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Billy Marshall

Name: William Marshall
Born: 11 July 1936, Belfast
Died: 20 April 2007, Hartlepool (England)
Height: 5.08 ft
Weight: 12.00 st
Position: Left-Back

Representative Honours: Northern Ireland: 2 ‘B’ Caps (1957-1960).
Club Honours: (with Oldham) Football League Division Four Runner-Up 1962/63 (promoted).

Club Career:
Teams
Seasons
Signed
Fee
League
FA Cup
FL Cup
Other
Lomond Star
-
-
Youth
-
-
-
-
Distillery
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
Burnley
59/60-60/61
Oct-53
-
6/0
-
3/0
-
Oldham Athletic
62/63-63/64
Aug-62
-
57/0
3/0
3/0
-
Hartlepools United
64/65-65/66
Aug-64
-
57/0
-
3/0
-
Horden Colliery Welfare
-
-
-
-
-
-
TOTALS
-
£-
120/0
3/0
9/0
-

Biography:
A product of the prolific Lomond Star Boys Club, Billy Marshall was briefly on the books at Distillery before signing for Burnley as a seventeen year-old after a successful trial. He was forced to bide his time playing for the reserves in the Central League. It wasn’t until Easter 1960 that he made his First Division debut, standing in for Alex Elder, in a 1-0 win over Nottingham Forest as Burnley closed in on the League title. That however was his only firstteam outing in that campaign.

Even before his Burnley debut, Marshall had twice played at B international level, in a 7-0 win over Rumania in 1957 and a 5-0 defeat by France in 1960. He was also included in the initial forty man squad for the 1958 World Cup, all based on his performances in reserve-team football. He would later recount the match against Rumania as the most memorable of his career, noting with great pride that his “Dad and family were in the crowd”.

Although the major honours escaped Marshall during his time at Turf Moor he did collect a Central League title in 1962 and Lancashire Senior Cup winner’s medals in 1960 and 1962. The ’62 final, a 2-1 win over Liverpool, was his last appearance in Burnley colours. His last League appearance for the club had come in the “10 reserves” 4-4 draw with Chelsea, with almost the whole team rested in preparation for the European Cup quarter-final against Hamburg and FA Cup semi-final against Spurs.

After nine years and nine appearances in the Burnley first eleven, Marshall moved on. He dropped all the way down to the Fourth Division with Oldham, and was a virtual ever-present as the Latics were promoted as runners-up to Brentford. He left Boundary Park in 1964, returning to the Fourth Division with Hartlepools where his professional career ended when he was released in May 1966.

Northern Ireland B Cap Details:
23-10-1957 Romania H W 6-0 FR
16-03-1960 France. A L 0-5 FR

Summary: 2/0. Won 1, Drew 0, Lost 1.

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