Walter William George Akers (1917–1976) was an English professional

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 lea ...

either side of the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

Playing career

Born in West Auckland, he began his professional career with

Wolverhampton Wanderers Wolverhampton Wanderers Football Club ( ), commonly referred to as Wolves, is a professional association football, football club based in Wolverhampton, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football league s ...

in 1934, but left the club without ever playing for the

first team First team may refer to: Sports * First team (association football), the colloquial name given to the most senior team fielded by a football club * The First Team, the first players known to have played the sport of basketball * First Team All-A ...

, and joined Newport County, where he experienced a similar spell. He finally made his debut 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, it is the oldest football league in the world, and was the top-level football league in England from ...

for Bournemouth & Boscombe Athletic, where he made 15 League starts in total. After a short spell with Chelsea, in which he again played no first-team football, he joined

Mansfield Town Mansfield Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in the town of Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, England. The team competes in , the third level of the English football league system. The club was formed in 1897 as Mans ...

for the start of the 1939–40 season. He played three times and scored three goals before the League was abandoned due to the start of the war. After the war, he joined Gillingham of the Southern League, where he played for two seasons, scoring 20 goals in 40 games. One of his goals came in a 12–1 win over Gloucester City, which remains the club's biggest-ever win in a competitive fixture. In 1948, he moved on to Corby Town and later played for Goole Town.

Managerial career

In 1950 he took over as manager of Corby, and led the team to the

United Counties League The United Counties League (also known after its sponsor as the ''GCE Hire Fleet Ltd. United Counties League'') is an England, English association football, football league covering an area including the English Counties of the United Kingdom, ...

championship in both his first two seasons in charge. He later managed

Kettering Town Kettering Town Football Club is a football club based in Burton Latimer, Northamptonshire, England. They are currently members of the and play at Latimer Park. Kettering were the first club to wear sponsorship on their shirts in 1976, and have ...

Notes

A. Akers played three matches, scoring three goals, at the start of the 1939–40 season, but the season was abandoned due to the outbreak of the

and all matches played up to that point expunged.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Akers, Wally 1917 births 1976 deaths English Football League players Gillingham F.C. players Wolverhampton Wanderers F.C. players Chelsea F.C. players Mansfield Town F.C. players Newport County A.F.C. players AFC Bournemouth players Corby Town F.C. players Goole Town F.C. players Kettering Town F.C. managers Corby Town F.C. managers Men's association football outside forwards English football managers English men's footballers People from West Auckland Footballers from County Durham United Counties League players 20th-century English sportsmen