Wayne Biggins

Wayne Biggins
Personal information
Full name Wayne Biggins[1]
Date of birth (1961-11-20) 20 November 1961[1]
Place of birth Sheffield, England
Height 5 ft 10 in (1.78 m)[1]
Playing position 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 (30)
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
Teams managed
2002–2003 Stocksbridge Park Steels

* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only.


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]

Career

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 coast 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 before moving to Stocksbridge Park Steels, where he became assistant manager and then manager until November 2003. He later played for and coached Buxton.[3]

Honours

Norwich City
Stoke City
Wigan Athletic

Career statistics

Club Season League FA Cup League Cup Other[A] Total
DivisionAppsGoalsAppsGoalsAppsGoalsAppsGoalsAppsGoals
Lincoln City 1980–81 Fourth Division 8100000081
Total 8100000081
Burnley 1983–84 Third Division 2080000432411
1984–85 Third Division 46183140325621
1985–86 Fourth Division 123002100144
Total 78293161759436
Norwich City 1985–86 Second Division 287100041337
1986–87 First Division 314303132407
1987–88 First Division 205003110246
Total 79164062839721
Manchester City 1988–89 Second Division 3292041003610
Total 3292041003610
Stoke City 1989–90 Second Division 35101000213811
1990–91 Third Division 38123040104612
1991–92 Third Division 41222042745428
1992–93 Second Division 82002200104
Total 122466010410514855
Barnsley 1992–93 First Division 34144000003814
1993–94 First Division 132000000132
Total 47164000005116
Celtic 1993–94 Scottish Premier Division 90100000100
Total 90100000100
Stoke City 1993–94 First Division 104000000104
1994–95 First Division 172002042234
Total 276002042338
Luton Town (loan) 1994–95 First Division 7121000092
Total 7121000092
Oxford United 1995–96 Second Division 101004110152
Total 101004110152
Wigan Athletic 1995–96 Third Division 182000000182
1996–97 Third Division 333102010373
Total 515102010555
Career Total 4701302323493115558156
A. ^ The "Other" column constitutes appearances and goals in the Anglo-Italian Cup, Full Members Cup, Football League Trophy and Screen Sport Super Cup.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 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. 1 2 3 4 5 "Wayne Biggins". Flown From The Nest. Steve Whitlam. Retrieved 12 July 2009.
  4. ↑ Simpson, Ray (1996). The Clarets Collection 1946–1996. Burnley FC. 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. London.
  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.
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