Powell: Aubrey

1935-1948 (Player Details) (Leeds United War-time Guest Player Details)

Inside Forward

Born: Lower Cwmtwrch, Glamorgan: 19-04-1918

Debut: v Middlesbrough (h): 25-12-1936

5’5” 10 st 2lb (1938)

Powell started as an amateur with Cwm Wanderers and had moved on to Swansea Town but was still on amateur forms when spotted by the Leeds United scouts and they signed him in November 1935. He made an immediate impact on his debut, a year later, but just three months after making the first team he sustained a broken leg in United’s game at Preston North End on 20th March 1937. The injury was so severe that he was written off by the doctors and told he would never play again. It took eighteen months, but he battled back and formed a highly effective partnership with David Cochrane until the outbreak of war. When the Second World War caused the Football League fixtures to be suspended he had scored six goals in thirty-nine League appearances. He served with the East Yorkshire Regiment during the War Years but he was second only to Gerry Henry in the number of games played for the club by an individual player. He played one hundred and twenty-three times in League games and scored thirty-seven goals and scored one goal in three appearances in the War Cup for Leeds in wartime games. After playing in two of the three games Leeds played in the aborted 1939-40 Football League season, he was in the Leeds team that played the first game of Wartime football in a 3-0 win over Bradford City at Elland Road on 28th October 1939 and scored six times in fourteen games in the Regional League North-East Division, missing just four games, and scored once in two War Cup games. 1940-41 saw him score three goals in fourteen appearances in the North Regional League and make one appearance in the War Cup. In the 1941-42 Football League Northern Section (First Championship) he was ever-present with three goals in eighteen games and he scored twice in thirteen games in the Second Championship. He was ever-present again in the 1942-43 Football League Northern Section (First Championship), scoring six times in eighteen games while scoring ten times in fourteen games in the Second Championship. He scored three times in eleven games in the 1943-44 Football League Northern Section (First Championship) and backed up with three goals in eleven games in the Second Championship. He only made one appearance in the 1944-45 Football League Northern Section and that was in the Second Championship and in the final Wartime season of 1945-46 Football League Northern Section he scored twice in twelve games. During the War years he had played for Wales on four occasions. On 8th May 1943 he was at Outside Right in a 1-1 draw with England at Ninian Park Cardiff, on 25th September 1943 he scored at Outside Right in a 3-8 defeat by England at Wembley, on 20th October 1945 he scored the winning goal from Outside Right in a 1-0 win over England at the Hawthorns and on 4th May 1946 he played in the 0-1 loss to Northern Ireland at Ninian Park Cardiff. During the war he served in Belgium and he became an Army PT instructor, stationed in North Yorkshire and Hull. He won his first full official Welsh cap at Inside Right on 19th October 1946 in a 3-1 win over Scotland at the Racecourse Ground Wrexham. This was soon followed by his second cap at Inside Right in a 0-3 defeat by England at Maine Road Manchester on 13th November 1946, his third in another 0-3 defeat to England on 18th October 1947 at Ninian Park Cardiff, his fourth, at Inside Right, in a 2-1 win over Scotland at Hampden Park on 12th November 1947 and his fifth and final cap at Inside Right on 4th May 1948 in a 2-0 win over Northern Ireland at the Racecourse Ground Wrexham. Powell had been one of United’s few bright spots in their relegation year of 1946-47, when they had broken many records for all the wrong reasons, but he scored nine goals in thirty-four League games. He again shone like a beacon in the 1947-48 season as United narrowly avoided relegation into the Third Division and scored ten times in missing just three League games. New Manager Major Buckley need money to wheel and deal on the transfer market and so hard-up Leeds sold him to Everton for £10,000 in June 1948, which was the Goodison club’s record fee at that time. While at Everton he gain three more Welsh Caps to take his total to eight as he was at Inside Right in a 0-1 defeat by England at Villa Park on 10th November 1948, at Inside Left in a 5-1 win over Belgium at Ninian Park Cardiff on 23rd November 1949 and he scored the Welsh goal in a 1-3 defeat by Scotland at Ninian Park Cardiff on 21st October 1950. He made thirty-five League appearances for the Toffees and scored five goals in two seasons at Goodison Park. He joined Birmingham City in August 1950, scoring once in fifteen League appearances before going to Wellington Town, in June 1951, where he retired in 1952 after developing severe arthritis. He returned to Leeds and later worked for two confectionary companies until he retired at the age of sixty-five. He lived in the City for the rest of his life and was a regular attendee at Elland Road and in the 1960’s he coached at Leeds Ashley Road. He had been in poor health for the last six months of his life before he died in Leeds on 27th January 2009, aged ninety.