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Date and Place of Birth 26th September 1954 - LIVERPOOL
Transfers to and from Burnley youth from summer 1971 released - May 1981 from TRANMERE ROVERS - August 1986 released - May 1987
First and last Burnley Games PRESTON NORTH END (h) - 25th April 1972
ORIENT (h) - 9th May 1987
Other Clubs ---------------------------------------- PETERBOROUGH UNITED, BLACKPOOL, TRANMERE ROVERS |
Burnley Career Stats
| Season | League | FA Cup | League Cup | Others | Total | |||||
| apps | gls | apps | gls | apps | gls | apps | gls | apps | gls | |
| 1971/72 | 2 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | 2 | - |
| 1973/74 | 9 | - | 1 | - | - | - | 3 | - | 13 | - |
| 1974/75 | 28(1) | 1 | - | - | 3 | - | - | - | 31(1) | 1 |
| 1975/76 | 15 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | 15 | - |
| 1976/77 | 42 | - | 3 | - | 1 | - | 3 | - | 49 | - |
| 1977/78 | 33 | - | 2 | - | 4 | - | 3 | - | 42 | - |
| 1978/79 | 39 | - | 4 | - | 3 | - | 9 | - | 55 | - |
| 1979/80 | 28(1) | - | 2 | - | 2 | - | 3 | - | 35(1) | - |
| 1980/81 | 5 | - | - | - | 3 | - | 1 | - | 9 | - |
| 1986/87 | 44 | 2 | 1 | - | 2 | - | 3 | - | 50 | 2 |
| Total | 245(2) | 3 | 13 | - | 18 | - | 25 | - | 301(2) | 3 |
Profile by Tony Scholes
When Burnley kicked off the 1986/87 season with a 1-1 draw at Torquay history was made. In the number 4 shirt for that Saturday evening fixture at the start of the club's most traumatic season was new signing Billy Rodaway.
Rodaway had returned to the club after five years away and was making his second debut in what was Burnley's second season in the fourth division and in doing so became the first Claret ever to represent the club in all four divisions, a feat only since equalled by Joe Jakub.
He first arrived at Burnley in the summer of 1970 from his native Liverpool at the age of 15. He'd achieved much as a schoolboy, playing for Liverpool with whom he won the English Schools Trophy, for Lancashire and going on to win international caps for England.
He progressed well through the junior teams and got an early chance in the first team at the young age of 17. When Colin Waldron was unavailable for the last two games of the 1971/72 season, at home to Preston and at Portsmouth, he didn't hesitate in giving the young Rodaway his chance alongside Jim Thomson.
We won both games . Rodaway played well but there was to be no immediate first team career ahead of him as Waldron and Thomson sailed through the 1972/73 promotion season as ever presents leaving Rodaway in the reserve team for the entire season.
It was a season of maybes for Billy. Whilst he had to watch from the sidelines as promotion was won, he also came close to an England youth cap. He was called up early in the 1972/73 season along with Ray Hankin but didn't quite make the team.
Having made just those first two appearances in 1972 in the second division, his next game was a first division fixture at Everton in October 1973. For a blue from Liverpool it was the most appropriate of baptisms at the top level and again he did well although we lost the game 1-0 to a penalty following an appalling decision from controversial referee Clive Thomas.
Again it was Waldron he came in for but, over the three seasons Burnley were back in the top flight, it was Thomson he replaced in most of his 53 first division appearances as he fully established himself as a member of the first team.
With relegation came big changes at Turf Moor. One of those changes saw the departure of Waldron and that meant Rodaway would, over the next four years, be a virtual regular in the side alongside Thomson.
At times he was outstanding and more than once he'd have won the supporters' player of the year award had the award been around at the time. Under Joe Brown, Harry Potts and Brian Miller, he and Thomson saw off much of the opposition for most of the next four seasons with Thomson, by now well in his 30s, losing his place to the promising Vince Overson in the last of them.
Burnley were relegated at the end of the 1979/80 season but as our first ever season as an associate member of the Football League kicked off there was a familiar sight at the centre of defence as Miller named both Rodaway and Thomson in the side.
Both played in the first six league and cup games but, after a 2-0 home defeat against West Ham in the League Cup, both were left out with Overson restored to the side and Martin Dobson moving into the centre of defence.
Thomson wouldn't play for Burnley again and for Rodaway there were just two more appearances in January 1981 at home to Brentford and at Chesterfield. We conceded three goals in each of the games and Billy was substituted in the second of those games, being replaced by a young debutant by the name of Micky Phelan.
Along with Thomson, he was released at the end of the season after just over 250 appearances which had brought the defender just one goal, in a 2-2 draw at Sheffield United in the 1974/75 season.
He signed for Peterborough where he became club captain. They had two good seasons, albeit in the fourth division, but in the summer of 1983 Rodaway opted for a return to the north west with Blackpool then under the management of Sam Ellis.
Another season as a regular followed at Bloomfield Road but a year later he was on the move again, even closer to his home as he signed for Tranmere. It was certainly a surprise move for the Blackpool fans. Rodaway had become hugely popular in his one season in tangerine.
As at Peterborough, he was given the captaincy at Tranmere by Bryan Hamilton, who went on to manage Northern Ireland, and he spent two good years at Prenton Park before making his last move in the Football League, and one he could never have expected.
He'd left Burnley in 1981 with the club just a year away from a return to the second division. When Brian Miller came calling again ahead of the 1986/87 season, the club had dropped down to the fourth division and were preparing for a second season in the basement division.
The club was in a mess. Miller had returned for what proved to be a momentous season and, short of players of any kind, brought Billy back to the club along with Leighton James.
Billy Rodaway, therefore, took his place in what proved to be Burnley's worst ever team. He played all but two of the league games that season, many of them in the midfield. He even scored two goals as the Clarets just about survived to live another day.
There wasn't to be another day for Rodaway though. He was released and, at the age of 32, his Football League career was over.
He dropped into the Conference initially with Runcorn but he was still to have his day in the sun when he then moved to Colne Dynamoes and was given the opportunity to play at Wembley in 1998 in the final of the FA Vase against Emley.
For a player with few goals in him he scored in both legs of the semi-final against Sudbury Town and then went on to play a major role in the final at Wembley as Dynamoes won 1-0.
His last involvement in football came in 1998 and led, ultimately, to the fortunes changing for another East Lancashire club. Ahead of the 1998/99 season he was appointed manager of Accrington Stanley but such was the poor form that he survived only four months and was replaced, temporarily, by Wayne Harrison. In the following season, Accy gave the job to little known John Coleman and the story of their return to league football began.
But, overall, Billy Rodaway was a Burnley player. He donned his Burnley shirt more than 300 times in two spells. Certainly he was very much a key player in the latter part of the 1970s and, at 5'9", proved you don't need to be six foot plus to play in the centre of defence.
He'll be fondly remembered by those who saw Burnley during his time with the club, maybe not in that last traumatic season on his return, but certainly for much of his first spell with the club.
Billy Rodaway's record breaking debuts
2nd Division debut: v Preston (h) 25th April 1972
1st Division debut: v Everton (a) 20th October 1973
3rd Division debut: v Newport (h) 16th August 1980
4th Division debut: v Torquay (a) 23rd August 1986