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Eddie May

Eddie May
Personal information
Full name Edwin Charles May
Date of birth (1943-05-19)19 May 1943
Place of birth Epping, England
Date of death 14 April 2012(2012-04-14) (aged 68)
Place of death Barry, Wales
Playing position Defender
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
0000–1965 Dagenham
1965–1968 Southend United 105 (3)
1968–1976 Wrexham 334 (35)
1975 Chicago Sting (loan) 18 (7)
1976–1978 Swansea City 90 (8)
Total 547 (53)
Teams managed
1978–1983 Leicester City (Asst Manager)
1983–1986 Charlton Athletic (Asst Manager)
1988 Newport County
1991–1994 Cardiff City
1994–1995 Barry Town
1995 Cardiff City
1995–1996 Torquay United
1997 Dundalk
1997 Brentford
1999–2000 Drogheda United
2001–2003 Highlanders
2008–2010 Porthcawl Town
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only.

Edwin Charles May (19 May 1943 – 14 April 2012) was an English football player and manager. May was born in Epping, and played for Dagenham, Southend United, Wrexham and Swansea City.

The burly, affable May loomed large in the modern history of Welsh football. During his playing prime in the first half of the 1970s he cut an imposing figure at the heart of the Wrexham rearguard, totalling some 400 senior appearances for The Racecourse club scoring 35 goals, all with his head . Later the most successful stint in his long, varied and eventually globetrotting coaching and managerial career came at the helm of Cardiff City, whom he guided to the double of Third Division title and Welsh Cup glory in 1992-93. He also served Swansea City as a player and, fleetingly, Newport County as a coach, thus becoming one of the few men to be associated with all four of Wales' most famous clubs.

The Essex-born May's first League employers were Southend United, whom he joined from Dagenham in January 1965, making his debut for the Third Division Shrimpers that spring as a left-back. Soon, though, the muscular six-footer found his natural position as a dominant centre-half, majestic in the air, powerful and unfailingly courageous, but his fine personal form could not prevent the Roots Hall side from sinking to the bottom division in the spring of 1966. He went on to make 100 league appearances, scoring 3 times for the Shrimpers, before moving to Wrexham in June 1968 for a fee of £5,000.

In June 1968 May was sold to Fourth Division rivals Wrexham for £5,000 and he settled rapidly at the Racecourse Ground, playing an influential role as the Robins were promoted in 1970 as runners-up to Chesterfield. Thereafter he became captain, leading John Neal's enterprising side to Welsh Cup success in 1972 and in two other rousing knockout campaigns. In 1973-74 Wrexham reached the last eight of the FA Cup, beating the soon-to-be-crowned Second Division champions Middlesbrough and top-flight Southampton before bowing 1-0 to Burnley, then among the top six clubs in the country.

Then in 1975-76 May was an inspirational part of the side which made it to the quarter-finals of the European Cup- Winners' Cup, where they went down 2-1 on aggregate to the illustrious Belgians, Anderlecht. The following August, aged 33 and having missed only 34 League games in his eight seasons in North Wales, he was freed to join Fourth Division Swansea City having spent the 1975 summer with NASL side Chicago Sting. During his Swans career he scored 8 times in 90 games and was a member of the 1978 promotion winning squad. May retired from the game shortly after.


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