Billy Foulkes (1951/52 to 1954/55)

Welshman Billy Foulkes was a small and stocky forward who appeared at both outside-right and inside-right and even on a couple of occasions at centre-forward.

Foulkes began his career with Cardiff then moved to Chester in 1948. He signed for United in October 1951 for an initial £11,000 which was a record fee for the Third Division side and for a Northern Section League player. Stan Seymour completed the signing in a Liverpool hotel.

He had an excellent debut game a couple of days later and his first four games were at outside-right, but then he took over the number 8 shirt recently vacated by Ernie Taylor.

The sturdy Welshman immediately got the measure of the First Division and added weight and thrust to the attack. He played in nearly every subsequent game in 1951/52 and played in every game in the Magpies’ triumphant cup run.

He also won his first Welsh cap, against England at Cardiff, when he scored with almost his first kick in international football. His selection triggered an extra £500 payment to Chester. After that grand start he became almost an automatic choice for his country whilst on Tyneside.

Although on the small side, Foulkes was heavily built, fast, took a deal of knocking off the ball when in possession and was brilliant with his head. A slight effortless body swerve deceived defenders and he had a “jack-in-the-box” habit of popping up in the least expected places.

He had a hard and accurate shot in both feet and could operate with cleverness at either outside or inside-right, often playing off Milburn and teasing defenders.

Seymour revealed that he never really wanted to play inside-right and the recently married Foulkes was back at number 7 in the first four games of 1952/53. However he did not hit his game and barely featured again (apart for a couple of games at centre-forward before getting injured) until February. Tommy Walker being the preferred outside-right and Reg Davies and Tommy Mulgrew providing competition on the inside.

And 1953/54 followed the same pattern with Jackie Milburn and Len White adding to the competition at outside-right and new-signing Ivor Broadis taking over the inside berth.

Villa were linked with him in September and he submitted a transfer request in March after he was dropped. The request was accepted, although during the summer he claimed he had made a number of rejected transfer requests.

He eventually resigned in July, but soon after united accepted a joint bid for both him and Tommy Mulgrew. Both players initially rejected the South coast club before they changed their minds.

Billy liked going to greyhound races and spent hours at his favourite hobby, snooker. He also played some games for Hoole cricket club in the summer of 1953.