In this series at Everything Orient, we take a look back at ex-Orient players and managers and see where their careers have taken them since their departure from Brisbane Road.
Player Profile
Joseph Mayo was born in Tipton in the West Midlands on 25 May 1952. A popular and successful striker, he played for Leyton Orient between 1977 and 1981, scoring 36 goals in 155 appearances. Mayo began his career with Walsall in 1972 and during his career played also for West Bromwich Albion, Cambridge United and Blackpool.
Where Have They Been?
Remarkably, Mayo never played football at school and only took up playing in his teens when he began playing local amateur football. There he was spotted by Ken Hodgkisson, manager of non-league side Dudley Town, who signed him up.
While at Dudley, Mayo had an unsuccessful trial with Oxford United before being offered a trial with Walsall. According to his own account, Mayo never really thought about becoming a professional footballer and had begun working as a trainee accountant at Brookhouse Steel, where he made copies of ledgers.
Mayo played for the Walsall reserve side in the Midland Intermediate League before being offered a professional contract in September 1972, aged 21. However, Mayo spent the majority of his time in the reserve side - appearing in just seven league matches for the Midlands club, scoring once.
Mayo grabbing the second goal in a 2-0 victory over Middlesborough, 14th March 1978.
During a reserve match against West Bromwich Albion, the club he supported as a boy, Mayo scored a hat-trick which convinced West Brom manager Don Howe to sign Mayo for £17,000 in February 1973.He made over 90 appearances in all competitions for West Brom,famouslyhelping the club achieve promotion to the First Division in the 1975–76 season.
It was in March 1977 that Joe Mayo, along with winger Allan Glover, joined Leyton Orientin a transfer deal that saw Orient legend Laurie Cunningham move in the opposite direction. A year later, Mayo was part of the famous Orient ‘braces’ side that reached the semi-final of the FA Cup, before losing to Arsenal. It was at this time that Mayo says the biggest regret of his career came. “We'd reached the FA Cup semi-final [in 1978] and were drawn against Arsenal, while Albion were in the other against Ipswich. I really wish that we'd been drawn together so that at least one of us had reached the final. It would have been even better to have met in the final but that was asking for too much.”
Mayo left Orient after five years, going on to play in Hong Kong and then joining Cambridge United in September 1981 for a fee of £100,000. It was here, following a short loan period at Blackpool, that in 1983 Mayo finished his professional career. He had scored 70 goals in around 270 competitive games; a great achievement for a modest character who said he was pleased just to have had the chance to play the game.
Where Are They Now?
Following his retirement from football, Mayo moved to North Wales and took ownership of the Plas Isa Hotel in Criccieth. He later worked for Imperial Tobacco, returning to his homeland in the midlands.
In 2015, Joe Mayo appeared on – and won – series twelve of the Channel Four reality television game show Coach Trip, and in March 2017 appeared as a contestant on the TV programme ‘The Chase’.
Comments