| Anyone Remember Billy Clarke 13:10 - Oct 15 with 1618 views | ClareBlue |
Sat next to his dad on the Cork Manchester plane on Thursday. Full of fans going to match in Manchester and he asked if I was going. Said I was an Ipswich fan and on my way to see Beverley Craven in Nanthwich, which would be much more fun than going to old Trafford, but would be going over next Friday from Stansted for Derby game. He told me his son came up through Ipswich Academy and played under Royale but Keane let him go. I think I vaguely remember him in the Youth Cup scoring goals but can not really remember him in first team.
Anyway, his dad spoke highly of Town. He went there at 15 year old from Cork and the club paid for regular family visits and he said the Academy really looked after him.
He had a decent career with a season in Premiership with Blackpool and other clubs in lower leagues. Only retired last year after seasons with Bradford at 34. Now got a job assistant coaching youth team in Hull.
Married a women from Ipswich and still leaves there and brought his family up there.
It's a good story of someone who left Ireland for the Ipswich academy at 15 and had a good 19 year career. Though ironic that it was Keane who let him go.
Told me some stories about Jim Magilton which I can not write here too. |  | | |  |
| Anyone Remember Billy Clarke on 13:12 - Oct 15 with 1581 views | Mullet |
Yeah remember him well. Decent player who had a nasty injury or two. Shame you can't enlighten us about Magic! |  |
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| Anyone Remember Billy Clarke on 13:17 - Oct 15 with 1517 views | clive_baker |
He was a quality player, scored for fun in the academy and I was convinced he was going to the top. He lived in Stoke Park when he moved over with a lovely lady who used to house a few of the academy lads who had moved away from home. I used to go over to his and play PlayStation with him.
Not in touch anymore but he was a lovely lad, as you say had a good career really although can’t help but feel it could’ve been even better had it not been for injuries. Ben Morris trajectory isn’t dissimilar now. |  |
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| Anyone Remember Billy Clarke on 13:26 - Oct 15 with 1435 views | Mach_foreignBlue |
Clarke had a good albeit brief spell at the beginning of 2006/07.
Why can't you write some stories about Magilton? Because you think you're going to upset some people? |  | | |
| Anyone Remember Billy Clarke on 13:27 - Oct 15 with 1430 views | TrumptonBlue |
He played 56 times for the first team, so had a decent stab at things here, although it always felt like he wasn't quite given the opportunities he deserved. His most consistent spell was probably in that Magilton team that was unstoppable at home but couldn't win away in the first half of 07/08. He was hardly seen again after that season started to go wrong. |  | | |
| Anyone Remember Billy Clarke on 13:31 - Oct 15 with 1371 views | Ryorry |
I do remember him yes, was a good player, well thought of on here iirc.
Nice story, thanks for relating it & to his Dad for telling it :) |  |
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| Anyone Remember Billy Clarke on 13:41 - Oct 15 with 1287 views | bournemouthblue |
He was a prospect but didn't quite make it here, am I right in thinking we played him on the left for a bit before Evans came in and then Magic lost the plot, he also stopped playing Roberts on the left in favour of Alan Quinn who was a perfectly decent central midfielder playing out of position
He started throwing money about and failing to improve us in the areas which made sense
He changed our style of play, which was really good, we were unstoppable at home, that first half of the season. He brought in some grinders to try and improve our away from at the behest of our awesome home form.
Norris, Quinn, Shumi among others. He massively fecked up the transfer window, going after Chraristeas and Nugent when he could have got someone like Earnshaw.
He fell out with Dan Harding and messed up our balance on the left side of the pitch
It's pretty much that period of time, where we had a chance to benefit from Evans ownership and we entirely c0cked it up
There on after, it progressively got worse with McCarthy papering over the cracks, once McCarthy went, everything else collapsed [Post edited 15 Oct 2022 13:43]
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| Anyone Remember Billy Clarke on 13:58 - Oct 15 with 1157 views | ClareBlue |
| Anyone Remember Billy Clarke on 13:17 - Oct 15 by clive_baker |
He was a quality player, scored for fun in the academy and I was convinced he was going to the top. He lived in Stoke Park when he moved over with a lovely lady who used to house a few of the academy lads who had moved away from home. I used to go over to his and play PlayStation with him.
Not in touch anymore but he was a lovely lad, as you say had a good career really although can’t help but feel it could’ve been even better had it not been for injuries. Ben Morris trajectory isn’t dissimilar now. |
yes, his dad said both his knees were his issue from when he was 20 onwards
Said that Keane offered him one year to see how it worked out but Billy had just had his first baby and wanted at least two years as he was already worried about an injury finishing his career. That's the side we don't really think about when we see big contracts and leaving clubs we thought players were loyal to.
I think the dad might be some sort of unofficial Irish scout as he knew all the clubs and loads of people on the plane and said he still visited Sheepshanks family when he was in Suffolk. He even knew the Plymouth players when we were discussing who was above us. His verdict was they didn't have the squad to keep it going to the end of the season and a couple of winter injuries to key players will see them fall away.
but it isn't always this way...
on the Shannon Stansted flight before Portsmouth game I was sitting next to a Norwich fan who had been in Munster for a rugby match. Norwich and Rugby fan.
Doesn't get worse than that as a traveling companion.
Flight is only an hour thankfully | | | |
| Anyone Remember Billy Clarke on 15:58 - Oct 15 with 793 views | Swansea_Blue |
I was going to be a smug git and ask which one, but you've given plenty of info to work that out. I liked him and thought he had something about him.
In hindsight Keane was right to let him go, as he played most of his career in L1 and L2. |  |
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| Anyone Remember Billy Clarke on 16:01 - Oct 15 with 770 views | Sharkey |
He was in the Colchester team on one of the greatest days in their history , the day a point at Yeovil saw them promoted to the Championship. |  | | |
| Anyone Remember Billy Clarke on 16:26 - Oct 15 with 677 views | Radlett_blue |
| Anyone Remember Billy Clarke on 13:26 - Oct 15 by Mach_foreignBlue |
Clarke had a good albeit brief spell at the beginning of 2006/07.
Why can't you write some stories about Magilton? Because you think you're going to upset some people? |
I was sitting very near the dugout for the Southend away game in 2006. John Macken went down injured after about 20 minutes so Jim shouted at Clarke "Billy! Get your tracksuit off.".
About 10 seconds later, Clarke was still fiddling with his tracksuit bottoms, so Jim screamed "BILLY! GET YOUF F***ING TRACKSUIT OFF!".
Clarke came on & whenever the ball went near him, I could hear Jim shout "Billy!"
Clarke scored our first goal about 10 minutes later & seemed to me to have a decent game, but Jim still seemed constantly on his back. He could hardly speak at the end of the game & this was one which Town won comfortably. |  |
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