BILLY ELLIOTT 

Last updated : 16 June 2011 By Tony Scholes

Date and Place of Birth

20th March 1925 - Bradford

died 21st January 2008

 

Transfers to and from Burnley

from Bradford Park Avenue - August 1951 (£25,000)

to Sunderland - June 1953 (£26,000)

 

First and Last Burnley Games

Middlesbrough (a) - 1st September 1951

 

Arsenal (a) - 1st May 1953

 

Other Clubs

Bradford Park Avenue

----------------------------------------

Sunderland

 

 

Burnley Career Stats

 

Season League FA Cup League Cup Others Total
                     
  apps gls apps gls apps gls apps gls apps gls
1951/52 36 5 4 1 - - - - 40 6
1952/53 38 9 4 1 - - - - 42 10
                     
Total 74 14 8 2 - - - - 82 16

 

Profile by Tony Scholes

 

It is difficult to imagine now but in the first nineteen years of league football following the resumption at the end of the Second World War Burnley had only one player sent off.

It was no ordinary dismissal either and has become very much part of our history. In March 1952 in a game against Manchester City we finished the game with ten men after our winger Billy Elliott was sent off. It wasn't a two footed challenge and neither did he prevent a goal scoring opportunity. Elliott was sent off for a 'look of intent'.

It was in Billy's first season at Turf Moor following a move in the summer of 1951 from Bradford Park Avenue in what was a £25,000 deal that also saw winger Terry Lyons move in the opposite direction.

Bradford born Elliott joined his local side Park Avenue as an amateur just before the outbreak of war and turned professional during the period of hostilities. Apart from some war time appearances for Huddersfield Town, he'd played all his football for them before his move to Burnley.

He quickly established himself in the Burnley side after his transfer, replacing Jack Hays in the side. He was a quick and powerful winger with a good cross and he also had a reputation as a hard player and no full back ever had an easy time against him, and this was never more shown than in encounters with Preston's tough full back Willie Cunningham.

Such was his form at Burnley that he was called up by England for their 1952 European tour and he played in two of the games, firstly against Italy in Florence for his debut and then in Vienna against Austria and this was the game in which Nat Lofthouse starred to earn the nickname 'Lion of Vienna'.

It had been a very good first season at Burnley but his second season was even better and he went on to make three more appearances for England against Northern Ireland, Wales and Belgium, the latter two at Wembley.

In April 1953 he turned in his most memorable performance in a 5-1 home win against Sunderland and this was to prove crucial. Bill Holden scored four of the goals that day with Jimmy Adamson also on the scoresheet. So impressed were Sunderland with his performance, that they made an offer for him in the summer. There was no competing with the wealthy Wearside club who were putting together the most expensive team in English football, and with Brian Pilkington knocking on the first team door at Burnley he was sold to the Roker Park club for a record £26,000 fee.

This was to be his last move and he played for Sunderland for the rest of his professional career over the next six seasons before ending his playing days with Southern League Wisbech Town.

He remained in the game and after hanging up his boots took the job as manager of the Libya national side, a job he held from 1961 to 1963. Following that he returned to England and Sheffield Wednesday before he was off on his travels again when he coached the USA Forces team in Germany before becoming manager of Belgian club Daring.

It was then back to England and he returned to the north east to take up a coaching role with Sunderland who were managed by former Burnley captain and manager Alan Brown and when Brown was sacked in 1972 it was Elliott who had four games as caretaker boss before the arrival of Bob Stokoe.

At the end of the 1972/73 season he left Roker Park again and coached for the next five years at Brann Bergen in Norway, but in December 1978 he got the call once more from Sunderland to become manager.

He'd previously taken over from Brown and this time he replaced another former Burnley captain and manager Jimmy Adamson who had left to become manager of Leeds. His time was short lived and at the end of the season the Sunderland board replaced him with Ken Knighton.

In the following summer he was appointed manager of Darlington, a position he held for four years before retiring from the game in at the age of 58 in the summer of 1983.

Despite being with the Clarets for just two years, he's a player very much talked about today by those who saw him play, for his superb wing play, and of course that look of intent.

Just six days after this profile was written, Billy Elliott sadly passed away in Sunderland on 21st January 2008 at the age of 82.