Griffiths Mal Image 2 Leicester City 1948

Description

Merthyr Tydfil, Rhondda born outside right Mal Griffiths began his football career with Merthyr Thursdays before signing for First Division club Arsenal in February 1937. soon thereafter being loaned out to their nursery club Margate to assist his development. He returned to Highbury and made his Football League debut against Leicester City in February 1938, and he scored 5 goals in 9 appearances for The Gunners before Leicester signed him in September the same year, although he couldn’t help them to avoid relegation at the end of the 1938-39 season.

By the time the uutbreak of the Second World War forced the abandonment of peacetime football in September 1939, Griffiths had scored 6 goals in 36 appearances for The Foxes, and he also played wartime league football for Leicester, but after the War he returned to Filbert Street in 1946 and was a regular for them for a further ten seasons, missing only one match in their 1948-49 campaign and scoring 7 FA Cup goals as Leicester reached the Final for the first time in their history, where they lost 3-1 at Wembley to Wolverhampton Wanderers, Griffiths pulling a goal back immediately after half time to give them hope when already 2-0 down at the break. His best goalscoring season came in 1953-54 when he scored 11 goals for Leicester as they won the Second Division Championship, including a hat-trick in a win over Stoke City in September 1953, although they were once again relegated from the First Division the next season.

Having scored in his last match for Leicester in a win over West Ham United in April 1956, Griffiths finished his career with non league club Burton Albion, joining them for a further season that summer after 76 goals in 409 appearances for Leicester City. He also won 11 caps for Wales, scoring twice for his country, between 1947 and 1954.