Willie Fagan
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William 'Willie' Fagan (born 20th February 1917, died 1992) was a footballer who played for Liverpool.
[edit] Life and playing career
Born in Musselburgh, Midlothian, Scotland, Willie played for Celtic and Preston before Liverpool manager George Kay took him to Anfield. He made his debut, along with John Shafto, on the 23rd October 1937 in a 1-1 league draw with Leicester at Anfield, he got his first Liverpool goal a week later on the 30th in a 3-2 league win over Sunderland at Roker Park.
Starting his career as a teenager at Celtic he moved on to Preston where he would link up with future Anfield managerial great Bill Shankly who was playing for the club at the time. They reached the F.A Cup final of 1937 but lost the game 3-1 to Sunderland.
Upon signing for the Reds Fagan went straight into the line-up in his favoured inside-left position, although he did appear as a centre-forward for the club, he end his initial season at the club with 9 goals in 36 matches. Willie followed this up by scoring 15 times, 1 behind top scorer Berry Nieuwenhuys, he missed just 3 matches of the 1938/39 campaign.
The Second World War interrupted Fagan's career for 6 years and being 22 it took away the majority of his best years. Willie played as a wartime guest for Aldershot, Leicester, Northampton, Newcastle, Chelsea, Millwall and Reading.
He also gained his only international recognition during these years when he appeared for Scotland, unfortunately these appearances are regarded as 'unofficial' internationals.
Fagan returned to Merseyside upon the conclusion of the war and played 22 (18 league) matches scoring 7 goals (all league) as Liverpool won the first post-war 1st Division championship by the end of the 1946/47 season.
Injury made his appearances during the 1947/48 and 48/49 seasons very irregular but he bounced back in the 1949/50 season as he helped the Reds to their very first Wembley cup final on the 29th April 1950, Fagan made 42 appearances, 7 in the F.A Cup, scoring 11 goals 4 of which were in the cup run. The final didn't go according to the Liverpool script as Arsenal ran out 2-0 winners in front of the 100,000 crowd, the second time Willie had been on the losing side in a cup final.
Willie made just 4 appearances during the following campaign and 3 during the first half of the 1951/52 season. Fagan was allowed to leave Liverpool in the January of 1952, he joined Northern Irish club Belfast Distillery where he played for a short time, Willie then headed back to England where in took on a player/manager role at Weymouth. After hanging up his boots Willie became a Borstal officer.
Willie died in 1992 aged 75. It's said that if the war hadn't of taken so many of Willie's best years away he would of, undoubtably, have become one of the Reds all time greats, this in itself is quite an accolade.
[edit] Career details
- Preston North End (? - ?) - ? appearances, ? goals - F.A Cup runners-up medal (1937)
- Liverpool F.C (1937 - 1952)† - 185 appearances, 57 goals - F.A Cup runners-up medal (1950)
†Willie lost 6 years of his career due to World War ll
