Lane Billy Image 1 Clapton Orient 1937

Description

Tottenham, London born centre forward Billy Lane began his football career with London City Mission after the end of the First World War and played for Gnome Athletic in 1920 and Park Avondale in 1921 before joining First Division club Tottenham Hotspur in 1922, from where he was dispatched to play for nursery clubs Summerstown and Barnet the same year and Northfleet United  in 1923 before returning to Spurs, where he made his Football League debut at Notts County in September 1924, featuring regularly in his debut season. However he was very much a fringe player during the next two seasons and by the time he joined Leicester City in November 1926 he had scored 9 goals in 30 matches for Spurs.

He scored in his first two matches for Leicester that month but both matches were lost, and he played just twice more that season and once the following season before joining Second Division club Reading in the summer of 1928. He was again lightly used, scoring twice in 6 matches, but a move to Brentford in the summer of 1929 ignited his career. At Brentford he immediately lit the blue touch paper, top scoring with 33 goals in 1929-30 as they finished runners up in the Third Division (South), narrowly missing out on promotion, including a 4 goal haul against Merthyr Town and hat-tricks against Torquay United and Queen’s Park Rangers, and in the following two seasons he was hardly less prolific with 32 and 28 goals respectively, featuring three further hat-tricks for The Bees as they recorded third and fifth place finishes.

He joined Watford in the summer of 1932 after 93 goals in 123 matches for Brentford, and top scored in their 1934-35 campaign with an impressive 35 goals including hat-tricks against Bristol City and Swindon Town. By the time he transferred to Bristol City in January 1936 he had scored 77 goals in 136 matches for The Hornets. However he lost his place in December 1936 having scored 11 goals in 31 matches for The Robins and returned to London with Clapton Orient in the 1937 close season, where he scored twice in 14 matches for The O’s before joining Gravesend United in 1938, where he finished his playing career in 1939.

After the Second World War, Lane turned down the manager’s job at Clapton Orient in 1945 to return to Brentford as a coach under Harry Curtis. He remained with The Bees before going into management with Guildford City. He later moved on to manage Brighton & Hove Albion from March 1951 to May 1961 and Gravesend & Northfleet from 1961 to 1963. He managed Brighton & Hove Albion to its first ever Football League title, as 1957-58 Third Division (South) champions. After leaving Gravesend & Northfleet, Lane became a scout for Arsenal and later returned to Brighton & Hove Albion in a similar role. He was still working for Albion at the time of his death in 1985 aged 81.