Former Town and England striker David Johnson has died, aged 71.
Johnson, who had been suffering with throat cancer, joined the Blues from Everton in October 1972 from hometown club Everton in a deal which saw Rod Belfitt join the Toffeemen, who also received a £40,000 fee.
The frontman went on to make 174 starts and four sub appearances for Town scoring 46 times before moving on to Liverpool for what was then the Anfield club’s record fee of £200,000 in August 1976.
While with the Blues he suffered perhaps the club's most infamous injury in the 1973/74 UEFA Cup tie against Lazio when he required stitches to his scrotum following a challenge during the first leg at Portman Road.
He returned as a sub in the second leg in Rome and scored the winning goal as the Blues won 5-4 on aggregate in a game which ended in a near riot.
Johnson made eight appearances for England and scored six goals, the first three games and three goals while with the Blues, two on his debut in a 2-2 draw with Wales at Wembley in May 1975 and another in the 5-1 victory over Scotland, also at Wembley, the same month in which Town teammate Kevin Beattie also found the net. He was a member of Ron Greenwood’s squad at the 1980 European Championships.
While with Town, Johnson won the Texaco Cup in 1973 but it was with Liverpool he picked up most of his medals as the Reds won the First Division in 1976/77, 1978/79, 1979/80 and 1981/82, the European Cup in 1976/77, 1977/78 and 1980/81, the UEFA Super Cup in 1977, the League Cup in 1980/81 and 1981/82, and the Charity Shield in 1976, 1977 (shared with Manchester United), 1979 and 1980.
In 1978, he became the first player to score for both clubs in a Merseyside derby, an achievement subsequently only replicated by Peter Beardsley.
Johnson was in the First Division PFA Team of the Year in 1979/80 and was inducted into Town’s Hall of Fame in 2016.
He left Liverpool in 1982 to rejoin Everton before a spell on loan at Barnsley in 1984 and then a brief stint at Manchester City, before moving to US side the Tulsa Roughnecks, Preston North End, Barrow, where he was player manager, and finally Maltese club the Naxxar Lions.
Known as Jonty while with the Blues, the striker had a stake in clothes shop Jonty’s in Tacket Street which still trades.
Latterly, he had been involved in broadcasting on Merseyside and worked on matchdays at Anfield in corporate lounges.