Debut: 4-0 win vs Burnley (League Cup tie), September 29th 1984
League Record: 39 games (+2 as sub)
Sold to: Retired due to illness, May 1990
Raised in Ordsall, in sunny Salford, Billy Garton may be the player brought up closest to Old Trafford that we'll come across. As a youth, he was a member of the iconic Salford Lad's Club as seen on many a picture of the Smiths.
Billy was a ball-playing defender who played alongside Mark Hughes and Clayton Blackmore at youth level, but had plenty of competition ahead of him in the first team. Struggling to get games, he was sent out on loan to Birmingham City in the Spring of 1986. He played well enough for the Brummies so that on his return to United, he went into the first team for the rest of the season.
Sadly, injury problems plagued one of Salford's finest, and he struggled to stay fit enough to establish a lengthy run in the first team. Alex Ferguson clearly rated him enough to make him first choice right back at the start of the 1988/89 season, but after a good spell at 13 games, fitness problems struck again. To make matters worse, Garton was then diagnosed with ME, forcing an early retirement from professional football.
I don't have that many memories of the man playing, but his chapter in Andy Mitten's excellent We're The Famous Man United book is my favourite: his love of United and playing for us shines through and he's honest enough to talk about the severe depression he suffered on being forced to quit due to his condition.
Eventually, he recovered to the degree that he was able to play non-league for Salford City, Witton Albion and Hyde United. To his credit, he also turned to studies and eventually qualified as a teacher, working in local schools and rising up to the position of Deputy Head.
In another career turn, he was then invited to move out to California to start a football school, where I believe he's still to this day, ensuring the kids out West are learning to play the game the United way.
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