Hereford Club Historian Ron Parrott has been saddened to hear of the death of former Hereford United player Barry Lloyd. In October 1976, Hereford United manager John Sillett paid £8,000 to bring Barry to Edgar Street and he even bought a house in the area to help him settle into the community. He was a stylish midfielder but like many Londoners before him, Barry found it difficult to settle in the West Country and after just 16 appearances in six months, he had returned to the capital and signed for Brentford. Overall, he had a great career and below, Ron has penned his complete pen-pic:-
Appearances: 16 (14+2 sub.) Goals: 0
Seasons played: 1976/77
Born Hillingdon 19th February 1949
Barry’s career started as a schoolboy in the Middlesex area, where he collected a host of representative honours and also played for the England Youth team. After a brief spell with Arsenal as a schoolboy, Barry joined Chelsea in 1966 at Youth then U-18 level and performed so well that he was offered a professional contract in 1967. Barry made his debut against West Brom in April 1967 but there were too many players competing for too few places so after just 10 appearances for the Blues, Barry reluctantly decided that his best chance of regular football was to move on. Thus, in December 1968, Barry made the short trip down the West End to sign for Fulham in a £70,000 player-exchange deal that saw John Dempster move in the opposite direction. Barry spent almost eight seasons with the Cottagers and captained them to promotion from the old Third Division in 1970/71 but unfortunately, he missed out on the 1975 FA Cup Final defeat to West Ham, when he was confined to the bench. Overall, Barry made 286 appearances for Fulham and scored 30 times.
In October 1976, Hereford United manager John Sillett paid £8,000 to bring Barry to Edgar Street and he even bought a house in the area to help him settle into the community. He was a stylish midfielder but like many Londoners before him, Barry found it difficult to settle in the West Country and after just 16 appearances in six months, he had returned to the capital and signed for Brentford.
He was with the Bees for the 1977/78 season and despite scoring four times in 31 starts, Barry somehow never captured the hearts and minds of the Brentford fans and he was inexcusably subjected to some unpleasant barracking. Nearing the end of his career, Barry decided to have one last fling and spent the summer of 1978 with Houston Hurricane in the States and turned out for them on 11 occasions before making the decision to retire from the playing side of the game. Barry then returned to the UK and took over as manager of Yeovil Town in the Southern League Premier. He guided them to a mid-table position in 1978/79 but they did win the Somerset Premier Cup. The following season saw the Glovers in the new Alliance Premier League but a mixed bag of results saw him sacked in January 1981. He immediately took over at Worthing, who played in the Isthmian League Premier Division and Barry did exceptionally well in his first two seasons, driving them to consecutive promotions before moving on to accept a position of Assistant Manager to Alan Mullery at Second Division Brighton & Hove Albion in the summer of 1986.
By January 1987, with the Seagulls near the relegation zone, Mullery was sacked and Barry Lloyd was immediately asked to take over the helm but unfortunately, Barry was unable to prevent the club being relegated to the old Third Division. In 1987/88, his first full campaign in full charge, Barry immediately steered Brighton back to the Second Division and three years later, they reached the play-off but lost to Notts County. In 1991/2, they were relegated back to the old First Division after many years of overspending. The following campaign was pretty mundane and in December 1993, Barry resigned as Brighton’s manager and after a long break, he rejoined Isthmian League First Division side Worthing as caretaker manager in November 2001. Barry took over the full reins in December 2001 but after two mid-table finishes, he was sacked in July 2003. In September 2007, Barry returned to Brighton as Chief Scout and worked at a BMW dealership in Worthing. In March 2022, Barry was inducted into “Forever Fulham”, the Cottagers’ equivalent of a “Hall of Fame”.
Everyone at Hereford FC would like to offer our condolences to Barry's family and friends at this sad time.