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Martyn Busby

Full Name: Martyn George Busby
Born: 24 March 1953, Slough (England)
Nationality: British
Loaned from: Queen Park Rangers, 05 February 1976. Loan
Previous Clubs: None
Pompey Debut: 07 February 1976 v Bolton Wanderers, League (L 0-1)First Pompey Goal: 14 February 1976 v Plymouth Argyle (W 2-0)
Games: 6 (All league)
Goals: 1
Final Game: 06 March 1976 v Fulham (W 1-0)
Transferred to: Returned to QPR – Loan End
Subsequent Clubs: Notts. County, QPR, Burnley (Loan)

Profile:
Considered one of Queens Park Rangers brightest young prospects for many a year, midfielder Martyn Busby signed professional terms with The Hoops as a 16 year old in 1970.

Although he made his debut in a 1-2 defeat against Leicester that April, Busby did not fully establish himself in the first team until early 1972 when he started the last fourteen games of the season

Martyn shone in an exciting QPR team and seemed to get better the more games he played. By the start of the 1972-73 season the (by now) 19 year old was growing in stature and showing all the signs that he would live up to his full potential, but with only a few weeks of the new season gone catastrophe struck.

In what was described as a thuggish tackle, one of Busbys` legs was left dangling in the Craven Cottage cold night air courtesy of Fulham’s Paul Went.

At first it was thought that the terrible injury would end Busby’s career but after 18 months he did return to action but was never quite able to reproduce the form he had previously shown and with Dave Sexton’s QPR on the verge of arguably their greatest season ever, Busby was deemed to be no more than a fringe player. In February 1976 Busby was loaned to Ian St. John’s second division Portsmouth who considering they had just recorded their fist home victory of the season, were unsurprisingly bottom of the league.

Three days after agreeing the loan Martyn Busby made his Pompey debut at Fratton Park against a Bolton side gunning for promotion but was able to offer little as Wanderers walked away with the points to temporarily claim the leagues top spot.

Subsequent games; a 2-0 home win over Plymouth (in which Busby scored) and a 3-0 victory at follow strugglers Blackburn however gave Pompey their first back to back wins of the season to lift them off the bottom and ignite talk of a mini revival, but a midweek loss at Stamford Bridge followed by a 3-1 defeat at the hands of Notts. County in the next two games restored the reality of Pompey’s plight.

Busby’s sixth and final game for The Blues saw a return to the scene of his horrific injury as Pompey collected both points with a spirited 1-0 victory over Fulham.

As the loan period expired Martyn Busby returned to QPR, who by now where challenging for the First Division title, but as the season drew to a close Busby once again found himself surplus to Dave Sexton’s requirements at Loftus Road.

QPR eventually finished Division One Runners-up to Liverpool as Pompey, together with York City and Oxford United were relegated (25 pts from 42 games) to Division Three

Later the same year Busby was loaned and then permanently transferred to second division Notts County for £40,000. As regular football saw Martyn recapture glimpses of his past form other clubs began to show interest. Ironically he transferred back to a ‘Sextonless’ QPR little under a year later for double what he had been sold for.

Sadly, neither Busby or QPR were ever fully able to recapture their past form and in 1980, after a less than successful month long loan spell at Burnley and having played a total of 146 league games, during his two spells with QPR, Busby retired due to injury.


Career Highlights:
?….1970 – Signs professional terms with QPR
Apr 1970 – Makes QPR debut
Oct 1972 – Breaks leg
Feb 1976 – Loaned to Portsmouth
Oct 1976 – Transfers to Notts County
Sep 1977 – Rejoins QPR
Feb 1980 – Loaned to Burnley
?….1980 – Retires due to injury

Other Interesting Facts:
The player purchased by QPR to replace Martin Busby following his injury was Burnley’s England U-23 midfielder Dave Thomas. Thomas also later played for Pompey.

When Busby made his Pompey debut he lined up alongside Paul Went – The player whose lunging tackle had broken his leg three years earlier


Martyn Busby is the younger brother of former Fulham striker Viv who played in the 1975 FA Cup Final against West Ham United


There is some debate surrounding Martin Busby’s birthday with both 24th March and 24th May being quoted as correct. For the purposes of this article March has been used which if correct means that Busby shares his birthday with ex-Pompey player Aliou Cisse


Links:
Season by season games played via PompeyRama

Vital Pompey Author Chix
Statistics provided by: PompeyRama.com
Date: April 2009

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