Debut:
11/02/1893 v Derby County (A) 1-5 (League Division One)
Farewell:
Transferred to Dundee Harp, 02/1893, £
Passed Away:
PA
Biography
It has taken William Brady around 125 years to get credit for the one competitive match he played for Newton Heath. This happened on February 11th, 1893, in a League fixture at Derby County where it was erroneously claimed for centuries that Billy Hood had operated at inside-right. In truth, it was Brady who made his Heath debut that day and, "playing a very fair game and having plenty of speed and shooting accuracy", he forced two top saves from Derby's goalkeeper.
Brady was born in Renton, Scotland, and played for his hometown club before joining Sunderland in the late 1880s. In 1888, he joined Burnley during the inaugural Football League campaign and struck on his debut versus Stoke on December 10th. He was ever-present in the last 9 games of the season, grabbing two goals, plus another one in two FA Cup outings. In the last part of the season, William headed to Sunderland and played in six friendly matches, netting 3 goals.
At the start of 1889-90, he could be spotted in Newcastle West End's colours, especially when he crashed home four goals in his second game for them. Brady excelled in the Northern League to an extent that he was selected for the team to represent the Northumberland Association against the famous Corinthians in January 1890.
Thereafter, Brady returned to Scotland, hooked up briefly with Renton again, then he joined Dundee Harp, an outfit mostly made up of Irish descendants within the city. It was from there that Newton Heath signed him on January 17th, 1893. After his solitary League outing at Derby, he was selected in the following week's friendly against his old club, Burnley, when he formed an effective wing with outside-right, Alf Farman. However, his services were not retained, so he returned to Dundee Harp until they disbanded in the summer of 1894. No picture available, Extra information supplied by Charbel Boujaoude. Biography kindly provided by Charbel Boujaoude.
