William David Reeves (born 18 December 1996) is a Welsh professional
footballer
A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...
who plays as a
midfielder
A midfielder is an outfield position in association football.
Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...
Port Vale
Port Vale Football Club are a professional football club based in Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent, England, which compete in . Vale are the only English Football League club not to be named after a place; their name being a reference to the valley o ...
in April 2015, and later went out on loan to
Witton Albion Witton may refer to one of several places in England:
*Witton, historic name of an area of Northwich, Cheshire
**Witton Albion F.C.
*Witton Gilbert, County Durham
*Witton-le-Wear, County Durham
*Witton, an area of Blackburn, Lancashire
* Witton, B ...
,
Hyde United
Hyde United Football Club is a semi-professional football club in Hyde, Greater Manchester, England. Formed in 1919, they were renamed Hyde F.C. between 2010 and 2015 as part of a sponsorship deal with Manchester City.Stafford Rangers later in the year.
Career
Port Vale
Reeves graduated through the
Port Vale
Port Vale Football Club are a professional football club based in Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent, England, which compete in . Vale are the only English Football League club not to be named after a place; their name being a reference to the valley o ...
Academy to sign professional forms in April 2015. He joined
Northern Premier League
The Northern Premier League is an English football league that was founded in 1968. It has four divisions: the Premier Division (which stands at level 7 of the English football league system), Division One East, Division One West and Divisio ...
Division One North side
Witton Albion Witton may refer to one of several places in England:
*Witton, historic name of an area of Northwich, Cheshire
**Witton Albion F.C.
*Witton Gilbert, County Durham
*Witton-le-Wear, County Durham
*Witton, an area of Blackburn, Lancashire
* Witton, B ...
on a one-month loan in November 2015. His loan was extended after he established himself in the first team and he went on to make 14 appearances, scoring one goal in a 5–0 win over
Harrogate Railway Athletic
Harrogate Railway Athletic Football Club is a football club based in Harrogate, North Yorkshire, England. They are currently members of the and play at Station View.
History
The club was established in 1935 by employees of the London and Nor ...
on 2 January. He then joined
Hyde United
Hyde United Football Club is a semi-professional football club in Hyde, Greater Manchester, England. Formed in 1919, they were renamed Hyde F.C. between 2010 and 2015 as part of a sponsorship deal with Manchester City. He also made 14 appearances for Hyde, as the club were relegated out of the
Northern Premier League Premier Division
The Northern Premier League is an English football league that was founded in 1968. It has four divisions: the Premier Division (which stands at level 7 of the English football league system), Division One East, Division One West and Division ...
.
On 16 September 2016, he returned to Witton Albion – now playing in the
Northern Premier League Division One South
The Northern Premier League is an English football league that was founded in 1968. It has four divisions: the Premier Division (which stands at level 7 of the English football league system), Division One East, Division One West and Divisio ...
– on a 28-day loan. He returned to Witton Albion on loan in mid-November, but played just two games before being sidelined with injury. He joined Stafford Rangers of the Northern Premier League Premier Division on a 28-day loan on 3 February 2017. He made his
EFL League One
The English Football League One (often referred to as League One for short or Sky Bet League One for sponsorship purposes, and known as the Football League One from 2004 until 2016) is the second-highest division of the English Football Leag ...
debut for Port Vale after coming on as a 47th-minute substitute for
Danny Pugh
Daniel Adam Pugh (born 19 October 1982) is an English professional football coach and former player.
A versatile player, he could play in midfield or at left-back. He began his career with Manchester United, and made a handful of first team ...
in a 1–1 draw with
Southend United
Southend United Football Club is a professional association football club based in Southend-on-Sea, Essex, England. As of the 2022–23 season, the team competes in the National League, the fifth tier of English football. Southend are known as ...
at
Roots Hall
A root is the part of a plant, generally underground, that anchors the plant body, and absorbs and stores water and nutrients.
Root or roots may also refer to:
Art, entertainment, and media
* ''The Root'' (magazine), an online magazine focusing ...
on 4 March. After two further substitute appearances that month he thanked central midfield partner Sam Foley and caretaker-manager Michael Brown for helping him to adapt to League One football. He went on to feature in 12 of the club's final 14 games of the 2016–17 relegation campaign, and signed a new one-year contract in May 2017.
On 7 November 2017, he scored his first goal in professional football in a 4–2 victory over
Crewe Alexandra
Crewe Alexandra Football Club is an English professional association football club based in the town of Crewe, Cheshire, that competes in League Two, the fourth tier of the English football league system. Nicknamed 'The Railwaymen' because of ...
in an
EFL Trophy
The English Football League Trophy, known for sponsorship purposes as the Papa Johns Trophy after restaurant chain Papa John's Pizza, is an annual English association football knockout competition open to all clubs in EFL League One and EFL Le ...
group stage match at
Vale Park
Vale Park is a football stadium in Stoke-on-Trent, England. It has been the home ground of Port Vale F.C. since 1950.
The ground has seen its capacity go up and down, its peak being 42,000 in 1954 against Blackpool, although a club record 49, ...
. However he featured just eight times for the "Valiants" during the 2017–18 campaign and was not retained by new manager
Neil Aspin
Neil Aspin (born 12 April 1965) is an English football manager and former player.
A solid defender who could play at centre-back and right-back, he was a good marker and an adept tackler. He made his debut in the English Football League for L ...
in May 2018.
Non-League
On 14 August 2018, Reeves joined Stafford Rangers on a short-term contract. On 25 September 2018, he moved on to Northern Premier League Division One West club Leek Town after manager Neil Baker lost six players to injury. The "Blues" reached the play-offs at the end of the 2018–19 season, but lost 2–1 to
Radcliffe
Radcliffe or Radcliff may refer to:
Places
* Radcliffe Line, a border between India and Pakistan
United Kingdom
* Radcliffe, Greater Manchester
** Radcliffe Tower, the remains of a medieval manor house in the town
** Radcliffe tram stop
* ...
in the final. The 2019–20 season was formally abandoned due to the
COVID-19 pandemic in England
The COVID-19 pandemic was first confirmed to have spread to England with two cases among Chinese nationals staying in a hotel in York on 31 January 2020. The two main public bodies responsible for health in England are NHS England and Public ...
, with no promotions taking place despite Leek sitting top of the Division One South East table. He featured eleven times in the
2020–21
The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen b ...
campaign, and was sent off in a 1–0 defeat at Kidsgrove Athletic, before the season was curtailed early due to the ongoing pandemic. He made 43 appearances in the 2021–22 season. Leek were beaten 4–1 by
Runcorn Linnets
Runcorn Linnets F.C. are an English football club based in Runcorn, Cheshire. The club currently plays in the , and is a full member of the Cheshire County Football Association. The club is run by a trust which is a registered society under t ...
in the play-off semi-finals. He featured 47 times in the
2022–23
The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen b ...
campaign as Leek finished second in the league; his goal tally of seven included a hat-trick of penalties in a 4–1 win over
Prescot Cables
Prescot Cables Football Club is a supporter-owned football club based in Prescot, Merseyside. It was established in 1884 and has also been known as Prescot and Prescot Town. They compete in the and play their home games at Valerie Park. They ...
on 20 September. Leek again were beaten at home by Runcorn Linnets in the semi-finals of the play-offs, this time losing 3–1.
Style of play
The Port Vale website described Reeves as an "energetic technical
midfielder
A midfielder is an outfield position in association football.
Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...
". Port Vale youth team coach Mick Ede said that: "he is a powerful player who is good with the ball at his feet".