Maurice Reeday

 

 

Maurice was born in Darwen and played with the youth team in the early 1930's before graduating first to the West Lancs team then Combination side. A brilliant full back Maurice soon had Scouts taking notice and when in 1934 he had not signed a contract for the club he moved to Blackpool for no fee. His chances at Blackpool were few and he joined Accrington Stanley in 1936, then moving on to Leicester City for a four figure sum in 1937. During his spell at Leicester Maurice came up against the legendary Stanley Matthews of Stoke City three times, in quick succession once in the League and then in a FA Cup tie -- plus replay, and Maurice kept the star forward off the scoresheet on each occasion.
The Daily Mirror serialised Matthews biography in 1961. In it Sir Stanley himself takes up the story: "I had not even heard of Reeday up to that league game, in fact I did not know his name until after the game when I grabbed a programme anxious to find the name of my tormentor. I found my early attempts to get round him failed, I went inside-left, and Mister Reeday was again there to take the ball off me. Eventually fed up with failure, I said " hav'nt you got a home to go to?" He grinned and replied " Yes, but it won't blow away before the games over"
Unfortunately, as with many of his generation the Second World War deprived Maurice of what would have been his best years in first class football. On the outbreak of war he took a job in Accrington and played for Howard and Bulloughs works team.
When the Stanley team started up again after the war he again played for them but suffered a knee injury which put him out of the game for some time. In later years he returned to finish his playing days with Darwen. After which he ran a cobblers shop for many years in School street Darwen.

Acknowledgements for the history in this section are made to :  Darwen RBL -- who originally published this page in 2002