William Townley

William James Townley (14 February 1866 – 30 May 1950) was an English football player and coach.

He scored the first hat-trick in the history of the FA Cup final, and he is considered an important pioneer of the game in Germany, leading Karlsruher FV and SpVgg Fürth to three German championships as a coach.

Townley's career as a player began with Blackburn Swifts F.C., where he played for one season. He than joined Blackburn Olympic for two seasons. His playing position at Swifts and Olympic was centre-forward. He joined Blackburn Rovers in 1886 and switched to the left winger position. Townley's technique to deter defending full-backs was to throw his arms up in the air, thus startling his opponent; Townley then swept past to make an attack. On 15 September 1888, Townley, playing as a winger, made his league debut at Leamington Road, then home of Blackburn Rovers, against Accrington. The match ended as a 5–5 draw, with Townley scoring the second and fourth goals for Blackburn Rovers, and becoming the team's top scorer temporarily.

In the 1888–89 season, Townley played 19 league matches and scored eight league goals. As a winger, he played in a midfield that achieved big (three league goals or more) league wins on five separate occasions. In scoring eight league goals, Townley scored two-in-a-match twice. He played in all five FA Cup ties played by Blackburn Rovers in 1888–1889 at Outside-Left; he scored twice. He scored one of Blackburn' five goals on 9 February 1889, in a 5–0 win over Accrington. The match was a First Round Replay (The match at Thorneyholme Road, Accrington was drawn 1-1). He also scored Blackburn's only goal in another replay. It was 23 March 1889 and the venue was the Alexandra Recreation Ground in Crewe. On 16 March 1889, at the same venue, Blackburn drew 1–1 with Wolverhampton Wanderers, so the match was replayed one week later. Blackburn lost 3-1 and Townley scored Blackburn's goal. He assisted Blackburn to win the FA Cup with the club in 1890 and 1891. In the first of these title appearances against The Wednesday, the outside left made history by contributing three goals in a 6–1 victory, earning the distinction of becoming the first player to score a hat-trick in an FA Cup final. He scored another goal in the successful defence of the title, as the Rovers overcame Notts County 3–1 the following year. Townley's total of four goals in FA Cup finals has to date only been bettered once, by Liverpool's Ian Rush, who scored five goals in three finals appearances in the 1980s.

Townley was capped twice for England, in 1889 and 1890, scoring two goals in the second of those matches, which was a 9–1 victory over Ireland. In 1894, he moved to Darwen and played there for six years before joining Manchester City, where his playing career ended after he suffered a serious head injury.

At the end of his playing years, Townley took up coaching as a profession; as the opportunities were limited in England, he left for the continent, where football was beginning to develop a serious following. In Germany, as in the rest of Europe at the time, the game was strictly amateur in character, and players often had to contribute to team expenses. For a club to have a coach was not yet a matter of course, but rather a luxury, as it was more common then for a senior player or club functionary to fill the role and carry out the tasks of a coach. Coaches were often hired for special occasions only, or for a brief period to help develop the skills of a team, before they moved on.

Townley's first coaching job was with DFC Prague, who were beaten by VfB Leipzig in Germany's first national championship staged in 1903. He later joined Karlsruher FV, losing finalists in 1905, and led them to a their only national title in 1910.

The following year, he was hired by the northern Bavarian club SpVgg Fürth. This club owned the most advanced facilities in Germany, and was quickly becoming the largest club in the country with a membership approaching 3,000. Two months after his arrival, Fürth lost against English side Newcastle United 2–1. He guided the club to its first two Bavarian championships (Ostkreismeisterschaft), which heralded the onset of a golden era that would last into the 1930s, and which saw the club become one of the most dominant football sides in the country.