The story of Billy Meredeith, the maverick Welshman who won the FA Cup with both Manchester clubs
With Manchester City and Manchester United in FA Cup semi-final action this weekend, we are celebrating the career of a player who has played for both sides.
Wales has held a long association with the FA Cup, having competed in the competition for the first time in 1876, four years after it was founded.
Druids FC were the first Welsh team to play in the tournament, with Preston goalkeeper Robert Mills-Roberts becoming the first Welshman to win the competition 13 years later.
Who could forget Cardiff City’s victory over Arsenal in 1927, which was the first time the final was broadcast on BBC Radio, to take the trophy out of England for the first – and only – time in history.
One of the most illustrious Welshmen in the history of England’s most prestigious Cup competition, however, is William Henry Meredith.
He was the first Welsh captain to hold aloft the silverware and would lift the Cup twice in the first decade of the 20th century.
His first success came in 1904 with Manchester City, when he would also score the only goal past fellow Welshmen Dai Davies in a 1-0 victory over Bolton Wanderers.
Five years later, Meredith would win the cup with a Manchester side, however, it wasn’t the Citizens this time. It was United and he played in their 1-0 victory over Bristol City in 1909.
He was born in 1874 as one of 10 children to a family of Primitive Methodists in Chirk, a small mining town in Denbighshire, just south of Wrexham. Meredith won each domestic trophy in the English Football League, and gained 48 international caps.
He played for a total of 27 seasons, not including the campaigns he missed because of the First World War and 1905/06 season when he was banned for bribing Aston Villa’s Alex Leake, scoring a total of 176 goals in 740 league and cup appearances.
“He was a truly great player, who has lasted the passage of time, 100 years before social media promotion,” began author Roy Cavanagh MBE.
“He was right alongside Sir Stanley Matthews, Sir Tom Finney and Ryan Giggs.
“He had the whiff of scandal alongside him, tales of match-fixing, strikes, but also regularly being a match-winner and a crowd-pleaser.
“Billy is certainly still mentioned as one of Manchester United’s greatest players, definitely alongside both Giggs and Hughes as United’s greatest Welsh players.”
Meredith was part of a special breed of players at the time, he was instantly recognisable through his trademark of chewing on a toothpick during games throughout his career.
“In many ways the FA Cup, until perhaps even the 1980s, was as prominent as the league,” added Cavanagh.
“Certainly in the earlier years, the trips for Northern clubs to places such as Crystal Palace for the final day was a big occasion.”
Through his eldest brother Elias, who was a train driver for the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway, Meredith was taken to see football at Goodison Park in his early years.
Another one of his brothers, Sam, went onto play for Stoke City and Wales. For Billy, however, his career started with Chirk in September 1892.
Mother Jane was always protective of her three boys who pursued a career in the early stages of professional football.
“It is all very well for you gentlemen to leave your big cities and come to our villages to steal our boys away,” she recalled.
“Our boys are happy and healthy, satisfied with their work and innocent amusements.
“If Billy takes my advice he will stick to his work and play football for his own amusement when work is finished.”
But despite his mother’s calls, a deal was agreed for Meredith to join City as an amateur and combine his role working in the mine for a further year.
After making his debut in City’s 5-4 defeat at Newcastle United in November 1894, Meredith made his home debut at Hyde Road against United, scoring two goals against Newton Heath, who would later be known as Manchester United, in the first-ever Manchester Derby between the two sides which would see the visitors pick up a 5-2 victory.
A few months later he would turn professional and finished with 12 goals from 18 appearances, second only to Patrick Finnerhan.
The same year saw him pick up his first Welsh cap against Ireland in Belfast. His international career would span 25 years.
Meredith would finish as City’s top scorer in the 1895/96 campaign, and one year later would be appointed as their captain.
He would score his first hat-trick on the last day of the 1897/98 season against Burton Swfits as City won 9-0.
And in the last year of the 19th century Meredith helped Manchester City win the Second Division Championship, scoring 30 goals in 35 games, including hat-tricks against Grimsby Town, Loughborough, Darwen and Barnsley.
It was Meredith who wrote himself into the history books by scoring City’s first ever goal in top flight at Blackburn Rovers.
Despite relegation at the end of the 1901/02 season, Meredith and his teammates secured automatic promotion the following year.
Back in the First Division, City went on to pick up their first ever FA Cup in 1904 with Meredith the “raider-in-chief” in their 3-2 victory over Sunderland at Hyde Road.
After victories over Woolwich Arsenal and Middlesbrough, Meredith and his side faded The Wednesday at Goodison Park.
After watching from the stand with his brothers a few years before, Meredith created his own memories by helping City to a 3-1 win, with the Welshman getting a goal and assisting two more to set a date with Second Division side Bolton Wanderers.
“We ought to win,” said Meredith. “If we play anything like our normal game the cup is ours, but this is the cup final and, well, anything might happen.”
The Welsh international would indeed score the winner after George Livingstone’s long ball found Meredith and the captain saw his effort beat Davies for the only goal of the game.
As Meredith picked up the trophy, which was presented by Prime Minister Arthur Balfour, it was one lifted with pride as City’s win over Bolton was the first honour for a team from Manchester.
But delight turned to despair for Meredith as one year later City, who were chasing the First Division title, headed to Villa Park to take on Aston Villa, two points behind leaders Newcastle United.
Tom Maley’s side went down 3-2, but Meredith’s attempt to bribe Leake – despite being unsuccessful – saw the FA ban City’s skipper for the whole of the 1905/06 season and thus end his first spell with the Citizens after 145 goals in 338 games.
Whilst still banned, Meredith was placed on the transfer list and signed for United on a free transfer and a £500 signing-on fee in May 1906.
Meredith would return from his ban and make his debut on the January 1, 1907 against Aston Villa and provided the assist for Sandy Turnbull’s winner for the only goal of the game and would go on to play 15 more matches for United that season, scoring five goals.
Because of his concern for his fellow players, who were paid a maximum of £4 a week, Meredith was instrumental in reforming the first Players Union to discuss a fairer system on transfers and wages.
On December 2 at the Imperial Hotel, the first meeting was held in front of 500 players from a range of teams, including Meredith’s former club Manchester City and Jack Bell, the former chairman of the Association Football Union.
“They congratulate me and give me caps but they will not give me a penny more than men are earning in the reserve team,” said Meredith.
“Some of them perhaps do not trouble themselves to improve themselves and don’t worry about taking care of the condition.
“If football is a man’s livelihood and he does more than others for his employer, why is he not entitled to better pay than others?”
However, because of this, the Association of Football Players’ Union threatened strike action after threatening to cancel players’ registration, which saw many players leave the union.
Because of his passion for the cause, Meredith and his United teammates continued on strike and became known as The Outcasts, but on August 31, 1909 a compromise was reached with the FA agreeing professional players could still be members of the AFPU and the dispute, at long last, was brought to an end.
“It caused a huge furore,” said Manchester United museum curator Mark Wylie.
“The Football League were saying they shouldn’t wear players’ union badges.
“Eventually the League came to recognise that a union should exist. Today, that union is the Professional Footballers’ Association.
“He was an inspiration to other players to join the union when they saw one of the best players of the day was a member.”
A few months after that first meeting, United picked up their first Championship title and once again the ‘Welsh Wizard’ would go down in the history of the club.
“Billy Meredith has the honour of scoring in the first ever Charity Shield match in late April 1908 for champions Manchester United against Southern League champions Queens Park Rangers,” added Cavanagh.
“The match finished 1-1 at Chelsea and it is the only occasion a replay has been carried over to the following August when United won 4-0.”
But his greatest moment with the club was yet to come.
After knocking out Brighton, Everton, Blackburn Rovers, Burnley and Newcastle United, Manchester United and Meredith headed to Crystal Palace for their first FA Cup final against Bristol City.
Sandy Turnell’s goal, assisted by Meredith, was the difference between the two sides as United claimed their first FA Cup.
Just a couple of years later United won their second league title in three years with Meredith a key figure, playing 35 matches scoring five goals.
Despite the First World War robbing Meredith of five years of playing, he would play two more seasons with United before leaving to re-sign for Manchester City in 1921 after 35 goals in 303 games for United; and to this day is still the oldest player to play for the club.
Now in his late 40s and nearing retirement, it is rather fitting that Meredith would score his last goal for City in their 5-1 FA Cup victory over Brighton.
In his 32nd and last game for City, Meredith would play his final game of football in the competition in the semi-finals at the age of 49 years and 245 days against Newcastle, becoming City’s oldest ever player, which had bought him so much joy and his place in the record books is assured as the first player to win the FA Cup with two different Manchester clubs.
Two of Meredith’s former clubs, Manchester United and Manchester City, are both in FA Cup action this weekend, with United playing Chelsea and City taking on Arsenal in the last four of the competition.
(Featured Image: w:ru:Corwin of Amber)
