Legendary former Town defender Billy Baxter has died from cancer at the age of 70. Baxter was a key member of Sir Alf Ramsey's 1960/61 Second Division and 1961/62 First Division championship-winning sides and captained Bill McGarry's 1967/68 Second Division championship-winning team.

Baxter made 459 games for the Blues, scoring 22 times having signed from Broxburn Athletic in June 1960. During the early part of his Town career Baxter was also on National Service in the Royal Engineers.

In 2002 team-mate John Elsworthy, who died earlier this month and whose funeral it is today, told TWTD what the Edinburgh-born player brought to Ramsey's Town team: "Baxter was a revelation because prior to him Reg Pickett was the right-half. Pickett was a devil. When I went forward, he should have stayed back, but he didn't always do it.

"He got injured and Baxter came into the side and was excellent. He was lucky in that he was younger than most of the rest of us. We imparted our knowledge to him and he took it in. He was a god player.”

Baxter left Town for Hull City in March 1971 after a fall-out with manager Bobby Robson over a newspaper article the defender had written. The piece was critical of Town and the Scot was suspended for two weeks.

A dressing room bust-up after a home game against Leeds involving Baxter and team-mate Tommy Carroll and Robson and coach Cyril Lea led to a further fortnight's suspension and then the defender's exit.

Baxter later played at Watford on loan and Northampton, where he spent a brief spell as manager.

In later years Baxter, who was inducted into the Town Hall of Fame in March, had a leg amputated and he died back in Scotland in a Dunfermline hospital.

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