Brian Green

A utility player with Rochdale, injuries limited his appearances at Haig Avenue. He was injured at Torquay on 9 September 1959 and was out with ligament trouble, which culminated in a cartilage operation at the Promenade Hospital. He laid on a goal for Wally Fielding on his début. In March 1960, he scored one of the quickest goals ever by a Southport player when he netted inside the first 30 seconds against Watford. He flitted in and out of the Football League and had a spell in Australia as well as playing for a clutch of non-League teams. He returned to Haig Avenue as trainer-coach after a coaching engagement in Kuwait and deserved much of the credit for Southport’s Fourth Division Championship success in 1972–73. Subsequently, he won the ‘Coach of the Year’ award while with Chester in 1974–75 and went on to become Australia’s national coach; he was manager of Rochdale between June 1976 and September 1977. He coached Leeds United under Jimmy Armfield and also enjoyed success managing Norwegian First Division club Bryne for several seasons. By the mid-1990s, he was a hotel sales manager near Oldham. He had been a Lancashire Schoolboy cricketer, opening the batting with Geoff Pullar (Lancashire and England).

Profile reproduced with Permission from:
The Sandgrounders: The Complete League History of Southport F. C., by Michael Braham and Geoff Wilde (Palatine Books, 1995). ISBN 978-1-874181-14-9