David Williams

David Michael Williams (born 11 March 1955) is a Welsh former professional footballer who played as a midfielder, spending most of his career with Bristol Rovers. At international level, he made five appearances for the Wales national team.

Playing career

Bristol Rovers Williams started off in amateur football with Clifton Athletic before joining Bristol Rovers in 1975. Unusually, he began with the League club as an amateur, combining playing League football with studying on a teacher training course, and later with teaching at Mostyn High School in Cardiff. After already making 113 League appearances, he finally turned fully professional in 1978.

In May 1983, he was promoted to the position of player-manager after Bobby Gould left. He won 51 of his 108 games in the post, and won the Gloucestershire Cup twice.

Norwich City Williams was still player-manager of Rovers when Norwich City manager Ken Brown took him to Carrow Road before the start of the 1985–86 season. Williams won a second division championship medal in his first season with the Canaries and went on to serve the club as player-coach, assistant manager and, for one game, caretaker manager before he left in 1992. In February 1994 he took on the same position at Everton before becoming reserve team coach at Leeds United. After completing a youth team coaching role at Manchester United in 2002, he spent some time as a driving instructor in Harrogate, returning to Norwich to as Assistant Academy Manager in the summer of 2004.

Canary Citizens by Mike Davage, John Eastwood, Kevin Platt, published by Jarrold Publishing, (2001),