A pint-sized left winger, the veteran Billy Wrigglesworth had been in his prime a clever dribbler with a “deceptive body swerve” (The United Alphabet). He had spent exactly a decade at Old Trafford but that ten years had encompassed the war and he had only made 37 League and FA Cup appearances for the Reds by the time he left for Bolton. He arrived at The Dell as part of the exchange deal that took Jack Bradley to Burnden Park and “Wriggy” despite his advancing years still carried around “a box of tricks” to entertain the fans – one of which was the ability to trap a bouncing ball with his backside.

For a little man he also packed a fierce shot and for a winger scored a fair ratio of goals.

An ankle injury sustained in January 1948 meant he lost his place to Wilf Grant and in the summer he chose to join Reading, turning down York and Hull. After just five appearances, however he retired from the full-time professional scene to return to Fylde in Lancashire where he put down roots.

He only played for Saints 14 times but…… “back in the days when football was played in black and white and boots had studs nailed in and big toe caps, feats of what is now known as “showboating” did n’t usually go down too well with opposing defenders especially as back in those days you needed to have committed assault and battery before getting a caution from a ref and a removal of a testicle was the minimum requirement of a sending off. So I am sure William Wrigglesworth’s party piece of trapping the ball with his backside did not go down too well with the man marking him, however it did make him a cult figure with the Dell crowd”.