Billy Walker

Billy Walker was born in Wednesbury, Staffordshire, in October 1897. His father, George, had played professionally for Wolverhampton Wanderers and Crystal Palace. As a teenager, Walker played for several junior sides, including Hednesford Town, Fallings Heath, Darlaston, Wednesbury Old Park, and Wednesbury Old Athletic. Aston Villa signed him on a part-time deal in 1915, and he turned professional in May 1919 after the First World War.

Walker made his senior debut for Villa in January 1920, scoring twice in an FA Cup first-round win over Queens Park Rangers. He added three more goals in the competition that season, helping Villa reach the final against second-division Huddersfield Town. Billy Kirton’s extra-time winner gave Walker an FA Cup winner’s medal in his first season. He also scored eight league goals in 15 matches at the end of the 1919–20 campaign, including a hat-trick against Newcastle United, as Villa finished ninth.

On the opening day of the 1920–21 season, Walker scored four times in a 5–0 win over Arsenal. In November 1921, he became the first player to score a hat-trick of penalty kicks in a First Division match—only the second such feat in English league history after William McAulay in 1900—in a 7–1 victory over Bradford City. Walker is one of twelve players to achieve this rare hat-trick in a league game, later matched in the top flight by Charlie Mitten, Ken Barnes, and Justin Kluivert. He scored 26 league goals that season, his best tally, plus four in the FA Cup, and topped 20 league goals in each of the next two seasons.

Villa reached the FA Cup final again in 1923–24, with Walker scoring three goals in six games, but they lost 2–0 to Newcastle United at Wembley. He scored 21 league goals in 1925–26, the fourth and final time he surpassed 20 in a season. Walker became Villa’s captain in 1926 and led the club on its first foreign tour that May, to Sweden. Villa lost 5–2 to Örgryte and were beaten by a Gothenburg combined side, but thrashed an Oslo combined team 11–2, with Len Capewell scoring four and Walker a hat-trick.

He captained Villa for five years before handing the armband to Alec Talbot in 1931. After scoring 10 goals in 1927–28, Walker netted 19 in 36 league appearances the following season, then dropped to eight the season after. In 1930–31, Villa finished second in the league, scoring a record 128 goals—one more than champions Arsenal—but conceded 78. Costly away defeats left Villa seven points behind. Walker contributed 15 goals that season, while Pongo Waring scored 49 and Eric Houghton 30. Villa again finished second to Arsenal in 1932–33, this time by four points, with poor away form again the difference: only 20 points and 32 goals from 21 matches on the road. That was Walker’s last full season; he scored five goals in 30 league games. He played five matches the following season before retiring in September 1933, and by December he had become manager of Sheffield Wednesday.

A one-club man, Walker made 531 appearances for Villa, scoring 244 goals between 1920 and 1934. His 214 league goals in 478 matches rank him 17th on the all-time top-flight scorers list. He finished one goal behind Harry Hampton (215) in the league, but his 244 total makes him Aston Villa’s all-time top goalscorer, surpassing Hampton’s 242.

Walker earned 18 caps for England, scoring nine goals. He scored on his debut in a 2–0 win over Ireland at Roker Park in October 1920. He holds the distinction of scoring England’s first ever goal at Wembley: on 12 April 1924, Scotland led 1–0 at half-time through a Ted Taylor own goal, but Walker equalised after an hour for a 1–1 draw. Five of his goals came in the British Home Championship, with two braces in friendlies. In a December 1924 friendly against Belgium at The Hawthorns, he missed a penalty after 15 minutes but scored twice in the second half. His final cap came nearly six years after his 17th, when he captained England in a 4–3 friendly win over Austria in December 1932. He became the second Aston Villa player to captain England, after Howard Spencer.

Walker was Villa’s talisman through the 1920s and into the 1930s, scoring in double figures for 12 consecutive seasons from 1919–20. Full-back Tommy Smart was once asked, “What’s the team for the match, Tommy?” and replied, “Oh, Billy Walker and ten others!” In March 2003, nearly 40 years after his death, BBC Sport named him the former player Aston Villa needed in their modern-day team, which was struggling for goals that season and narrowly avoided relegation from the Premier League.

As a manager, Walker won the FA Cup with Sheffield Wednesday and later with Nottingham Forest, with a 24-year gap between those victories—the longest interval for any manager in the competition’s history.