Gary Williams (soccer player)

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Gary Williams
Gary Williams (footballer, born 1960) 1982.jpg
Gary Williams (1982)
Personnel
Surname Gary Williams
birthday June 17, 1960
place of birth Wolverhampton ,  England
position Full-back
Juniors
Years station
1975-1988 Aston Villa
Men's
Years station Games (goals) 1
1978-1987 Aston Villa 240 (0)
1980 →  FC Walsall  (loan) 9 (0)
1987-1990 Leeds United 39 (3)
1990-1991 Watford FC 42 (0)
1991-1994 Bradford City 85 (5)
Garforth Town
1 Only league games are given.

Gary Williams (born June 17, 1960 in Wolverhampton ) is a former English football player . Versatile, he was mostly used as a full-back and was part of the Aston Villa team , which was very successful in the early 1980s, winning the English championship in 1981 and the European Cup and the Super Cup a year later .

Athletic career

Aston Villa (1978-1987)

After Williams had been part of the youth team at Aston Villa since 1975 , he was promoted to the professional squad in June 1978 and in the subsequent 1978/79 season coach Ron Saunders first used him in the first division team. His debut took place on September 16, 1978 as a substitute against Everton (1-1) and two weeks later he was for the first time against Nottingham Forest as a left defender in the starting line-up. Williams later favorite position on the right side was initially out of the question at Aston Villa, as John Gidman and especially later Kenny Swain were preferred. He played 27 competitive games on right-back, but injuries meant that he fell behind Mike Pejic and Colin Gibson in the pecking order . In March 1980, his club briefly loaned him to the fourth division club and later promoted FC Walsall , before he found his way back to the team in the 1980/81 season.

Gary Williams (left) with Peter Withe , Dennis Mortimer , Tony Morley , Gary Shaw and Kenny Swain with the trophy after winning the final in the European Cup against FC Bayern Munich , 1982

Pejic had been seriously injured in the meantime and Gibson had not permanently earned the coach's trust in addition to the new signing Eamon Deacy , so that after his comeback from November 1981 Williams again regularly acted on the left side and a total of 22 appearances to win the English Championship 1981 contributed. The interplay continued in the 1981/82 season, when Gibson initially acted as a permanent solution on the left and Williams was only used sporadically on the right or in the center of the defense. After the coaching change from Saunders to Tony Barton , however, luck switched back to his side in February 1982 and he was "set" by the end of the season. He was also a regular on his way to winning the European Cup in 1982 and a fixture in the surprising 1-0 final win against FC Bayern Munich .

After the departure of Kenny Swain, Williams moved permanently to the right side shortly before the turn of the year 1982/83 and in the new constellation, which brought Gibson the left counterpart, the club won the European Supercup against FC Barcelona in January 1983 (0: 1 , 3: 0 a.d.) the last big trophy in the successful era. By mid-1987, a sporting downward trend continued, which in the end led to the descent into the second class . He then ended his twelve-year relationship with the "Villans" and moved to Leeds United , which was also kicking in the Second Division at that time .

Final career stations (1987–1994)

In Leeds, Williams was initially in high demand due to his all-round skills, he played in different positions and often in more offensive roles than before. This also led to the fact that in January and February 1988 he had an unusual goal threat. After not having scored a single goal in over 250 league games, he has now scored three goals against Bradford City , West Bromwich Albion and Leicester City . Under the new coach Howard Wilkinson he fell victim to a fundamental upheaval in the squad after injury problems. In the following two years he added only eight more to his 31 championship appearances and was completely left out in the 1989/90 promotion season . As early as January 1990, he turned his back on the Leeds club and hired a free transfer from Second Division competitor Watford FC .

Williams stayed in Watford for around a year and a half, again holding various positions, before moving back to the north of England after a total of 42 league appearances in the direction of third division Bradford City. In Bradford he stayed until the end of the 1993/94 season and scored five goals in 85 league games, including his last two goals from penalties. He then ended his professional career and from then on only acted for the lower class club Garforth Town.

Title / Awards

literature

Rob Bishop / Frank Holt: Aston Villa - The Complete Record . DB Publishing, Derby, 2010, ISBN 978-1-85983-805-1 , pp. 292 .

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Williams, Gary
BRIEF DESCRIPTION English soccer player
DATE OF BIRTH June 17, 1960
PLACE OF BIRTH Wolverhampton , England