Billy Townley

Billy Townley had the distinction of being the first man to score a hat-trick in an FA Cup Final, doing so for Blackburn Rovers in their 6-1 win over The Wednesday (later Sheffield Wednesday) in 1890. As at 2020, he was one of only three men to have achieved this feat.

Townley started his football career with two local Blackburn clubs, Swifts and Olympic, before a move to Rovers in 1888. On 15 September that year, he scored two goals in a 5-5 draw with Accrington in what was Blackburn’s very first match in the newly formed Football League. Townley added a second FA Cup winners’ medal in 1891, when he scored one goal in the 3-1 win over Notts County. He won just two England caps, in 1889 and 1890, and both times against Wales. He was also a non-playing reserve in three other internationals.

Townley had a season-long loan spell at Stockton FC in 1892/93 before leaving Blackburn in 1894 and moving to nearby Darwen, before a final move took him to Manchester City in 1896. He played just three games for City before an injury ended his career. In total, Townley made 141 League appearances and scored 52 goals.

Townley had been a schoolteacher since 1890 but ended that career when he took up coaching in 1907 when, like so many fellow ex-players at the time, he journeyed to Europe to gain employment. Townley worked mostly with club sides in Germany, but also in the Netherlands and Switzerland.

Appointed coach to the Dutch National team in 1924, Townley led them in eight matches, five of them being at the Olympic Games in Paris, where the Netherlands finished fourth after losing 3-1 to Sweden in the third-place match replay.

At club level most of his coaching/managerial career was spent in Germany, originally with DFC Prag (Czechoslovakia) in 1907, who played their League football in Germany at the time. His first success came in 1909 at Karlsruher FV when he helped them win both their first Southern German, and German Football Championships. However, he enjoyed his most successful period as a coach during four spells at SpVgg Fürth (now SpVgg Greuther Fürth). He helped them win the Bavarian Regional Championship in 1912 and 1913, the Southern German Cup for a record fifth time in 1927, and the Southern German Championship in 1931. When he joined FSV Frankfurt in 1927, Townley was one of the highest paid coaches in Germany.

Amongst other clubs Townley coached were Victoria Hamburg and FC St. Gallen of Switzerland in the early 1920s, and his son James played under him at both clubs. John also played in England for Tottenham Hotspur, Brighton and Clapton Orient, and was player/coach at FC Bern 1931-37.