Williams Ron Image 2 Swansea Town 1936

Description

Llansamlet, Swansea born centre forward Ron Williams began his football career playing for the National Oil Refinery team at Skewen in 1925, and played for Bethel Juniors in 1926, Swansea Amateurs in 1927 and Llanelly in 1928 before joining Second Division Swansea Town in July 1929, making his Football League debut against Notts County on Christmas Day 1929, scoring a debut hat-trick in a 3-2 victory. He scored 12 goals in 17 appearances in his debut season, enough to make him the club’s leading goalscorer and followed this with 17 goals in 1930-31 including a hat-trick against Nottingham Forest in another 3-2 victory in November 1930, leaving him joint top scorer in the League with Bill Easton.

While his goals ratio fell away somewhat over the following few seasons, his game improved and he attracted the attention of First Division Newcastle United, who signed him in November 1933 for £1,500 after 46 goals in 141 appearances for Swansea. But despite scoring 13 goals for The Magpies before the end of the season, including 4 in a 7-3 victory at Everton on Boxing Day 1933, Newcastle were relegated at the end of the season. Despite this, Williams was called up to play for Wales, and won two caps in the autumn of 1934, playing in a 4-0 defeat to England at Ninian Park in September and in a 3-2 defeat to Scotland at Pittodrie in November.

Williams stayed only one further season on Tyneside before joining Chester in April 1935 for £800 after 14 goals in 36 appearances for Newcastle. He had a single season at Sealand Road, scoring a hat-trick on his debut in a 5-1 win over Southport, scoring 15 goals in 26 appearances before a return to Swansea Town in May 1936. He had two further seasons at The Vetch Field scoring 7 goals in 43 appearances before joining non league Lovell’s Athletic in 1938, returning to play later the same year for Llanelly before joining Milford United. After the Second World War he played for Haverfordwest Athletic in 1946 before retiring.