#1 STAN RICHARDS

Stan Richards came to us via Cardiff City, Swansea City and Lovell's. Richards was top-scorer at both Swansea Town and Cardiff City (where his record stood for decades), and actually became Barry Town's leading goal scorer for three seasons straight (1951-52 to 1953-54). Not too bad a goal-scoring record then. A Welsh International too. In fact, as a percentage, when Richards made it into the Barry Town squad he scored in 75% of his games! Stan's goals alone shot Barry Town up the League. Take his first season with us for example. In the 1950-51 season Barry Town languished in 22nd place in a Southern League of 23 teams. Barry Town couldn't score goals. Even the bottom club, Hastings United, scored more than us. Though Barry's League survival apparently relied on Hastings having no defence at all as they shipped 143 goals! Anyway, Barry scored only 54 goals that season so something needed to be done. In steps Stan. Stan's marksmanship and his top scoring tally of 26 League goals helped Barry Town recover to a far more respectable mid-table position for 1951-52. 1952-53 saw Barry Town finish 8th, with Stan again being top scorer with League 28 goals. His opening day hat-trick in the 4-1 over Cheltenham Town was not repeated until 36 years later when Steve Williams got three goals in a six goal openign day rout against a hapless Ton Pentre. In fact, Stan went on to score 5 hat-tricks in total for this season, a record that stood for 25 years until the Clive Ayres era of the mid-70s. With a stunning partnership with Jim McGhee (signed from Darlington), Barry Town went one better in 1953-54 and finished in 7th place with a record haul of 108 goals. Stan's and Jim's 23 goals and 21 goals respectively helped Barry Town become the highest scorers in the Southern League. Quite a turn around. Injury blighted Stan's 1954-55 season - and his injury late on in the fixture conjested months of April and May saw him miss Barry Town's first ever Welsh Cup Final, and victory. Just the one appearance for Stan in the 1955-56 season before taking his 38 year old shooting boots to lucky Haverfordwest. It wasn't a one-man team though, but Richards' departure seemed to encapsulate an end to the Linnets glory-years, and Barry Town suffered a steady decline in fortunes that didn't really reverse until the 1980s, when of course the opposition was far weaker. In my opinion, for what it's worth, Stan Richards certainly deserves to be classed as a Linnets Legend.