Brian Joseph Taylor (24 March 1937 – 10 June 2015) was an English footballer who played as a winger. In a career over 16 years, he made 316 league appearances in the Football League.
He turned professional with Walsall in September 1954 before winning a £10,000 move to Birmingham City in June 1958. He played in the top flight, as well as in Europe, for the "Blues" before he was struck down with a broken leg. He moved down a division to join Rotherham United in October 1961 before dropping down another division to play for Shrewsbury Town two years later. His descent to the basement division was complete when he was signed by Port Vale for £3,000 in July 1965. He transferred to Barnsley in May 1967 and helped the club to win promotion out of the Fourth Division in 1967–68. He later played non-League football with Kidderminster Harriers, Bromsgrove Rovers, Welshpool Town, Oswestry Town and Darlaston.
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Career
Taylor started his career as an amateur with Walsall and turned professional in September 1954. He made more than 70 appearances for the "Saddlers" in the Third Division South. Frank Buckley failed to keep Walsall out of the re-election zone in the 1954–55 season, and the Fellows Park club continued to struggle in the lower half of the table in 1955–56 and 1956–57 under the stewardship of John Love. Despite the introduction of a new boss Bill Moore, a 20th-place finish in 1957–58 left the club to become founder members of the Fourth Division.
He moved to First Division club Birmingham City in June 1958 in exchange for £10,000 and the inside-forward Jimmy Cochrane. Manager Arthur Turner described him as a "wonderful prospect". He scored six goals from 30 appearances in the 1958–59 season. Each of the six was the last goal of its match: his first top-flight goal, "tearing through straight from the second-half kick-off", helped earn his club a draw at Portsmouth, the other five all came in comfortable wins. Having come into the first-team early in the 1959–60 season when Gordon Astall was injured in the home defeat of Newcastle United, Taylor suffered double vision in the reverse fixture a week later and was out for a month. He was selected regularly during October by manager Pat Beasley until a broken leg, sustained in the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup semi-final win over Union Saint-Gilloise in mid-November, kept him out for a year. Though he returned to the first team, the injury had robbed him of much of his pace. He scored on his return against Manchester United, and made 24 appearances during the remainder of the season, sharing the outside-left position with Billy Rudd: Taylor was preferred on a heavy pitch.