‘Jones was fierce competitor & loveable character’

Legendary former Wales, Liverpool and Wrexham defender Joey Jones, who has died at the age of 70, was a fierce competitor, a loveable character and a humble hero to fans of every team he represented.

A European Cup and league title winner with Liverpool in 1977, Jones spent most of his career with Wrexham and also played for Chelsea and Huddersfield Town.

He made 72 appearances for Wales and, at the time of his retirement from international football in 1986, was his country’s most capped player.

After retiring as a player, Jones coached and managed Wrexham, where he first played as a professional.

Jones’ lean frame and pipe-cleaner legs made him an unlikely hard man, but his uncompromising, tough-tackling style made him feared by attackers.

His trademark clenched-fist salute also made him a firm favourite with supporters wherever he played.

Jones’ first spell at Wrexham saw the club flourish under John Neal and claim many notable FA Cup wins.

His performances persuaded Liverpool manager Bob Paisley to sign the boyhood Reds fan for £110,000 in July 1975.

Liverpool supporters memorably unfurled a banner before the 1977 European Cup final against Borussia Monchengladbach, their all-star team having already beaten Saint Etienne and FC Zurich.

It read: “Joey Ate The Frogs Legs, Made The Swiss Roll, Now He’s Munching Gladbach.”

Jones told BBC Wales in 2014: “It was made by a couple of fans who I really respected and I think as much of that banner as I do of the medal.

“To make a banner about myself, when there were such great players at Liverpool, made me feel 10ft tall.”

Chelsea fans speak fondly of his efforts to keep the club from falling into the old Third Division during the 1982-83 season and then helping them win the Second Division a year later.

Liverpool supporters ranked him in the top 100 players to play for the club and he was voted player of the year by Huddersfield fans in 1986.

The feeling was mutual.

“I happen to believe, quite honestly, that the supporters are the most important people at any club,” Jones said.

“Without them, there is no game and no job.”

His 100 games for the great Liverpool team of the late 1970s and 91 appearances for a struggling then resurgent Chelsea pale alongside his commitment to Wrexham.

Having first played for the north Wales club in 1971, Jones finally retired in 1992 having made 376 league appearances in three spells.

Afterwards he served as a coach at first team, reserve and youth level, and filled in as caretaker manager following the departure of Brian Flynn in 2001.

For Wales, for whom he made his debut against Austria in 1975, he was in teams that narrowly missed out on qualification for the 1978, 1982 and 1986 World Cups.

His international career spanned the changeover from the teams of John Toshack and Terry Yorath to the one of Ian Rush, Mark Hughes and Neville Southall.

Off the field Jones was as funny as he was tough on it.

Wales missed out on the 1982 World Cup finals, their hopes being ended by a defeat in the Soviet Union as Jones was given the runaround by Oleg Blokhin, the Ballon d’Or winner in 1975.

A reporter informed Jones after the game that Blokhin’s mother had been a notable champion pentathlete and that his father was a competitive sprinter.

Jones was quick in his reply: “Oh yeah? Well my dad’s a hospital porter and my mam’s a cleaner, what chance did I have of catching him?”

A true character of the game, his place in his country’s football history is assured – the first Welshman to win a European Cup winner’s medal.