Barnsley-born Winstanley, a prominent youth talent who played for the Barnsley Boys team that won the Yorkshire Shield in 1960, joined his hometown club in the early 1960s, signed a professional contract in May 1962 and made her debut at the age of just 17.
The formidable central midfielder, dominant in the air and known for his excellent reading of the game, made 461 appearances for the Reds and is third on the club’s all-time list of appearances behind Phil Chambers and Barry Murphy, with their loot of 39 goals being a record for a Barnsley defender.
Winstanley received the Reds captaincy at the age of 19 at the start of the 1964-65 season and is the youngest player to lead Barnsley in club history.
He also played four times for the England youth team.
Winstanley made a famous performance against Watford in 1969 when, with the Reds 2-0 behind at Oakwell, he stepped forward and scored an excellent victory.
Winstanley left Oakwell to join Chesterfield in 1973 and made more than 100 appearances for the Spireites and after ending his playing career, he enjoyed a long and successful 24-year stint on the Reds coaching staff.
In addition to earning an excellent reputation for developing young players, Winstanley is fondly remembered as Danny Wilson’s invaluable assistant during the club’s historic promotion to the top flight in 1996-97 and then spent two brief stints as interim manager in 1998- 99. and 2000-01.
The club gave him a testimonial match in November 2001 against Manchester United, when Sir Alex Ferguson showed a mark of respect by lining up players like Ryan Giggs, World Cup winner Laurent Blanc, Ole Solskjaer, Dwight Yorke and Dennis. Irwin in a crowd of 7,500.
Winstanley also served as the coach of the Saint Kitts and Nevis national team and subsequently was the youth team coach at Doncaster Rovers, assistant coach to former Reds captain Neil Redfearn at Scarborough, and head of youth development, assistant coach and coach at boss in York, alongside another former Barnsley player in Colin Walker.
A regular at Oakwell in his later years, Winstanley was invited to the inaugural Oakwell Hall of Fame ceremony in 2018 and received the Local Hero Award for his contribution to the local community.
He was due to be inducted into the Oakwell Hall of Fame directly in the summer, and the club was saddened that it is now being performed posthumously.
A club statement read: “Barnsley Football Club is devastated to learn of the passing of the legendary Eric Winstanley.
“Eric Winstanley is a name that will always be synonymous with Barnsley Football Club.
“As a club, today’s news has hit hard. It is impossible to convey how impressive a man can be in this club that we all love.
“As a club, our thoughts are with his partner, Debra, his sons Andrew and Mark, and his grandchildren at this difficult time.
“We are in dialogue with the relevant bodies as we seek to pay our respects to Eric Winstanley in the best possible way this Saturday when we face Swansea City in the second leg of the Sky Bet Championship play-off semifinal at Liberty Stadium.” .
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Source: www.yorkshirepost.co.uk
This notice was published: 2021-05-20 20:36:20
