William George Eardley (1871–?) was an English

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

who played in the

Football League The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, the league is the oldest such competition in the world. It was the top-level football league in Engla ...

for

Burslem Port Vale Port Vale Football Club are a professional football club based in Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent, England, which compete in . Vale are the only English Football League club not to be named after a place; their name being a reference to the valley of ...

and

Stoke Stoke is a common place name in the United Kingdom. Stoke may refer to: Places United Kingdom The largest city called Stoke is Stoke-on-Trent in Staffordshire. See below. Berkshire * Stoke Row, Berkshire Bristol * Stoke Bishop * Stok ...

. A pacey, quality player he was also prone to sulking.

Career

Eardley joined

in May 1894. In the 1894–95 season he only played nine games but did score three goals. Two of his goals came against

Newcastle United Newcastle United Football Club is an English professional football club, based in Newcastle upon Tyne, that plays in the Premier League – the top flight of English football. The club was founded in 1892 by the merger of Newcastle East End ...

at St James' Park in a 2–1 win on 12 April. His other goal came eight days later, in an end-of-season 4–0 win over Crewe Alexandra at the Athletic Ground. He switched to Newcastle Swifts in the summer of 1895. He returned to Vale in September of that year. He still failed to become a first-team regular and claimed four goals in ten games in the 1895–96 season. The goals came in two braces against Darwen on 5 and 19 October. In August 1896, he moved on to

. At Stoke, Eardley played ten matches under

Horace Austerberry Horace Denham Austerberry (1868–1946) was an English football manager who managed Stoke. Career Austerberry was born in Hanley and worked at St. John's school as assistant schoolmaster to former Stoke manager Thomas Slaney. It was Slaney who ...

during the 1896–97 season, scoring once in a 2–1 victory against

Preston North End Preston North End Football Club, commonly referred to as Preston, North End or PNE, is a professional football club in Preston, Lancashire, England, who currently play in the EFL Championship, the second tier of the English football league syste ...

at the Victoria Ground on 9 November 1896, and was released in January 1897.

Career statistics

Source:

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Eardley, Billy 1871 births Year of death missing Footballers from Stoke-on-Trent English men's footballers Men's association football forwards Port Vale F.C. players Stoke City F.C. players English Football League players