Joseph Joshua Williams (4 June 1902 – 1978) was an English

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 ...

. Williams featured for clubs Arsenal, Carlisle United,

Huddersfield Town Huddersfield Town Association Football Club is a professional football club based in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, England, which compete in the . The team have played home games at the Kirklees Stadium since moving from Leeds Road in 1994. Th ...

Middlesbrough Middlesbrough ( ) is a town on the southern bank of the River Tees in North Yorkshire, England. It is near the North York Moors national park. It is the namesake and main town of its local borough council area. Until the early 1800s, the a ...

Rotherham County Rotherham County F.C. was an English football club based in Rotherham, South Yorkshire. They spent a number of years in the English Football League before merging with rivals Rotherham Town in 1925 to form Rotherham United. History The club ...

and Stoke City in his playing career.

Career

Williams was an

outside forward Forwards (also known as attackers) are outfield positions in an association football team who play the furthest up the pitch and are therefore most responsible for scoring goals as well as assisting them. As with any attacking player, the role ...

who started out with his hometown club

, for whom he played over a hundred games. In the summer of 1924 he was signed by

. At Huddersfield he won two First Division titles in 1924–25 and 1925–26. During the 1925–26 season he played 23 league games for Huddersfield. Williams then moved to Stoke City in March 1926, of whom were relegated from the

Second Division In sport, the Second Division, also called Division 2 or Division II is usually the second highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Following the rise of Premier League style compet ...

. He helped Stoke gain an instant return to the Second Division winning the

Third Division North The Third Division North of the Football League was a tier in the English football league system from 1921 to 1958. It ran in parallel with the Third Division South with clubs elected to the League or relegated from a higher division allocated to ...

in 1926–27 as he scored six goals in 31 appearances. Williams thus became the first player to be relegated and win a League Championship medal in the same season. He was capped 20 times in 1927–28 as Stoke finished fifth. He then scored a career best of seven goals in the following season. In the summer of 1929, he toured South Africa with an FA XI, earning two caps. On his return to England in September 1929 he moved to Arsenal, being signed by his former boss at Huddersfield

Herbert Chapman Herbert Chapman (19 January 1878 – 6 January 1934) was an English football player and manager. Though he had an undistinguished playing career, he went on to become one of the most influential and successful managers in the early 20th ...

. Williams made his Arsenal debut in a 5–2 defeat at Aston Villa on 25 September 1929. The following month he played in the 1929 FA Charity Shield, for the Professionals against the Amateurs at

The Den The Den (previously The New Den) is a football stadium in New Cross, south-east London, and the home of Millwall Football Club. The Den is adjacent to the South London railway originating at , and a quarter of a mile from the Old Den, which i ...

, which the Professionals won 3–0. Williams played sixteen times in the 1929–30 season, and helped Arsenal on their run to the

1930 FA Cup Final The 1930 FA Cup Final was contested by Arsenal and Huddersfield Town at Wembley Stadium. Arsenal won 2–0, with goals from Alex James and Jack Lambert. As a result, Arsenal won their first FA Cup after a defeat in their FA Cup final debut in 1 ...

. He was unfortunately injured in a match against Newcastle United at the start of April 1930 and consequently missed the cup final. Returning the following season, he made only nine appearances. These came as an understudy to

Joe Hulme Joseph Harold Anthony Hulme (26 August 1904 – 27 September 1991) was an English footballer and cricketer. Football career Born in Stafford, Hulme usually played as a right-winger. Hulme played for Stafford YMCA before starting his car ...

and

Cliff Bastin Clifford Sydney Bastin (14 March 1912 – 4 December 1991) was an English footballer who played as a winger for Exeter City and Arsenal. He also played for the England national team. Bastin is Arsenal's third-highest goalscorer of all time. C ...

who had established themselves as first-choice wingers, and he thus missed out on a third Championship medal. Williams made one more appearance for Arsenal before leaving in March 1932; in total he played 26 games for Arsenal, scoring five goals. Williams then joined up with

who he played with for another four seasons. He then ended his playing days at Carlisle United in the 1935–36 season.

Career statistics

Source:

Honours

; Huddersfield Town * Football League First Division: 1924–25, 1925–26 ; Stoke City *

Football League Third Division North The Third Division North of the Football League was a tier in the English football league system from 1921 to 1958. It ran in parallel with the Third Division South with clubs elected to the League or relegated from a higher division allocated t ...

: 1926–27 ; Arsenal * Football League First Division:

1930–31 Year 193 ( CXCIII) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Sosius and Ericius (or, less frequently, year 946 ''Ab urbe condit ...

References

; Specific ; General * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Williams, Joey 1902 births 1978 deaths English footballers Footballers from Rotherham Association football wingers English Football League players Rotherham County F.C. players Huddersfield Town A.F.C. players Stoke City F.C. players Arsenal F.C. players Middlesbrough F.C. players Carlisle United F.C. players