The Harry Leyland Stand on Merseyside has been empty now for a whole year, a silent memorial to a famous old goalkeeper’s rugby conversion. Leyland played for Everton when they were the team in Liverpool and Blackburn Rovers when they reached the FA Cup final for the last time, in 1960. He finished at Tranmere, managed Wigan Athletic for one season and ran a stall at Birkenhead market.
Harry Leyland never played a game of rugby in his life and yet he is revered in a corner of the Wirral at Hartsfield, home of New Brighton Football Club (RU). Three years after his death at 76 shortly befor...