Ron Davies Profile

Ron Davies

Ron­ald Tu­dor Dav­ies, born Ho­ly­well, Wales, May 25, 1942. Be­ing blessed wi­th a fair por­tion of de­term­in­a­tion and pro­fes­sion­al­ism, Ron Dav­ies ac­cu­mu­lated an im­press­ive 288 goals in 644 ap­pear­ances dur­ing his ca­reer. Af­ter start­ing out wi­th Chester City, Dav­ies went on to play for sev­er­al te­ams, in­clud­ing Nor­wich City, South­ampton, and Man­chester United.

Af­ter a tri­al at Black­burn Rov­ers, Ron Dav­ies sig­ned pro­fes­sion­al terms wi­th Lea­gue Di­vi­sion Four club Chester City in Ju­ly 1959, and de­b­uted for the The Seals in a 5-0 Fourth Di­vi­sion de­feat to Work­ing­ton at Bor­ough Park on the 26th of Mar­ch 1960. Fol­low­ing 44 hits in 94 Di­vi­sion Four out­ings for the Sea­l­and Road si­de, the pro­lif­ic marks­man was sold to Lea­gue Di­vi­sion Two Luton To­wn for a trans­fer fee of ar­ound £12,000 at the start of the 1962-63 sea­son. Af­ter hit­ting 21 goals dur­ing 32 Foot­ball Lea­gue ap­pear­ances for The Hat­ters, he de­cided to leave Kenil­worth Road for Nor­wich City where he would clock up 58 Sec­ond Di­vi­sion goals in 113 mat­ches for The Ca­nar­ies be­fore he was lured to new­ly pro­moted Fir­st Di­vi­sion out­fit South­ampton for an es­tim­ated trans­fer fee of £55,000 at the end of the 1965-66 cam­paign. The Welsh­man was han­ded his Fir­st Di­vi­sion de­but for The Saints by Ted Bates in a 1-1 draw to fel­low pro­mo­tion win­ners Man­chester City at The Dell on the open­ing day of the 1966-67 sea­son, and net­ted his fir­st goal for So­ton in a 3-2 tri­umph over Black­pool at Bloom­field Road the fol­low­ing Sat­urday. A born goal scor­er, Dav­ies re­cor­ded his fir­st hat-trick for the club in a 4-4 draw to Lei­cester City at The Dell on the 14th of Jan­uary 1967, and hit an­oth­er tre­ble in a 4-0 win at ho­me to Burn­ley on the 8th of April the same year. He topped the Fir­st Di­vi­sion scor­ing charts in bo­th 1967-68 and 1968-69, and he proved his mat­ch win­ning abi­lities when he bag­ged all four goals in a shock 4-1 Fir­st Di­vi­sion tri­umph over Man­chester Uni­ted at Old Traf­ford on the 16th of Au­gust 1969. The un­com­prom­ising front­man con­tin­ued to thrive un­der Bates, and went on to re­cord 134 goals dur­ing 240 Foot­ball Lea­gue out­ings for the So­uth Coast­ers un­til he left for Lea­gue Di­vi­sion Two te­am Ports­mouth in April 1973.

Dur­ing his stay at Frat­ton Park, Ron Dav­ies ma­naged to con­trib­ute 18 goals in 59 Sec­ond Di­vi­sion ap­pear­ances for Pom­pey be­fore he made a sur­prise move to Man­chester Uni­ted partly in­to the 1974-75 cam­paign. Dav­ies made his de­but for Uni­ted when he entered the field as a sec­ond pe­riod sub­sti­tute for ver­sat­ile de­fender Bri­an Green­hoff in a 3-2 Sec­ond Di­vi­sion tri­umph ag­ainst fel­low pro­mo­tion chasers Sun­der­land at Old Traf­ford on the 30th of Nov­ember 1974, and the sea­soned vet­er­an cam­paign­er made ten fir­st te­am ap­per­ances for the club be­fore he was shipped out on loan to Di­vi­sion Three Mill­wall, for whom he ap­peared in three Third Di­vi­sion mat­ches. Af­ter leav­ing Man­chester Uni­ted in Nov­ember 1975,  he sig­ned wi­th North Amer­ic­an Soc­cer Lea­gue club Los Angeles Aztecs where he linked up wi­th for­mer Old Traf­ford star Ge­orge Best. There fol­lowed moves to Tulsa Rough­necks, and then Seattle Sounders, be­fore he fi­nally called it a day in 1979. A lav­ishly gif­ted stri­ker wi­th a dy­nam­ic burst of speed, he was giv­en his full de­but for his na­tive Wales by Tre­vor Mor­ris in a 3-2 Brit­ish Ho­me Cham­pi­on­ship de­feat ag­ainst old rivals North­ern Ire­land at Vetch Field in Swansea on the 15th of April 1964, scor­ing one of the goals for The Dragons. As a Wales play­er, Ron Dav­ies amassed 9 goals in 29 seni­or ap­pear­ances in an in­ter­na­tion­al ca­reer which spanned over ten years, wi­th his last mat­ch com­ing in a 2–0 Brit­ish Ho­me Cham­pi­on­ship de­feat to Eng­land at Nini­an Park in Car­diff on the 11th of May 1974. Ron Dav­ies Play­ing Ca­reer: Chester City, Luton To­wn, Nor­wich City, South­ampton, Ports­mouth, Man­chester Uni­ted, Mill­wall, Los Angeles Aztecs, Tulsa Rough­necks, Seattle Sounders. Man­aging Ca­reer: None.

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