William Jackson was a tricky inside-forward with an accurate shot, a decent work rate and link-up play. His main fault, though, was a low scoring rate. He played for several non-league clubs at the outset of his career, such as Flint, Rhyl, Wigan County and St. Helens Recreation. He finally reached the spotlight when he was capped by Wales against Ireland on March 4th, 1899.
This attracted Newton Heath's attentions and they bought Jackson from St. Helens that summer, housing him at 14 Cash Street. He showed good form in the pre-season trial games and was firmly installed in the lineup for the 1899-00 season, starting with the opening day tussle with Gainsborough Trinity. He missed only two matches, grabbed seven goals, and led Heath to victory in every game he scored. Jackson was the regular inside-left during 1900-01 too, but only got four goals in 29 outings, and missed out through injury on playing in the Manchester Senior Cup final that year.
William left Newton Heath and played for newly-formed Barrow until 1903 when he got back into the Football League with Burnley. He notched 10 goals in 1903-04, including four in one FA Cup tie, but he was only used once during the following campaign. Eventually he joined Chester City in October 1905, making his debut against his old club Rhyl. As the perfect example of his non-prolific nature, while Chester routed Rhyl 8-0, he could not claim any of the goals! He did attain six, however, throughout the season as Chester finished runners-up in the Combination. Biography kindly provided by Charbel Boujaoude.
