|
Jimmy
Langley |
Brighton & Hove
Albion FC, Fulham FC
3 appearances, 0 goals
P 3 W 2 D
0 L 1 F 6: A 6
67% successful
1955-58
captain: none
minutes played: 270 |
 |
Timeline |
|
Ernest James Langley |
Birth |
7 February 1929
in Kilburn, Middlesex [registered in
Willesden, March 1929]. |
Marriage |
to June P.F. Edwards
[registered in Uxbridge, Middlesex, September 1950]. Three children |
Death |
9 December 2007 in West Drayton, Middlesex,
aged
78 years 305 days. |
Source |
Douglas Lammings' An
English Football Internationalist Who's Who [1990] & FindMyPast.com |
Club Career |
Club(s) |
Played schoolboy football in the London area before turning out
for a number of sides in his formative years, including Yiewsley FC,
Hounslow Town FC, Uxbridge FC, Hayes FC, at the smae time he joined
Brentford FC on apprentice forms, Ruislip FC and then Guildford City FC in
1947. He turned professional in 1949. Signed for Leeds United FC in June
1952, played only nine league appearances, scoring three times
when Brighton & Hove Albion FC signed Langley for £1500 in July 1953.
After 178 league appearances, when he scored another sixteen
goals, he joined Fulham FC in February 1957 for £12,000,
another 356 league appearances followed, along with 33
goals. Queen's Park Rangers FC then signed Langley in June 1965
for £4,000, and another 87 league appearances and nine goals
followed. Hillingdon Borough FC took him as player/manager in
September 1967, a position held until May 1971. |
Club honours |
Inter-Cities Fairs Cup runners-up 1957-58;
Football League Cup winners 1966-67; Football League
Division Three winners 1966-67; |
Individual honours |
Football League (one appearance) |
Distinctions |
Langley Close exists on the site of Guildford City's
Joseph's Road ground, in Gentleman Jim's honour. |
Height/Weight |
5'
9", 11st.
5lbs [1958]. |
Source |
Douglas Lammings' An English
Football Internationalist Who's Who [1990]. |
Management Career |
Club(s) |
After leaving Hillingdon in May 1971, Langley became coach at
Crystal Palace. He returned to Hillingdon Borough FC as manager in 1973.
He returned to the hotseat with Dulwich Hamlet FC in 1976-77; |
Club honours |
FA Trophy runners-up 1970-71; |
England Career |
Player number |
766th
player to appear for England. |
Position(s) |
Left-back |
First match |
No. 318, 19 April 1958,
Scotland 0 England 4, a British Championship match at Hampden Park,
Mount Florida, Glasgow, aged 29 years 71 days. |
Last match |
No. 320, 11 May 1958,
Yugoslavia 5 England 0,
an end-of-season tour match at Stadion Jugoslovenska Narodna Armija,
Beograd, aged 29 years 93 days. |
Major tournaments |
World Cup Finals 1958 (provisional squad) |
Team honours |
None |
Individual honours |
England B (three
appearances, 1955-56) |
Distinctions |
None |
Beyond England |
No information. -
An English Football Internationalists' Who's Who.
Douglas Lamming (1990). Hatton Press, p.153. |
Jimmy Langley - Career Statistics |
Squads |
Apps |
comp. apps |
Mins. |
|
goals ave.min |
comp. goals |
Pens |
Capt. |
Disc. |
3+ |
3 |
1 |
270 |
0 |
0
min |
0 |
1
 |
none |
none |
minutes are an approximation, due to the fact that many matches rarely stick to exactly ninety minutes long, allowing time for injuries and errors. |
Jimmy Langley
- Match Record - All Matches - By
Colour of Shirt |
Type |
P |
W |
D |
L |
F |
A |
GD |
FTS
|
CS |
FAv |
AAv |
Pts
% |
W/L |
Home |
1 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
1 |
+1 |
0 |
0 |
2.00 |
1.00 |
100.0 |
+1 |
Away |
2 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
4 |
5 |
-1 |
1 |
1 |
2.00 |
2.50 |
50.0 |
=0 |
All
- White |
3 |
2 |
0 |
1 |
6 |
6 |
=0 |
1 |
1 |
2.00 |
2.00 |
66.7 |
+1 |
Jimmy Langley
- Match Record - By Type of Match |
Type |
P |
W |
D |
L |
F |
A |
GD |
FTS |
CS |
FAv |
AAv |
Pts% |
W/L |
British Championship |
1 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
4 |
0 |
+4 |
0 |
1 |
4.00 |
0.00 |
100.0 |
+1 |
Friendly |
2 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
2 |
6 |
-4 |
1 |
0 |
1.00 |
2.00 |
50.0 |
=0 |
All |
3 |
2 |
0 |
1 |
6 |
6 |
=0 |
1 |
1 |
2.00 |
2.00 |
66.7 |
+1 |
Jimmy Langley
- Match Record - Tournament Matches |
British Championship Competition |
Type |
P |
W |
D |
L |
F |
A |
GD |
FTS |
CS |
FAv |
AAv |
Pts% |
W/L |
BC 1957-58 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
4 |
0 |
+4 |
0 |
1 |
4.00 |
0.00 |
100.0 |
+1 |
All |
1 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
4 |
0 |
+4 |
0 |
1 |
4.00 |
0.00 |
100.0 |
+1 |
All Competition |
Type |
P |
W |
D |
L |
F |
A |
GD |
FTS |
CS |
FAv |
AAv |
Pts% |
W/L |
BC |
1 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
4 |
0 |
+4 |
0 |
1 |
4.00 |
0.00 |
100.0 |
+1 |
All |
1 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
4 |
0 |
+4 |
0 |
1 |
4.00 |
0.00 |
100.0 |
+1 |
Match History
Notes
Jimmy Langley was that rare being in
professional football during the middle years of the last century a
flamboyant full-back renowned for his impeccable sportsmanship. Not
for him the grim, frowning, overtly physical approach which
characterised many of his contemporaries. The ebullient Londoner was a
hugely accomplished performer who took his work seriously enough to
earn three England appearances, but still he conveyed the engaging impression
of playing the game for fun.
Even in the heat of the most frenetic action, an ear-to-ear grin
was prone to crease his homely features, and during his pomp with
Fulham for eight years from 1957, he was invariably at the heart of
dressing-room banter with the numerous Craven Cottage characters of
that era. Reportedly most of the verbal cut-and-thrust between Langley
and the likes of the winger Trevor "Tosh" Chamberlain and club
chairman Tommy Trinder, the comedian, tended to be good-hearted, but
it was never less than wickedly irreverent. On the field, unlike less
expansive flank defenders, Langley was ever-ready to try something
enterprisingly different. He was adept at sliding tackles which seemed
to go on forever and spectacular bicycle-kick clearances which
required astonishingly acrobatic contortions to complete.
Occasionally, Langley caused palpitations among team-mates and
supporters alike by outrageously delicate manipulation of the ball
when besieged by opposition forwards inside his own penalty box, and
his swashbuckling left-flank attacking forays, rendered all the more
eye-catching by his distinctive bandy-legged gait, sometimes left gaps
which colleagues had to race to fill. Still, he was quick and skilful
enough to be caught out only rarely and there were few wingers who
could give him a chasing, although Chelsea's Peter Brabrook did cause
him more problems than most. Even then, "Gentleman Jim" tended not to
resort to violence, although he was no soft touch, and feisty
opponents such as Blackpool's Arthur Kaye could easily find themselves
propelled beyond the touchline at high velocity by a trademark Langley
slide.
A beautifully crisp striker of the ball with his favoured left
foot, he was an expert penalty-taker, becoming only the second
full-back in Football League history to reach half a century of goals
Stan Lynn of Aston Villa and Birmingham City was the first. Then there
were his throw-ins, almost as long as corner-kicks, testimony to his
wiry strength and capable of creating havoc among unwary defences. Yet
for all his ultimate longevity he left the professional game after
playing some 650 matches in 15 seasons Langley had been a slow
starter. As a teenager he played at non-League level for Yiewsley,
Hounslow Town, Uxbridge and Hayes before joining Brentford, then in
the League's top division, as an amateur in 1946. He was rejected as
being too small by the Griffin Park boss Harry Curtis, and returned to
the lower level, first with Ruislip and then, after demob from
National Service with the Army in 1948, Guildford City.
His League breakthrough finally arrived when he joined Second
Division Leeds United as a left-winger in the summer of 1952, but
despite scoring on his dbut in a 2-2 home draw with Bury, he failed to
carve a niche at Elland Road and switched to Brighton of the Third
Division (South) in July 1953. At the Goldstone Ground he was
converted successfully into a left-back, and soon shone so insistently
that he won representative honours, three outings for England "B" and
selection for the Football League against the Irish League in October
1956. After twice tasting the disappointment of narrowly missing
promotion with the Seagulls, whom he captained for two years, the
28-year-old accepted a career-changing 12,000 move to Fulham, then in
the second tier, in 1957.
He settled quickly in west London, relishing the atmosphere in an
attractive side marshalled by the masterful midfield general Johnny
Haynes. In 1957/58, Langley excelled as never before, featuring
prominently as Fulham reached the semi-finals of the FA Cup, where
they were eliminated by a patched-up Manchester United still reeling
after the recent Munich air disaster only after a replay. However,
Langley had done enough to impress the England manager Walter
Winterbottom, who was in need of a left-back following the death of
Roger Byrne at Munich and called up Langley for his full international
dbut against Scotland at Hampden Park that April. He gave a creditable
account of himself in a swingeing 4-0 victory, but then missed a
penalty as England beat Portugal 2-1 at Wembley before suffering in a
5-0 reverse against Yugoslavia in Belgrade, where his immediate
opponent, Aleksandar Petaković, bagged a second-half hat-trick. After
that he was dropped, never to be selected again; his international
tenure had ended after 22 days.
Nothing daunted, he maintained a lofty standard with Fulham in
1958/59 as the team, now managed by Bedford Jezzard, finished as
runners-up in the Second Division, thus securing elevation to the top
tier. Thereafter, despite the occasional brush with relegation,
Langley helped Fulham consolidate in the First Division over the next
half-decade, during which highlights included his goal in the 1962 FA
Cup semi-final replay defeat by Burnley and selection for the London
side which lost to Barcelona in the final of the Inter-Cities Fairs
Cup (now the Uefa Cup). Despite celebrating his 36th birthday in 1965,
Langley remained in jaunty form and many fans were surprised when he
was released that summer by a new boss, Vic Buckingham, who was
seeking to construct a younger team. Not long before his exit, though,
there was a tribute from an unexpected source.
Stoke City's recently knighted Sir Stanley Matthews, who had just
turned 50, planned one last League appearance and scanned the Potters'
remaining fixtures for a suitable finale. The great outside-right
wanted as his marker a man he could trust not to dish out brutal
treatment, and who was not himself in the first flush of youth. He
chose Langley, and bowed out in honourable combat with the Fulham
number three, whose day was spoiled only slightly by Stoke's 3-1
victory. In July the still-sprightly left-back joined Third Division
Queen's Park Rangers in a 5,000 deal, but he was not looking for an
easy billet to wind down his career. Thus he was ever-present as Alec
Stock's men finished third in the table in 1965/66 and missed only a
handful of games as they climaxed the following campaign by lifting
the title and beating West Bromwich Albion of the top division in the
first League Cup final played at Wembley.
Langley, now 38, had showed no sign of flagging against much
younger opponents, but he was freed at season's end. Still as
effervescent as ever, he was not ready to set aside his boots, and
soon he became player-boss of non-League Hillingdon Borough, whom he
led to the FA Trophy final in 1971. His team lost 3-2 to Telford after
leading 2-0, but the irrepressible 42-year-old consoled himself by
reflecting that he might have been the oldest man to appear in a
recognised final at Wembley. In August 1971 he started a coaching
stint with Crystal Palace before returning to Hillingdon as club
administrator in 1972, filling that role for the next 13 years. Later
Langley worked in the motor industry and continued to indulge his
passion for collecting cigarette cards, of which he had more than a
thousand sets. His favourites, of course, were those depicting the
game to which he devoted virtually his whole life. - Ivan Ponting
The Independent Obituary
____________________
CG
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