Ingham Billy Image 2 Norwich City 1911

Description

Centre forward Billy Ingham began his football career with Aberdare Town and joined West Ham United in 1903, making his Southern League debut at Millwall Athletic in September 1903, playing once more for The Irons against Reading three weeks later. He returned to Aberdare Town in 1904. In April 1905, Ingham played for Aberdare in the Welsh Cup Final which they lost 3-0 against Wrexham, before being signed by Second Division Bristol City in the summer of 1905, making his Football League debut and sole appearance for The Robins in a 2-1 win over Hull City in October that year.

He joined Gainsborough Trinity in the 1906 close season, scoring 7 goals in 30 appearances for Trinity, before moving back to the Southern League joining Plymouth Argyle. Ingham finished his first season with Argyle as top scorer and was again a regular in the starting line-up through most of the following campaign. The 1907-08 handbook described him as “sturdy, dashing and as a shot, hot stuff”.

However, after 20 goals in 80 appearances he left The Pilgrims in 1909 to join Accrington Stanley before spending four seasons at Norwich City, where he was twice selected to play for the Southern League representative side. In his four years at Norwich he scored 32 goals in 131 appearances for The Canaries before moving to Darlington in 1914, where the onset of the First World War, which forced the suspension of peacetime football in May 1915, brought his career to an end.