Williams was best known for his time as a player, and as a gaffer, with current Second Division outfit Wrexham. Born on Anglesey, Williams started out his playing career with Lancashire side Bury before moving onto the north Wales club in 1956. He was only at the Racecourse Ground for one season as a player, and he ended his days with Bradford City, Exeter City and finally Bangor City in his homeland.
In 1963 he hung up his boots and took over as boss at Hartlepool United. He managed the Monkeyhangers for a season-and-a-half, winning approximately a third of his matches before joining Blues in the summer of 1965. Whilst with Southend he won 38 of his 89 games in charge, losing one more than that figure. The 1965/6 campaign started with Williams’ charges losing four of their opening six matches, lying in 21st position in the old Third Division. The season ended with four defeats from five, and despite a final day win at home to Reading, Oldham Athletic’s 3-0 triumph over Oxford United six days earlier had already consigned them to the final relegation spot.
Eight wins in the first eleven games of the 1966/7 season (including a 5-1 Roots Hall victory over Chester City and 4-1 at the same location versus Port Vale) saw the Shrimpers two points clear at the top of the table by mid-October, but a run of defeats thereafter and another sub-standard finish (this time totalling one point from the last three games) meant that Blues missed out on bouncing straight back by just three points. Williams has by now departed for Wrexham again, and he managed the Red Dragons for just over a year before concentrating on setting up the successful youth programme in north Wales.
He fell out with the club’s directors soon afterwards, and ran the Ship Inn in Bala after retiring from football. In the later 1970s he was involved in an unsavoury incident involving a student’s death, but eventually was charged with affray and handed a twelve-month sentence. The Football Associaition of Wales recently awarded him a special merit award for his contribution to the game.
At this generally joyous time of year, our thoughts are with Alvan Williams’ family and friends, as I’m sure are the entire Southend United community.
Robert Craven
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