscorer with 12 before enjoying his most prolific season in his career in 1991–92.[1] He scored 28 goals as Stoke lost in the play-offs to Stockport County, although they did beat County in the 1992 Football League Trophy Final.[1]

Not long into the 1992–93 season, Biggins left to join Barnsley where he spent a year before joining up with Lou Macari at Celtic. Biggins endured a poor three-month spell at Celtic Park and returned to Stoke for £125,000 on transfer deadline day in March 1994,[6] before playing out his league career with Luton Town, Oxford United and Wigan Athletic.[7] He won a Third Division championship medal with Wigan in 1997.[8] He went back into non-league football with Leek Town.

Management and coaching

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After leaving Leek Town, Biggins moved to Stocksbridge Park Steels, where he became assistant manager and then manager until November 2003. He later played for and coached Buxton.[3]

Personal life

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He is the father of footballer Harrison Biggins.[9] Wayne, his wife, and Harrison all had COVID-19 during the COVID-19 pandemic.[9]

Career statistics

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Source:[10]

Appearances and goals by club, season and competition
Club Season League FA Cup League Cup Other Total
Division Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals
Lincoln City 1980–81 Fourth Division 8 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 8 1
Burnley 1983–84 Third Division 20 8 0 0 0 0 4[a] 3 24 11
1984–85 Third Division 46 18 3 1 4 0 3[a] 2 56 21
1985–86 Fourth Division 12 3 0 0 2 1 0 0 14 4
Total 78 29 3 1 6 1 7 5 94 36
Norwich City 1985–86 Second Division 28 7 1 0 0 0 4[b] 1 33 7
1986–87 First Division 31 4 3 0 3 1 3[c] 2 40 7
1987–88 First Division 20 5 0 0 3 1 1[c] 0 24 6
Total 79 16 4 0 6 2 8 3 97 21
Manchester City 1988–89 Second Division 32 9 2 0 4 1 0 0 38 10
Stoke City 1989–90 Second Division 35 10 1 0 0 0 2[c] 1 38 11
1990–91 Third Division 38 12 3 0 4 0 1[a] 0 46 12
1991–92 Third Division 41 22 2 0 4 2 7[d] 4 54 28
1992–93 Second Division 8 2 0 0 2 2 0 0 10 4
Total 122 46 6 0 10 4 10 5 148 55
Barnsley 1992–93 First Division 34 14 4 0 0 0 0 0 38 14
1993–94 First Division 13 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 13 2
Total 47 16 4 0 0 0 0 0 51 16
Celtic 1993–94 Scottish Premier Division 9 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 10 0
Stoke City 1993–94 First Division 10 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 10 4
1994–95 First Division 17 2 0 0 2 0 4[e] 2 23 4
Total 27 6 0 0 2 0 4 2 33 8
Luton Town (loan) 1994–95 First Division 7 1 2 1 0 0 0 0 9 2
Oxford United 1995–96 Second Division 10 1 0 0 4 1 1[a] 0 15 2
Wigan Athletic 1995–96 Third Division 18 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 18 2
1996–97 Third Division 33 3 1 0 2 0 1[a] 0 37 3
Total 51 5 1 0 2 0 1 0 55 5
Career total 470 130 23 2 34 9 31 15 558 156
  1. ^ a b c d e Appearances in Football League Trophy
  2. ^ Appearances in Football League Super Cup
  3. ^ a b c Appearances in Full Members' Cup
  4. ^ Five appearances and four goals in Football League Trophy and two appearances in Third Division play-offs
  5. ^ Appearances in Anglo-Italian Cup

Honours

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Individual

Norwich

  • 2nd Division Championship 1985-86

Wigan

  • 3rd Division Championship 1996-97

Stoke

  • Football League Trophy Winner 1992

References

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  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Matthews, Tony (1994). The Encyclopaedia of Stoke City. Lion Press. ISBN 0-9524151-0-0.
  2. ^ "Wayne Biggins". UK A–Z Transfers. Neil Brown. Retrieved 12 July 2009.
  3. ^ a b c d e "Wayne Biggins". Flown From The Nest. Steve Whitlam. Retrieved 12 July 2009.
  4. ^ Simpson, Ray (1996). The Clarets Collection 1946–1996. Burnley F.C. p. 17. ISBN 0-9521799-0-3.
  5. ^ "Biggins joins Norwich for £35,000". The Times. London. 12 October 1985.
  6. ^ Haylett, Trevor (25 March 1994). "Football: Peacock goes but Francis stays: Mixed day at Queen's Park Rangers while Limpar joins Everton and Beagrie hops to City". The Independent.
  7. ^ "Wayne Biggins". Soccerbase. Centurycomm. Retrieved 12 July 2009.
  8. ^ "Latics A–Z : Neil Bailey to Tony Black". Ye Olde Tree And Crown. Bernard Ramsdale. Retrieved 12 July 2009.
  9. ^ a b Smith, Peter (29 May 2020). "Stoke City hero Wayne Biggins reveals family trauma". stokesentinel.
  10. ^ Wayne Biggins at the English National Football Archive (subscription required)
  11. ^ Lynch. The Official P.F.A. Footballers Heroes. p. 148.
  12. ^ Lynch. The Official P.F.A. Footballers Heroes. p. 149.
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