Roy Steven Morton (born 29 October 1955) is an English former 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 played in

the Football League The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, the league is the oldest such competition in the world. It was the top-level football league in Engla ...

for

Birmingham City Birmingham City Football Club is a professional football club based in Birmingham, England. Formed in 1875 as Small Heath Alliance, it was renamed Small Heath in 1888, Birmingham in 1905, and Birmingham City in 1943. Since 2011, the first te ...

. He played 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 ...

. Morton was born in

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...

. He excelled in schools football, and was capped by England at schoolboy and youth level. When he left school in 1971 he signed for

Manchester United Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of City of Salford, Salford to ...

as an apprentice. He was given a professional contract a year later, but by 1973 it had become clear that he was not going to break through to the senior team, and he was allowed to join

on a free transfer. He made his debut in the First Division on 15 March 1975, in a 1–1 draw away at

Arsenal An arsenal is a place where arms and ammunition are made, maintained and repaired, stored, or issued, in any combination, whether privately or publicly owned. Arsenal and armoury (British English) or armory (American English) are mostly ...

, and played twice more in the 1974–75 season, but one appearance in the following season's League Cup was his last for the first team. In June 1977, still only 21 years old, he left for

non-league football Non-League football describes football leagues played outside the top leagues of a country. Usually, it describes leagues which are not fully professional. The term is primarily used for football in England, where it is specifically used to de ...

with AP Leamington, where he played at least until the 1981–82 season.

References

1955 births Living people Footballers from Birmingham, West Midlands English men's footballers Men's association football midfielders Manchester United F.C. players Birmingham City F.C. players Leamington F.C. players English Football League players National League (English football) players {{England-footy-midfielder-1950s-stub