Debut: 1-0 win vs Hull City (as sub, League Cup tie), October 7th 1987
League Record: 1 game (+1 as sub)
Sold to: Barnsley (£50,000), August 1991
Named, apparently, after a Welsh village his mother was fond of. I suppose he should count himself lucky she’d never had a pleasant time in (obvious pun alert) Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch.
A promising striker in the youth and reserve teams, he was always going to struggle for first team games with experienced international forwards such as Mark Hughes and Brian McClair around, especially in those pre-squad rotation days. He also had to contend with his youth-team colleague Mark Robins being ahead of him in the queue. A few weeks after his competitive debut, his only league start came in a 2-1 loss at Wimbledon. We never seemed to play well at Plough Lane and it can't have been easy for a youngster thrown in against the self-styled Crazy Gang.
Despite that, when his next chance came, he took it. The QPR game as mentioned in the last entries had gone to extra time and Graham was thrown on. Fellow sub David Wilson put the ball across and he calmly slotted it away. Alas, that was as good as it would get. Shortly afterwards, a broken arm put him out of action for the rest of the season and that was just about that, bar coming off the bench against Derby early in 1989/90.
Nearly two years after his showing in the first team, he scored a few goals in some pre-season kickarounds, which was enough to convince Barnsley to take a punt. However, he never found his scoring form and his league career wound down with short spells at Carlisle and Stockport.
In 1998, hearing his name on Football Focus made me look up to see he was playing for non-league side Emley when they took on West Ham in the FA Cup. If I remember right, he’d played a starring role in their best ever cup run, which is nice. Currently back in his native Wales managing Llandudno.
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