William Morgan, born Sauchie, Scotland, October 2, 1944. Willie Morgan was brought to Manchester United by long serving manager Matt Busby in the summer of 1968 and appeared in 296 first team matches for the club, hitting 34 goals in the process. A dangerous operator on the right flank, he was a consistent performer under pressure and helped United win the Second Division Championship in 1975.
Hailing from the coal mining village of Sauchie in the Central Lowlands of Scotland, Willie Morgan arrived at newly crowned English Football League Champions Burnley in 1960, signing on as a professional with the Lancashire team the following year. A direct and explosive flankman with a sharp eye for goal too, Morgan played his first match for Burnley in a marginal 1–0 League Division One win against Sheffield Wednesday at Hillsborough on the 23rd of April 1963, and recorded his first goal for the club when he found the back of the net twice in a 6-1 First Division triumph against Manchester United at Turf Moor on Boxing Day 1963. At Turf Moor, he felt comfortable in the company of highly competent players such as Arthur Bellamy, Ralph Coates, Gordon Harris, Willie Irvine, Andy Lochhead, Dave Merrington, Brian Miller, and Jimmy Robson, and managed to notch up 22 goals during 231 First Division appearances for The Clarets before a transfer fee of £110,000 brought him to Matt Busby´s Manchester United at the beginning of the 1968–69 season. After settling down in Manchester, he was handed his competitive debut for the club in a 3–1 First Division victory against Tottenham Hotspur at Old Trafford on the 28th of August 1968, and the home fans instantaneously took him to their hearts. Conceivably, he played one his best matches wearing the red shirt when he made a treble in a 8-1 trashing of First Division newcomers Queens Park Rangers at the Old Trafford on the 19th of March 1969. Morgan opened the scoring account for United on the half-hour mark before Georgie Best found the net twice to make it 3-0 to the rampant home side. The Scot then scored two more goals to complete his hat-trick, while Nobby Stiles, Brian Kidd, and John Aston Junior all registered a goal each to make the final result 8-1. And although Manchester United were about to be dethroned, Morgan enjoyed playing for the team and the popular crowd puller was deservedly voted Supporters´s Player of the Year for both 1970 and 1971.
At the start of the 1971–72 campaign, however, Frank O’Farrell was appointed as the new head coach of Manchester United in succession to the increasingly disillusioned and frustrated Wilf McGuinness, and even though The Reds were topping the First Division table by December, seven successive defeats after Christmas put a brutal end to their Championship title hopes. The following season did not start well for Manchester United and when the once mighty club suffered a heavy 5–0 defeat at the hands of fellow relegation candidates Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park on the 16th of December 1972, the writing was on the wall for the exhausted and overworked manager. The South London club took a 1-0 lead thanks to an early goal from Paddy Mulligan in the eleventh minute of the tie and the same player netted again a couple of minutes before the half-time signal to put the home team two goals up at the interval. Then, a few minutes into the second half, Don Rogers scored the third goal of the clash before former Everton player Alan Whittle made it 4–0 to The Glaziers shortly afterwards. And with just three minutes left on the referee´s watch, Rogers completed his double with an excellent individual display to round off the afternoon for Bert Head´s troops. As regards Manchester United, the result epitomised the state of affairs at the Old Trafford club, and would lead to significant changes. Following the embarrassing away defeat against Crystal Palace, O´Farrell was deemed surplus to requirements and the Irishman was subsequently replaced by the sometimes controversial, but seldom boring, Tommy Docherty. The Glaswegian, who had resigned as manager of First Division team Chelsea after being suspended by the Football Association for twenty-eight days for alleged misconduct on a goodwill tour of Bermuda, and had been fined £110 for playing a defender under suspension while in the hot seat at Second Division outfit Rotherham United, was in many ways the direct opposite of Frank O´Farrell, who often was described as a shy and introvert character. And despite United being relegated to League Division Two at the end of the horrible 1973-74 campaign, The Doc received a vote of confidence from the club´s board of directors and the new man at the head coaching helm set out to take the team back to the top flight at the very first time of asking.
In the opening game of the following campaign against Leyton Orient at Brisbane Road in North East London, Willie Morgan scored the opening goal of the match when he powered a rocket shot past former Crystal Palace goalkeeper John Jackson and into the top corner of the net after thirty minutes of play. Then, after the resumption, forward thinking left fullback Stewart Houston sealed the victory for the visitors as he converted a well executed free kick from his fellow full back Alex Forsyth with twenty minutes remaining of normal time. Composed and dependable, and a constructive user of the ball, Morgan was a key player for Manchester United as the legendary club marched on to gain promotion back to were they belonged. But, with a number of highly promising young prospects coming through the ranks at Manchester United, he was ultimately dropped from the first team squad at the end of the Second Division Championship winning season of 1974-75, after having appeared in close to 250 Football League matches for the club. Utterly furious at being left out, he had a long and bitter row with Tommy Docherty, who he had recommended to Sir Matt Busby to become manager a few years earlier, and subsequently drove off in his Daimler Sovereign to return to his first love Burnley on a free transfer in the summer of 1975. From there, the Ritchie Blackmore look alike made a move to League Division Two outfit Bolton Wanderers whom the experienced campaigner helped clinch promotion to Division One in 1977–78. Following 154 First Division appearances for The Trotters, he decided to sign up with Third Division Blackpool where he appeared in 41 games before he finished off a rewarding career which included well over 500 Football League appearances. During the latter part of the 1970s, Willie Morgan also had loan spells in the North American Soccer League, starring for Chicago Sting and Minnesota Kicks respectively. On the international level, he accumulated a total of 21 full caps for his native Scotland after being handed his senior debut by Bobby Brown in a 1–0 European Championship Qualifier defeat against Northern Ireland in front of a crowd of more than 55,000 people at Windsor Park in Belfast on the 21st of October 1967. Morgan was also a member of the talented squad which went to the 1974 FIFA World Cup in West Germany where they defeated Zaire and drew to Brazil and Yugoslavia.