Len Boyd

Boyd was born in Plaistow, Essex. He played for the West Ham Schools team alongside Ken Green, who was later to be a Birmingham teammate, and as a youth played for Ilford. The outbreak of the Second World War when Boyd was 15 delayed his entry into football as a career.[1] He joined the Royal Navy, and while serving in Malta was spotted playing for a Navy team by a Plymouth Argyle supporter, who recommended him to the club. After a trial, Boyd signed professional forms in December 1945.[2]

He made his debut on 12 October 1946, taking over at centre-half from Alf Miller for a Second Division match away at Leicester City which Plymouth lost 4–1. In his first season, Boyd played 16 league matches, mainly in the inside left position, and scored four of his five Plymouth goals.[3] He played regularly on the right side of the forward line in the following season, but failed to score,[4] and was regarded as "a promising but not exceptional inside-forward".[2] When manager Jack Tresadern switched him to right half for the 1948–49 season, it became clear he was better suited to that position.[2][5] After three consecutive seasons helping the Devon club avoid relegation from the Second Division,[6][7] Boyd was sold to First Division club Birmingham City in January 1949 for a fee of £17,500, the first five-figure fee ever received by Plymouth for a player.[2]

He went straight into the first team as replacement for Frank Mitchell who had joined Chelsea earlier that month, and made his debut in a goalless draw away at Preston North End.[8] In the 1949–50 season, his first full season with Birmingham, he established himself in the first team but was unable to prevent his new team's relegation to the Second Division.[9] When Fred Harris retired at the end of that season,[10] manager Bob Brocklebank appointed Boyd as his successor as club captain, a post which he retained for the remainder of his Birmingham career.[11]

Under Boyd's captaincy Birmingham reached the semifinals of the 1950–51 FA Cup, when they were defeated by the powerful Blackpool side of Stanley Matthews and Stan Mortensen only after a replay.[12] They twice came close to winning promotion, missing out by three points in the 1950–51 season[13] and then on goal average the following year.[14] Boyd's performances were rewarded with selection for England B against Netherlands B, a match played in front of a crowd of 60,000 at the Olympic Stadium in Amsterdam,[15] but this, and a selection as reserve for a Football League representative team in 1954,[16] was as close as he came to full international honours.

Manager Brocklebank significantly strengthened Birmingham's playing staff,[17] but although the club nearly reached another semifinal in the 1952–53 FA Cup, losing in the sixth round to Tottenham Hotspur after two replays, their league results failed to improve.[18] In late 1954, Arthur Turner was appointed manager, and his ability to instil a positive approach in the players transformed a team stagnating in mid-table into one needing to win the last match of the season, away at Doncaster Rovers, in order to be promoted as champions on goal average. Boyd led the team to a 5–1 win, later recalling:

The ground was packed and alive with supporters wearing the colours of Birmingham City. We knew we would win – and so too did those fans – and our performance that day was quite brilliant.[19]

The same squad of players carried their promotion form into the 1955–56 season in the First Division, achieving the club's highest league finish of sixth place, and reaching the FA Cup final.[18] They became attractive to the media; after the FA Cup semifinal victory, Boyd signed an exclusive contract committing himself and his teammates to appearing only on BBC programmes in the weeks leading up to the final.[20]

Fellow wing half Roy Warhurst injured a thigh in the sixth round at Arsenal and played no further part in the season.[21] Boyd himself had for some time been suffering from a debilitating back problem, and relied on injections to keep him playing;[1] he missed five of the last seven matches of the season,[22] but was passed fit on the Wednesday before the match.[23] In the event, Boyd played, in Warhurst's position at left-half, and the 22-year-old Johnny Newman came in on the right.[24] With Warhurst missing and Boyd out of position and not fully match-fit, Birmingham's strength and balance was disrupted, leaving them particularly vulnerable to Manchester City's unconventional style of play, known as the "Revie Plan".[25] At half-time, a row erupted between the manager and some of the players, Boyd included, about their fitness;[26] in the second half, whether due to physical and mental exhaustion or the effects of the row, Birmingham were soundly beaten.[26][27]

On their return to Birmingham, the team received a civic welcome; Boyd told the thousands outside the Council House that the team felt they had let the supporters down. Though the crowd roared "No!",[28] recriminations followed. Speaking fifty years later, goalkeeper Gil Merrick refused to attribute blame for the loss to Boyd's lack of fitness:

The reason why we lost, in my opinion, was nothing to do with Boydy who some claimed was unfit. Why we didn't perform in the second half was mainly because nothing was said in the dressing room at half time about stopping the damage caused by Don Revie. He was a good player and ran the game but at half time we should have talked about stopping him. Tackles should have been talked about, but they weren't. It was a lack of tackles that caused us to fold in the second half, and that's all I'm going to say. Don't put all the onus on Len Boyd. Len was a good player and a bloody good captain.[29]

Boyd played only one more match for the club, two weeks after the Cup Final. Not risked in their first match in the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup, against Internazionale on a hard pitch in the San Siro,[30] he played in their next, a 1–0 win against a Zagreb Select XI in Yugoslavia.[31] Following a favourable specialist's report during the close season,[32] Boyd took part in pre-season training, but his back still troubled him.[33] On 17 August 1956, the day before Birmingham were to open their 1956–57 League campaign, Boyd's contract with the club was terminated at his own request.[34]