Born this day in 1953 in Llechwyr (Loughor), near Swansea, is Leighton James.
Progressing through Swansea Schoolboys and Neath Boys’ Club, he became an apprentice at Burnley in 1968, turning pro two years later and making his debut in late 1970 a few months before earning his first Wales cap. A tricky left winger with a bit of an attitude, he was one of those players you loved if he was playing for you and hated if he was playing against you. After five years, 180 league games, and 45 goals he moved to Derby for a club record £31,000. During his time at the Baseball Ground, where he overcame the famously claggy pitch to continue his trickery out wide, he was booked before scoring the only goal of the game, as Derby, also featuring Colin Todd, beat us 1-0 in November ’76. He was on the right that day, and had a right tussle with Joe Bolton.
After a couple of seasons with County, he spent a year with QPR before going back to Burnley for a couple of years. Following Burnley’s relegation to Division Three, it was back home to Swansea for three years before coming to Wearside in January 1983 as manager Alan Durban sought to bring a spark to the side. He made his debut against Villa soon after arriving, alongside recent arrival Frank Worthington, who scored the second goal as we won 2-0. Over the following season and a half, Leighton managed 55 appearances and scored four times, but always seemed on the verge of doing something daft.
Despite helping us to mid-table obscurity in both seasons, in the second of which he’d taken over penalty duties, he left in the summer of ’84 after earning his final Wales cap, as manager Len Ashurst preferred less volatile characters in his side – even though Leighton’s Sunderland spell had shown him to be as cool as a cucumber compared to his early days, and he’d been vital in keeping us up for two seasons.
There followed a year at Bury, another at Newport County, then a third spell at Burnley as player and youth team manager, which ended when he was given the boot and he retired from playing with 624 league games, 124 goals, and 54 Welsh caps that had brought ten goals. Following a spell as a coach at Bradford, there were managerial spells with Gainsborough Trinity and another eight clubs before eleven months at Haverfordwest County before he left the game in 2012.
Along the way, he was voted Rookie Lollipop Man of the Year 2007 by Swansea Council, and worked as a journalist, infamously commenting that he wanted Cardiff to lose the FA Cup semi-final against Barnsley in 2008. This earned him a short ban from BBC radio, but he returned to the Wales on Saturday to do regular phone-in work. He still works on the radio, commentating on rugby and expressing his support for Llanelli Scarlets.
It's been claimed that Australian tennis star Leyton Hewitt was named in his honour, but if that's the case, why spell it incorrectly?
