Billy Felton

William Felton (1 August 1900 – 22 April 1977) was an English professional footballer who played as a full back for a number of football league clubs, including Sheffield Wednesday, Manchester City and Tottenham Hotspur in the 1920s and 1930s, before a long spell with Altrincham. He earned a solitary cap for England in 1925.

Career

Early career Felton was born in Heworth, Tyne and Wear into a mining family. His cousins included Sam Barkas (Bradford City, Manchester City and England), Tommy Barkas (Halifax Town), Ned Barkas (Huddersfield Town, Birmingham and Chelsea) and Harry Barkas (South Shields, Gateshead and Liverpool). While working as a coal-miner, he played amateur football for various colliery teams before joining Jarrow in the North Eastern League.

In January 1921, he joined his first Football League club, Grimsby Town playing in the Third Division. For the 1921–22 season, Grimsby joined the newly formed Third Division North and Felton soon became a regular in the first team. Grimsby finished the season in third place, but only the champions were promoted.

Sheffield Wednesday In December 1922, he moved to Second Division Sheffield Wednesday for a fee of £1500,

Once in the First Division, Felton lost his regular place to Tommy Walker who had been signed from Bradford City in March 1926. Although Felton remained at Hillsborough for three First Division seasons, his appearances were now infrequent and, in March 1929 he was transferred to Manchester City. In his six years with Wednesday, he made a total of 164 appearances in all competitions.

Manchester City Felton spent three years at Maine Road in the First Division. In 1929–30 he was paired up with John Ridley as City finished the season in third place, although they were thirteen points behind the champions, Felton's former club, Sheffield Wednesday.

In March 1932, Felton played for Manchester City in an FA Cup semi-final against Arsenal. In the final minute of the match Felton lost possession of the ball to Arsenal forward Jack Lambert who set up Cliff Bastin for the winning goal. Though earlier in the match Felton had prevented a goal by clearing an Alex James shot off the line, he was deemed responsible for the defeat, and never played for the club again, being transferred almost immediately to London club Tottenham Hotspur of the Second Division. In total Felton made 83 appearances for Manchester City.

Tottenham Hotspur At Tottenham, he became team captain

Altrincham

Spurs had been looking for a transfer fee of £1000, but eventually accepted an offer of £500 from Altrincham of the Cheshire County League. Felton made his debut for Altrincham in an FA Cup tie against Timperley Athletic. He was immediately appointed team captain and went on to help Altrincham clinch the runners-up spot in the Cheshire League for the next two seasons.

At Moss Lane he was a near ever-present during his five seasons. Rarely injured, he led the side with dedication and total professionalism. Playing primarily as a left back he was just as comfortable on the right. He took on the responsibility as Altrincham's "dead ball" specialist, even though he had only scored one goal in his professional career. Unusually, he even managed to score a hat trick against Hurst in an 8–1 win, two of the goals being penalties and the third a free kick.

After finishing second in the league in successive seasons (1934–35 & 1935–36), Altrincham started to struggled to survive financially. Felton was appointed player-coach for his final season (1938–39) before retiring just prior to his 39th birthday and the onset of the Second World War. In his five seasons at Moss Lane, he made a total of 210 appearances, scoring 17 goals.