Davies Len Image 2 Cardiff City 1924

Description

Splott, Cardiff born inside right Len Davies had a fantastic career for Cardiff City. Having signed for his hometown club from local junior club Victoria Athletic, with whom he’d started his football career in 1919, he made his Football League debut at Barnsley in February 1921, The Bluebirds’ first League season in which they gained promotion to the First Division at the first time of asking, although Davies only played 3 times in the campaign.

In the First Division Davies soon started regularly banging in the goals, his best return of 24 came in 1923-34 and he was five times their top scorer in the eleven seasons he played for them. He scored hat-tricks in wins over Bradford City in January 1922, Chelsea in March 1923, and all four goals at West Bromwich Albion the same November. In total he played over 339 matches for the Bluebirds, scoring 148 goals, and he remains both their record League goalscorer and their record scorer in all competitions.

He won 23 caps for Wales while playing for them between February 1922, when he scored on his debut in a 2-1 win over Scotland at The Racecourse Ground, Wrexham, and November 1929, his final appearance coming in a defeat to England at Wembley. scoring 6 times for his country, helping Wales to win the British Championship in 1924 and 1928.

He didn’t play in the losing 1925 FA Cup Final team but famously he was part of the 1927 FA Cup Final winning team as Cardiff beat Arsenal 1-0 to take the FA Cup out of England for the first, and so far, only time. The only goal of the game coming as the opposition goalkeeper was unable to control a shot from Hughie Ferguson as Davies advanced on him. He also scored the winner in their 2-1 FA Charity Shield victory over The Corinthians at Stamford Bridge that October, and was 5 times a Welsh Cup winner with Cardiff between 1922 and 1930.

In the 1931 close season he joined Thames Association, a club based in East London that briefly played in the Football League before folding, scoring a hat-trick for them in a 4-0 win at Northampton Town in October 1931 and scoring 12 goals in 30 appearances in his single season at the club, whereafter he became player manager of non league Bangor City in 1932. He finally played for Hurst later the same year before retiring.