Billy Marshall

Billy Marshall
Personnel
Surname	William Frederick Marshall
birthday	July 11, 1936
place of birth	Belfast ,  Northern Ireland
date of death	April 20, 2007
Place of death	Hartlepool ,  England
position	Defender (left)
Juniors
Years	station
	FC Distillery
Men's
Years	station	Games (goals) 1
1953-1962	Burnley FC	6 (0)
1962-1964	Oldham Athletic	57 (0)
1964-1966	Hartlepools United	57 (0)
National team
Years	selection	Games (goals)
1957-1960	Northern Ireland B	2 (0)
1 Only league games are given.

William Frederick "Billy" Marshall (born July 11, 1936 in Belfast , † April 20, 2007 in Hartlepool ) was a Northern Irish football player . As a left defender, he was long employed from 1953 at Burnley FC , but mostly only active in the reserve team. In the championship team of 1960 he came only once to train before he was a regular for four years in the lower professional leagues in the mid-1960s.

Athletic career

Marshall joined the English first division club Burnley FC in 1953 at the age of 17 from the Northern Irish club Distillery . As a left defender, he quickly gained a regular place in the reserve team, but in just under nine years he never had a sporting breakthrough in the professional team. At first he got in the way of Harry Mather , who had been “set” throughout the post-war period, followed by Doug Winton and later Dave Smith (the latter was even a trained right-back). In 1959, Alex Elder, a new talent from Northern Ireland (by Glentoran ), was hired to represent a new generation in this position.

In the 1959/60 championship season , Tommy Cummings first started on the left back, before Elder took advantage of his chance, leaving Marshall only the place in the second team. It was only when Elder returned injured after an international match for Northern Ireland that Marshall made his debut on April 9, 1960 against Nottingham Forest (1-0). It was his only use that year, which was followed by eight competitive appearances in the subsequent 1960/61 season. The game on March 11, 1961 against Chelsea (4: 4), which was the last for Marshall at Burnley, resulted in a penalty for Burnley because the club was accused of deliberately mobilizing a weak team (they became changed to ten positions). In August 1962 he left his long-term club, for whose reserve team he had won three trophies with the Lancashire Senior Cup in the seasons 1959/60 and 1961/62 and most recently with the championship in the Central League . In addition, he had come to two internationals in the Northern Irish B selection.

Between 1962 and 1966 Marshall ended his active career at Oldham Athletic and Hartlepools United . For both clubs he completed 57 league games and with Oldham he rose to the third division in his first year, before returning to fourth division after a year in the third division. He died in Hartlepool more than four decades later after a brief illness at the age of 70.

Web links

• Statistical data from the Post War English & Scottish Football League AZ Player's Database
• Profile on barryhugmansfootballers.com
• Profile on "Northern Ireland's Footballing Greats"

Individual evidence

1. ↑ "Billy Marshall" (Clarets Mad)