Billy Richardson (4 July 1920 – 9 April 2004) was an
Irish soccer
Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...
player during the 1940s.
Richardson played junior football with Mountpleasant and narrowly missed out on winning an Irish Junior cap in 1939 due to the beginning of
World War II. He joined
Bohemians
Bohemian or Bohemians may refer to:
*Anything of or relating to Bohemia
Beer
* National Bohemian, a brand brewed by Pabst
* Bohemian, a brand of beer brewed by Molson Coors
Culture and arts
* Bohemianism, an unconventional lifestyle, origin ...
in 1942 and played for the "B" team at centre half. He soon made his debut for the first team away to
Cork United F.C. and established himself the following season with some great displays at full back (both right and left).
He played in 2 Cup Finals in 1945; losing the
FAI Cup
The Football Association of Ireland Senior Challenge Cup (FAI Cup), known as the Extra.ie FAI Cup for sponsorship reasons, is a knock-out association football competition contested annually by teams from the Republic of Ireland (as well as Derry ...
Final 1–0 to
Shamrock Rovers
Shamrock Rovers Football Club ( ga, Cumann Peile Ruagairí na Seamróige) is an Irish association football club based in Tallaght, South Dublin. The club's senior team competes in the League of Ireland Premier Division and it is the most su ...
in front of a record attendance of over 41,000 at
Dalymount Park but making up for that defeat by beating
Belfast Celtic
Belfast Celtic Football Club was a football club. Founded in 1891 in Belfast, Northern Ireland, it was one of the most successful teams in Ireland until it withdrew permanently from the Irish League in 1949. The club left the league for polit ...
3–2 on aggregate in the
Inter City Cup Final.
Two seasons later, he was a member of the team that once again reached two Cup Finals; winning the 1946/47
Leinster Senior Cup Final by a record score of 11–0 against Grangegorman but losing the 1947 FAI Cup Final against Cork United. He was made club captain in 1947/48 and capped it by scoring his only ever goal for Bohs with a strike from his own half against Jacobs in the
Leinster Senior Cup. At the end of that season, he represented Ireland in the
Olympic Games against Holland at
Portsmouth.
[Bohemian FC match programme, Vol. 56, no. 6]
Richardson died on 9 April 2004.
Honours
*
Inter City Cup
** Bohemians – 1945
*
Leinster Senior Cup
** Bohemians – 1946/47
*
Represented Ireland in
1948 Olympic Games
References
External links
Richardson at the 1948 Olympic Games
{{DEFAULTSORT:Richardson, Billy
Republic of Ireland men's association footballers
League of Ireland players
Bohemian F.C. players
Footballers at the 1948 Summer Olympics
Olympic association footballers for Ireland
1920 births
2004 deaths
Men's association football defenders