Alvan Williams

Alvan Williams
Personal information
Full name	Alvan Williams^[1]
Date of birth	21 November 1932(1932-11-21)
Place of birth	Beaumaris, Wales
Date of death	2003
Place of death	Bala, Wales
Playing position	Centre Forward
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps^†	(Gls)^†
1955–1956	Bury	2	(1)
1956–1957	Wrexham	13	(7)
1957–1960	Bradford Park Avenue	92	(21)
1960–1961	Exeter City	19	(1)
Teams managed
1964–1965	Hartlepools United
1965–1967	Southend United
1967–1968	Wrexham
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. † Appearances (Goals).

Alvan Williams (21 November 1932 – December 2003) was a Welsh former professional footballer and manager. During his career, he made over 100 appearances in The Football League,^[2] later going on to manage Hartlepools United, Southend United and Wrexham.

1 Early Life
2 Playing career
3 Managerial career
- 3.1 Managerial statistics
4 References
5 External links

Early Life

Alvan Willams was the younger son of [William Williams] a vicar form Anglesey in his early life played many sports from cricket to boxing but his passion was for football he played for a many clubs in Anglesey as a Goal Keeper his older brother [Gavin Williams] played as center half they played together around Anglesey as teenagers, both brothers were good players [Gavin Williams] went on to play for Stalybridge. Alvan Williams signed up to the Army as part of his national service when he was there he got to play football for the Army as a center forward and had a fantastic scoring record. He was based in Woolwich and was due to set sail for Korea but did not make the boat as he was recalled.

Playing career

Williams began his career with Bury, making two league appearances for the club before moving to Division Three North side Wrexham in 1956. After spending three years with Bradford Park Avenue, he was forced to retire in 1961 at the age of 28 while playing for Exeter City due to injury.

Managerial career

After a spell as assistant manager at Bangor City, Williams was appointed manager of Division Four side Hartlepools United in February 1964, remaining with the club until May 1965. He nearly returned to the club in 1966 but, after failing to agree terms, the club instead handed Brian Clough his first job as manager.^[3] In June 1965 he became manager of Southend United but became the first manager in the clubs history to suffer relegation and he later left the post to join Wrexham. However, he was forced to resign as Wrexham manager after being cautioned for drink-driving. This led to a falling out with the clubs chairman at the time. Williams will also be well known for his ability to spot young talented footballers. The Football Associaition of Wales awarded him a special merit award for his contribution to the game shortley before his death in 2003. After retiring from football he ran a number of pubs and clubs from Blackpool to London. In 1970s he was involved in an unsavoury incident in a bar involving a student’s death, he was charged murder his trial went to the Old Bailey but eventually due to lack of evidance was dropped to afray and he was released on bale. Williams ran the Ship Inn in Bala with wife [Elizabeth] and other Pubs in the north Wales area until his retirment.^[4]

Managerial statistics

Team	Country	From	To	Record
Team	Country	From	To	G	W	D	L	Win %
Hartlepools United		February 1964	May 1965	63	20	17	26	31.75
Southend United		June 1965	March 1967	89	38	12	39	42.7
Wrexham		April 1967	September 1968	61	26	18	17	42.62
Total				213	84	47	82	39.44