Search the Community

WILLIE FAGAN 1937/52 by Chris Wood Date of Birth - 20/02/17 Nationality - Scottish Position --Inside Forward Games - 185 Goals - 57 Club Hons (Lpool) - League Championship 1946/47 Intnl Hons - Scotland Caps Other Clubs - Celtic, Preston; Aldershot, Leicester, Northampton, Newcastle, Chelsea, Millwall, Reading and Chelsea (wartime guest); Belfast Distillery, Weymouth (amateur) Scottish inside-forward Willie Fagan joined Liverpool from Preston North End soon after the start of the 1937-38 season and went straight into the First Division team, playing in 31 consecutive matches by the end of the season and scoring 8 times. Willie only missed 3 League games in 1938-39 (14 goals) and played in the opening 3 fixtures of the 1939-40 season before the Second World War caused the League programme to be abandoned and Willie's Liverpool career to be severely curtailed at the age of 22. Unlike some of his colleagues, he was young enough to re-establish himself at Anfield when League football resumed in 1946 and made enough appearances to qualify for a well-deserved championship medal in 1947. Although called on sporadically (mostly due to injury) in 1947-48 & 1948-49, he had one of his best seasons as a new decade dawned, scoring 11 times in First Division games and helping his club to their first-ever Wembley final in 1950. Approaching his mid-30's by the time the next season opened, Willie's Anfield career was nearing its close and he played his final game for the club against Huddersfield Town on the first day of September 1951. But he still scored over 50 times in nearly 200 competitive matches for the club and if the war hadn't taken so many playing years away from him, there seems little doubt that a fine Liverpool career would have been a great one. More info on Willie Fagan: ++ / LFChistory.net -- Past Present Future