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Your support makes all the difference.| William Morris, footballer and manager: born Llandulas, Denbighshire 30 July 1918; played for Burnley 1939-53; capped five times by Wales 1947-52; married (one son deceased); died St Asaph, Clwyd 31 December 2002. |
The Welsh international Billy Morris was the last surviving member of the fine Burnley side which lost the FA Cup Final to Charlton Athletic in 1947, but garnered rich consolation a few weeks later by gaining promotion to English football's top flight. Thereafter the quicksilver little inside-forward, who spent his entire playing career at Turf Moor, flourished among the elite for half a decade, helping the Clarets to finish third, behind the champions, Arsenal, and Manchester United, in 1947/48.
Morris brought to his work a lively intelligence, delicious ball control and a sharp sense of anticipation which enabled him to turn many a marginal scoring opportunity into a goal. He created countless openings for his team mates, too, typically ghosting past a posse of opponents before delivering a decisive pass. The great misfortune of Morris's professional career was that it had barely begun when it was halted for six years of what should have been his prime by the Second World War.
He had been recruited by Burnley from Llandudno Town in January 1939 and was pitchforked immediately into Second Division action. All too soon he was enlisting with the Royal Welch Fusiliers, serving as a sergeant in India and Burma, where he was shot in the neck while fighting the Japanese. Luckily it was only a flesh wound and Morris, who guested for Wrexham during the conflict, was fit and raring to go when peace resumed.
His contribution to the Clarets' memorable 1946/47 campaign was immense, including goals against Aston Villa and Middlesbrough during the FA Cup run, and two rousing displays as the champions-elect Liverpool were overcome after a replay in the semi-final. At Wembley in the final, he had an early chance to give Burnley the lead, but it went begging and Charlton prevailed with the only goal of the game.
That year Morris won the first of five full caps for Wales, against Northern Ireland in Belfast, and he remained in the international reckoning until 1952, when he faced the Rest of the United Kingdom.
Having helped Burnley to reach the First Division, Morris was hugely influential in their subsequent consolidation at that level and made his most prolific contribution, with 19 senior goals, in 1951/52, his last complete season. He retired from League football in 1952, then went on to coach youngsters at Turf Moor, playing an important part in the development of some of those who would lift the championship in 1960.
At the end of that momentous term Morris entered management with Wrexham, newly relegated to the Fourth Division, but after a season in which the Welsh club continued to struggle in the League, though reaching the quarter-finals of the newly launched League Cup, he was replaced by Ken Barnes.
After leaving football to run a guesthouse in Llandudno, Morris was tempted back to the Wrexham job in March 1965, though more disillusion lay in wait and he was dismissed in the following October.
In later years Morris worked for a steamship company and ran a village shop in Llysfaen, near Colwyn Bay.
Ivan Ponting
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