PLAYERS WHO HAVE APPEARED FOR PNE & NORWICH CITY
William Aitken; Darren Beckford; Joe Brain; Chris Brown; Ritchie De Laet; Stephen Elliott; Dickson Etuhu; Andy Fensome; Mike Flynn; John Frier; David Healy; Joe Hetherington; Matt Jackson; Jason Jarrett; Carlo Nash; Declan Rudd; Darel Russell; Tom Scott; Steven Smith; Elliott Ward; Simon Whaley; Norman Wharton
Player Profile – Joe Brain
Joseph Brain was born in Ebbw Vales on 28 January 1910. The centre forward started his career with him home town club before joining First Division Sunderland in March 1930.
He couldn’t break into the first team for the Black Cats and joined Third Division South Norwich in May 1931. His debut was a 2-1 defeat at Brighton on 29 August. His first win came on his fifth appearance with a 4-2 home win over Swindon. Brain netted a brace in the match which saw him score all five league goals for the season in the month of September in four matches. Brain scored a second brace a fortnight later with a 2-0 win over Torquay. Brain made 13 league appearances during the season his last match was a 4-0 defeat at Fulham on 31 October.
In August 1932 Brain joined Division Three North side Barrow and had the most successful season in front of goal with 17 league goals in 28 matches. Brain scored a hat-trick on his Barrow debut with a 5-0 home win over Accrington Stanley on 17 September. He scored a second hat-trick with a 3-1 home win over Hartlepools on 25 March 1933.
Brain joined Second Division Preston a month later, his PNE debut was in the following season with a 0-0 draw at home to Port Vale on 28 October. Brain scored on his next two matches in a 2-2 draw at Notts County on 4 November and a 3-0 win at home to Swansea a week later. His seventh and final game for Preston was a 3-2 defeat at Brentford on Christmas Day.
He joined Second Division Swansea in July 1934 and netted 3 goals in 8 league matches in his first season for the Swans, all goals coming in April. His most successful season for Swansea was in the 1935/36 season with 13 goals in 20 matches with a brace in matches at Hull and Plymouth.
The 1936/37 season saw a brace on his first match of the season with a 3-1 home win over Barnsley on 12 September and scored a second a month later with a 2-1 home win over Tottenham. His last match for Swansea was a 1-0 home win over Nottingham Forest on 26 March and scored 26 goals in 49 league appearances.
Third Division South side Bristol City was his final club and scored 8 goals in 29 matches including a brace with a 3-1 win at Torquay on 4 December. His final match was the following season in the 1938/39 campaign with a 1-0 home win over Aldershot on 28 April 1939 For the Robins he netted 9 goals in 32 matches.
Joe Brain passed away in 1981.