Saint Geraint the Saviour

Like all true Welshman Geraint has a good Welsh name. David.

Born on the 5th January 1962 in Cwmparc, Geraint played youth football for the Treorchy and Cwmparc Boys Club before progressing into the senior ranks at Bristol Rovers.

Making his debut at Rovers in 1980 he notched up 141 appearances scoring 8 goals in 5 years at the Memorial Ground.

Renowned as a steady yet solid, defensive midfielder a transfer to the Baseball Ground (Derby County) in 1985 followed. The following 7 years were Geraint`s most productive in which 9 goals from 277 appearances gave him a somewhat cult status amongst the County faithful.

1992 and Williams was on the move again. This time to the East to join up with John Lyall at Portman Road. Just in time for the new FA Premier League. Playing alongside John Wark, Mick Stockwell and Chris Kiwomya, Geraint stayed at Ipswich until a 1998 transfer down the road to Layer Road (Colchester United). In his 6 years at Ipswich, Williams scored 3 goals in appeared in over 200 games.

At this point it`s worth noting that Geraint has made 13 appearances for the full Welsh international team between 1988-1996.

The curtain was drawn on Geraint`s playing career after 2 years at Colchester with 39 appearances under his belt.

Upon immediate retirement from the playing game in 2000, Geraint took up the roll of Assistant Manager to Steve Whitton for two years until Phil Parkinson replaced Whitton at the helm.

Between Whitton and Parkinson, Geraint was appointed Caretaker manager on a 4-week basis.

Fast forward to 2006. Phil Parkinson departs as manager and Williams takes over the reigns. By this time Colchester were in the second-tier (Championship) of English football for the first time and strong favourites for relegation. Against all odds Colchester finished 10th in the 2006-2007 season.

The following season however was a different story and unfortunately Colchester were relegated back to League One in 2007-2008.

The writing was on the wall for Geraint after a poor opening to the 2008-2009 season. Williams was shown the door on the 22nd September 2008 after guiding Colchester to 23rd place in League One.

In the latest chapter of the David Geraint Williams story, he was appointed Full-Time Manager of Leyton Orient on 5th February 2009 on a 3-month contract.

All the best Geraint!