Ellam: Roy

1972-1974 (Player Details)

Centre Half

Born: Hemsworth: 13-01-1943

Debut v Chelsea (a): 12-08-1972

6’0” 12st 6lb (1973)

Ellam played for South Elmsall Boys and then played in the Leeds local League with Robin Hood Athletic and had an unsuccessful trial as a forward at Elland Road. He decided to reject an offer from Queens Park Rangers and joined Bradford City as an amateur and a defender in August 1959. Turning professional in May 1961, he gave the Paraders distinguished service, chalking up twelve goals in one hundred and forty-nine appearances, before moving to Huddersfield Town in January 1966, where he formed a fine partnership with Trevor Cherry. Ellam collected a Division Two Championship Medal in 1969-70 and in the following close season Cherry joined Leeds with Ellam quickly following him in August 1972 for £35,000. He had scored ten goals in two hundred and twenty-four appearances for the Terriers, eight goals and two hundred and six appearances being in the League. His Leeds debut was a disaster, going down 4-0 to Chelsea at Stamford Bridge. Leeds were already without Terry Cooper, Allan Clarke and Norman Hunter through injury or suspension. David Harvey and Ellam were preferred to Gary Sprake and Jack Charlton who were playing for the Reserves. Harvey had twice been buffeted from corners in the opening twenty minutes and then Mick Jones was down with an ankle injury in the twenty-fifth minute and waiting to be replaced by Terry Yorath, when there was more turmoil in the Leeds area from a corner kick and Harvey and Ellam appeared to collide and Harvey too had to be stretchered off with concussion. So Leeds were down to ten men with striker Peter Lorimer in goal and Terry Yorath employed as the lone striker. Lorimer did perform heroics in goal and Leeds put up a spirited defence and the game was the usual highly combative struggle with their bitter rivals of the time, but inevitably in the circumstances they were always going to come off second best and that was the case also in Ellam's battle with Peter Osgood, who never got much change out of Jack Charlton. Don Revie bought Ellam as a possible replacement for Jack Charlton, but a return to form by the veteran Charlton and the emergence of Gordon McQueen left him in the cold. He rejoined Huddersfield Town in July 1974 and in April 1975, after scoring twice in eighteen League starts, he was given a free transfer and went to play in the NASL. His first club there, in 1975, was Philadelphia Atoms and he scored once in sixteen appearances before spending 1976 with Washington Diplomats, where he scored twice in twenty-four appearances. During the NASL close seasons he had signed for Bob Murphy's Mossley, making his debut in a 1-0 win over reigning champions Boston United at Seel Park on 18th August 1975. He was joined at Mossley soon after by former Irish International John Napier in the heart of the Mossley defence before Napier returned to his former club Bradford City in a coaching capacity in late November 1975. Ex-Wigan Athletic star Albert Jackson was recruited as Napier's replacement and he and Ellam formed an effective defensive partnership in the Mossley defence over the course of the next year, broken only by Ellam returning to the USA for the summer of 1976 to fulfill his contract with Washington Diplomats. Ellam played his last match for Mossley in a 1-0 win at Macclesfield Town on 1st December 1976 having Scored twice in eighty-three appearances. He then moved to Gainsborough Trinity, where he was appointed Player/Manager. After retiring from the game, he became a compost salesman and then the landlord of the Nelson Inn, Thornton Lees, near Huddersfield for twenty years. He now helps run his daughter’s fitness centre and health club in Mirfield, West Yorkshire.