Experienced Northern Ireland international Josh Magennis joined Exeter City in June 2024 from Wigan Athletic. Having started his career as a goalkeeper before switching to playing up front, he had also previously played for Cardiff City, Aberdeen, Kilmarnock, Charlton Athletic, Bolton Wanderers and Hull City. During his two-year spell with the Grecians he became the first current Exeter player to appear for one of the four UK nations in a full international.   

Playing as a goalkeeper in youth football for clubs such as Lisburn Distillery and Glentoran, Josh joined Cardiff City after leaving school and was named as back up ‘keeper for the League Cup tie against Liverpool in October 2007. Soon converting to playing as a striker, he signed professionally for the Bluebirds in 2009 and, as well as appearing for Grimsby Town on loan, had made nine league appearances for the Welsh club before leaving for Aberdeen in July 2010 where he was to have 105 league outings (10 goals) in a four-year stay.

Also playing for St Mirren on loan towards the end of his stay at Pittodrie, Josh signed for Kilmarnock in July 2014 and, over the course of two seasons, netted eighteen times in 72 league matches before earning a move to Charlton Athletic. Adding twenty league goals to his career tally - from 73 starts (with another eight from the bench) - he spent two seasons in SE7 prior to a reported £200,000 move to Bolton Wanderers where he spent a single season (42 league games, four goals) ahead of signing for Hull City in August 2019 for whom he was to have the most productive period of his career with 24 goals from 88 league outings.

By then aged thirty-one, Josh switched to Wigan Athletic in January 2022 and featured regularly over the following two-and-a-half years as he started 42 league games with another 47 as substitute whilst adding eleven goals to bring his league career in England and Scotland to 87 goals from 332 starts and 169 substitute appearances. On the international front after first playing for Northern Ireland’s youth teams as a goalkeeper, the then newly-converted striker had made his full international debut in May 2010 and - by the summer of 2024 - had scored on eleven occasions in 79 internationals. 

Having most recently appeared for Northern Ireland against Andorra in June 2024 - when he came on as a substitute for former Grecian Jamie Reid - Josh joined Exeter City shortly before his 34th birthday on a one-year deal (later extended to two years) in June 2024. Starting the new season in the team - and hitting the bar in the opening minute - he was one of six players making a first league start for City in the 1-0 win over Rotherham United on 10 August 2024. After four league games for the Grecians, Josh became the first player to appear for one of the four UK nations whilst registered as an Exeter City player when he came on as a substitute for Northern Ireland against Luxembourg on 5 September 2024 (sixty-one years after Dermot Curtis had appeared for the Republic of Ireland as a representative of the club) and thereafter became only the third City player (after Jake Gosling and Joel Grant) to score in international football when he netted in the 5-0 win over Bulgaria on 15 October 2024.    

Scoring for Northern Ireland on the Tuesday, Josh then netted his first goal for Exeter City in a rare Thursday evening game at Shrewsbury Town on 17 October 2024 before grabbing a hat-trick in the 5-3 FA Cup win over Barnet a fortnight later. Captaining the side later in the FA Cup against Nottingham Forest on 11 February 2025, he scored both goals in City's 2-2 draw before playing in defence throughout extra time and scoring from the spot in the what proved to be an ultimately unsuccessful penalty shoot-out.  

Soon adding further goals in the league in away wins at Cambridge United and Barnsley, Josh had played in forty-six league and cup games for the club (with a dozen goals) when an injury in early April forced him to miss the final five games of the season. Having cemented himself as the club's overall top scorer for the season - thanks in part to a particularly prolific FA Cup campaign - Josh picked up 'player of the year' awards from the East Devon, North Devon and Junior Grecians.

With further goals during the first-half of the 2025/26 campaign against Mansfield, Peterborough (two), Stevenage and Arsenal under-21 (two), Josh was nonetheless seeing slightly less action during his second season but was still on hand to make a second-half appearance as the club suffered a 10-1 defeat against Manchester City in the FA Cup in January 2026. Thereafter remaining around the team that experienced a dramatic downturn in form over the final twenty games of the season, he finished his spell at St James' Park by scoring City's goal in the 2-1 home defeat against Bradford City that saw the Grecians relegated.

Not offered a further contract at the conclusion of the season, Josh had totalled around thirty-five league appearances during the season (nearly two-thirds of which had come from the bench). Continuing to represent Northern Ireland he won his final cap as an Exeter City player against France in June 2026 to bring his overall tally to eighty-nine. With ten of these being won during his stay at St James' Park, this made him the club's second most-capped player behind his exact contemporary Ilmari Niskanen.  

As with Niskanen remaining in League One after City's relegation Josh did likewise when he signed for Stevenage in time for the 2026/27 season.