Fred Davies

For other people named Fred Davies, see Fred Davies (disambiguation).

Fred Davies

Personal information
Date of birth	(1939-08-22) 22 August 1939
Place of birth	Liverpool, England
Position(s)	Goalkeeper
Youth career
	Llandudno
1957–1961	Wolverhampton Wanderers
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
1961–1968	Wolverhampton Wanderers	156	(0)
1967	→ Los Angeles Wolves (guest)	5	(0)
1968–1970	Cardiff City	99	(0)
1970–1974	Bournemouth	134	(0)
Managerial career
1993–1997	Shrewsbury Town
1997–1999	Weymouth
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Fred Davies (born 22 August 1939) is an English former footballer who made nearly 400 appearances in the Football League playing as a goalkeeper for Wolverhampton Wanderers, Cardiff City and Bournemouth. He also played for the Wolves team which, playing as the Los Angeles Wolves won the 1967 United Soccer Association championship. He later became a manager, taking charge of Shrewsbury Town and Weymouth.

Career

Davies joined Wolverhampton Wanderers in 1957 but had to wait five years before making his debut on 27 January 1962 in an FA Cup tie against rivals West Brom. He managed 12 appearances during this season, and made the position his own in the 1962–63 campaign, replacing Malcolm Finlayson.

He faced competition throughout his time at Molineux, but was the club's main goalkeeper during the mid 1960s as they suffered relegation from the top flight, only to win promotion back in 1966–67.

In 1968, the goalkeeper left Wolves for Second Division Cardiff City where he played over 100 games in total before moving onto Bournemouth (then Bournemouth and Boscombe Athletic) two years later. He won another promotion here as the club went up to the (old) Third Division in 1970–71.

Upon retiring from playing, he joined his former Bournemouth manager John Bond as a coach at Norwich City during the 1970s and later had two spells on the coaching staff at Swansea City during the 1980s. He joined up again with John Bond in the early 1990s at Shrewsbury Town and stepped in as caretaker manager after Bond's resignation in May 1993.

His first season as manager of Shrewsbury was a success as he guided the club to the Division Three championship, and he was officially appointed on a full-time basis in January 1994. He took the club to Wembley for the first time in their history in April 1996 when they reached the final of the Auto Windscreens Shield, only to lose 2–1 to Rotherham United. Davies steered the club clear of the drop in the third tier for two seasons before relegation struck in 1996–97, which cost him his job at the end of a season where the club had looked set for mid-table security for most of the campaign before a late slump in form. He made a quick return to management with non-league Weymouth, managing the Dorset club for two seasons, winning promotion to the Southern Premier League in his first season there.

In the 1999 book The A-Z of Wolves (a guide to Wolverhampton Wanderers), the entry for Fred Davies wrongly stated that he had died in April 1998 - the reason for this error is unknown. Subsequent copies of this book contained an apology to Fred Davies and his family for any distress that this may have caused them.