Leavey Herbert Image 1 Barnsley 1912

Description

Guildford, Surrey born outside left Bert Leavey grew up in Plymouth and began his football career with local sides Sutton, St Jude’s and Woodland Villa from where he joined Southern League club Plymouth Argyle in 1907, where he made a scoring debut in a win over Bristol Rovers in November that year. He was a regular for two seasons with The Pilgrims except for a four month spell at Derby County who he joined in March 1909 before returning to Plymouth without making their first eleven, He was then bought by First Division club Liverpool in June 1910 after 8 goals in 80 matches for Plymouth,

He made his Football League debut at Aston Villa in December 1910 but okayed only 5 matches for The Reds before he signed for Barnsley in August 1911, where he was a regular and contributed to the side which made history winning the FA Cup in 1912. Sadly, he suffered a broken leg in the quarter-final (third replay) victory over Bradford City in March and could not play any further part in the Cup run.

The injury restricted Leavey to 3 goals in 35 appearances in his two years at Oakwell, he never played for Barnsley again and in May 1913 he moved on to Bradford Park Avenue. He helped The Avenue to finish runners up in the Second Division and gain promotion with a single goal in 20 matches, but his career was then interrupted by the First World War, after which he joined Llanelli in 1919. He returned to Football League action with Portsmouth in March 1921 and played in all of their last 13 matches in their inaugural League season and finally joined non league Boscombe, his final club before his playing retirement.

He then worked for Portsmouth as a scout, before moving to The Netherlands to manage PSV Eindhoven between 1922 and 1926. After his appointment as manager, PSV played in the 1e Klasse Zuid (the highest league for teams in South Netherlands) for three seasons. After finishing tenth in 1923 and sixth in 1924, PSV were relegated in Leavy’s third season after finishing last. The 1925-26 season in the 2e Klasse B was won, which meant that PSV were promoted back to the 1e Klasse Zuid after one year. Leavey left PSV in 1926 after being four seasons in charge. He subsequently became manager of HRC of Den Helder, although he also started managing SV Gouda on a part-time basis later in the year. He moved to Gouda on a part-time basis in 1927 and led the club to the second tier title in 1931-32. He returned to HRC in 1935, remaining at the club until 1940 and returning in 1945 to manage them until 1952.