Stevenson: William Byron (Byron)

1973-1982 (Player Details)

Midfield/Defender

Born: Llanelli: 07-09-1956

Debut v Sheffield United (a): 01-04-1975

6’1” 11st 0lb (1977)

A Welsh Youth International, Stevenson was recruited straight from school in Llanelli in 1972 and turned professional in September 1973. Initially, as a defender, he was earmarked as a replacement for Norman Hunter as the Don Revie Leeds team started to break up, but it was as a replacement for Paul Reaney at right-back that he made his first team debut. There was only one token substitute appearance, again at right back, at Anfield, in the following season and Stevenson actually had to wait until April 1977 before he got a meaningful run of games when he made six successive League appearances, once more replacing Paul Reaney at right back. While he was finding progress hard in the first team he had been noticed by the Welsh selectors and he made his Under-Twenty-One debut at right half, alongside teammates Glan Letheran and Gwyn Thomas, in the 0-0 draw with England at Molineux on 15th December 1976. A second cap soon followed, in a 2-3 defeat by Scotland at Easter Road, Edinburgh on 7th February 1977. There were fourteen starts and one game from the bench in the League and six starts in the Cup in the following season of 1978-79, a season which saw him net his first goal in a 1-3 home defeat by West Bromwich Albion on 14th October 1978 and play his third and final game for the Welsh Under-Twenty-One side in a 1-0 win over Scotland at Sealand Road, Chester, on 8th February 1978. It was also the season that he gained his first full International cap for his country, when he was selected at right back in the Home Championship game with Northen Ireland at the Racecourse Ground Wrexham on 19th May 1978, which ended in a 1-0 victory for the Welsh. He retained his position in two further European Qualifiers at the same venue in two further home wins for Wales as they defeated Malta 7-0 on 25th October 1978 and Turkey on 29th November and this was flowed by playing in all three Home Internationals as Wales beat Scotland 3-0 at Ninian Park, Cardiff on 19th May 1979, drew with England 0-0 at Wembley four days later and just two days later there was a 0-0 draw with Northern Ireland at Windsor Park, Belfast before he gained his seventh cap as Wales defeated Malta in the reverse fixture of the European Qualifiers at the Empire Stadium in Gzira on 2nd June 1979. He had a good run at left back in Jimmy Adamson's side in 1979, scoring three times in twenty-four starts in the League and, with qualification still a possibility, he played two more European Qualifiers, both away, for Wales which in defeat and saw their elimination from the competition. The first took place at the Mungersdorfer Stadion in Cologne where West Germany inflicted a 5-1 defeat on 17th October 1979 and the second at the Altay Alsancak Stadium, Izmir, where they lost by the only goal of the game on 21st November 1979. A moment of madness in that game, when he allegedly fractured Buyak Mustafa's cheekbone, certainly cost him several Welsh caps. He was sent off, after sixty-nine minutes, for violent conduct and was banned by UEFA fron the European game for over four years, although the sentence was later reduced on appeal. In the actual game, which Wales had to draw to qualify, they had dominated the first half and even a win was still a strong possibility until the incident, but with ten men Wales conceded a goal with ten minutes remaining and were unable to recover. The ban saw him miss the Home Championship fixtures and it was not until 2nd June 1980 that he returned as a seventy-fifth minute replacement for Terry Yorath in a 4-0 win over Iceland at Laugardalsvollur National Stadium in Reykjavik. At Leeds, the 1980-81 season seemed to have made a perfect start as Stevenson converted a second minute penalty to give Leeds the lead against Aston Villa, but it was all downhill from there as they lost that game by 1-2 and by October Allan Clarke had taken over from Jimmy Adamson. He immediately put more emphasis on defence and Stevenson took on the midfield role instead of Alex Sabella for the final twelve games of the 1980-81 season. Stevenson had become a regular in the Allan Clarke line-up and although he was used primarily in midfield in 1981 but found he was being used in a variety of defensive positions as the situation arose. It had been fifteen months since he had represented Wales and he returned for the Group Three Qualifier in the World Cup at the Evzen Rosicky Stadium in Prague on 9th September 1981 as they were defeated 0-2. In March 1982 Leeds found they were in desperate need of a striker as they fought against relegation, so Stevenson was traded for Birmingham City forward Frank Worthington after scoring once in eighteen League games. He had played just two games for his new club when Wales called him up for the Friendly game with Spain at the Luis Casanova Giner Stadium in Valencia. It turned out that "Friendly" was probably a misnomer, as the crowd turned violent and showered the Welsh team with anything they could lay their hands on after the 1-1 draw. He was also called up for two of the Home Championship games, on 24th May 1982 at Hampden Park in a 0-1 loss to Scotland, and three days later in a 3-0 win over Northern Ireland at the Racecourse Ground, Wrexham. He played his fifteenth and final time for Wales on 2nd June 1982 as Wales surprised France as an Ian Rush was enough to win the game 1-0 at the Municipal Stadium, Toulouse. He remained at Birmingham until July 1985 before moving to Bristol Rovers. At St Andrews’ he made sixty-nine starts and five substitute appearances in the League and scored three goals. Because of persistant injuries he decided to retire at the end of the 1985-86 season at the age of only twenty-nine. He scored three goals in thirty League starts and one game from the bench at Eastville. He returned to Leeds when his playing career ended and in 1988. He assisted Garforth Town for two seasons in the Northern Counties East League and ran the Angel Hotel at nearby Rothwell. He was also involved with Corpus Christi FC in Leeds, and later ran the Golden Lion in Pudsey, The Two Pointers in Woodlesford and finally the New Inn at Churwell before returning to Llanelli to look after his father, who had Parkinson’s disease, in 1996. While there he played for two years for Evans & Williams Sports in Llanelli.He died of throat cancer on 6th September 2007, a day short of his fifty-first birthday.