Harry Ayres (soccer player)

Harry Ayres
Personnel
Surname	Harold Ayres
birthday	March 10, 1920
place of birth	Redcar ,  England
date of death	March 5, 2002
Place of death	Grays ,  England
position	Inside forward , external rotor , center half
Men's
Years	station	Games (goals) 1
	South Bank East End
	Stockton FC
	Grays Athletic
1943-1944	Clapton Orient	0 (0)
1946-1950	Fulham FC	38 (8)
1950-1955	Gillingham FC	136 (2)
1955–	Sittingbourne FC
1 Only league games are given.

Harold "Harry" Ayres (born March 10, 1920 in Redcar , † March 5, 2002 in Grays ) was an English football player .

Career

Ayres was active at South Bank East End , Stockton FC and Gray's Athletic before playing 18 times (1 goal against Arsenal ) for Clapton Orient in the war-related substitute competitions in the 1943/44 season. In July 1946 he was signed by Fulham FC and made his competitive debut in the Second Division in March 1947 against Manchester City (2-2, a goal by Ayres) . While he appeared regularly as a goal scorer in the reserve team, he did not succeed in calling up these performances in the first team. Ayres remained mostly the role of the supplementary player, in the 1947/48 season he played 17 league appearances (2 goals) and five games in the FA Cup , as after victories over the Doncaster Rovers (2-0, a goal by Ayres), Bristol Rovers (5: 2, two goals from Ayres) and first division Everton FC (1: 0 in the replay) reached the quarter-finals. In the end, Blackpool FC (0: 2) from the higher class proved to be too strong there. In the 1948/49 season, Fulham rose as the second division champions for the first time in the club's history in the First Division , Ayres had contributed to this success with two goals in nine missions as a left half- forward. In the following first division season he was not considered in competitive games.

In the summer of 1950 changed Ayres together with his teammates Albert Gage and Ron Lewin for new to the Third Division South recorded Gillingham FC . At Gillingham he was retired from coach Archie Clark to the position of the left outer runner and occupied the position for two seasons as a regular player. After he was only used on the first match days of the 1952/53 season , Ayres, like his teammate George Forrester , was put on the transfer list. A change did not materialize, however, and in the following season Ayres was once again part of the regular staff in the middle runner position when the club broke away from the lower ranks for the first time in the final table. Ayres, extremely popular with Gillingham fans, left the club in 1955 after 136 league and 7 FA Cup games and ended his career in non-league football at Sittingbourne FC .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Alex White: The Men Who Made Fulham Football Club . Tempus Publishing Ltd, Stroud 2002, ISBN 978-0-7524-2423-1 , pp. 18 .
2. ^ Neilson N. Kaufman and Alan E. Ravenhill: Leyton Orient: The Complete Record . Breedon Books, Derby 2006, ISBN 1-85983-480-9 , pp. 375 .
3. ↑ See Jack Rollin: Soccer at War 1939–45 . Headline Book Publishing, London 2005, ISBN 0-7553-1431-X , pp. 316 .
4. ↑ Gillingham Sign third . In: Sheffield Daily Telegraph , June 16, 1950, p. 8.  (paid link)
5. ^ ^{A b} Roger Triggs: The Men Who Made Gillingham Football Club . Tempus Publishing Ltd., Stroud 2001, ISBN 0-7524-2243-X , pp. 47 .
6. ↑ ON TRANSFER LIST. . In: Sunderland Daily Echo and Shipping Gazette , January 10, 1953, p. 10.  (paid link)