Manchester City He signed for
Manchester City from Alexandra Victoria on 2 February 1918, as an amateur. He made several appearances for the club in the wartime Lancashire League, including an appearance against
Everton in which he scored in the first minutes to consign
the Toffeemen to their first defeat of the season. When competitive football returned after the end of the war, Murphy turned professional, making his league debut against
Bolton Wanderers on 13 September 1919, and a further 37 appearances that season. In the
1919–20 season, Murphy scored nine goals in 41 appearances as Manchester City finished as runner-up in the league. his performances resulted in interest from the
Irish Football Association, who prompted by Murphy's Irish-sounding surname wrote to enquire about his birthplace. In his reply, Manchester City manager
Ernest Mangnall wrote "He comes from St Helens, where the pills come from". Murphy was a regular on the Manchester City left wing for six seasons, but by
1925–26 he was no longer first choice, making only nine appearances, and on 18 August 1926, having scored 31 goals in 220 appearances for Manchester City, he joined
Southampton for £350. The New Year saw a slump in the team's performances and by the end of the season they had fallen back to 13th place in the table. They did, however, have a good run in the
FA Cup, reaching the
semi-finals where they went out to
Arsenal, with Murphy appearing in all the cup matches. In the 1926–27 season, in which he linked up well with
Sam Taylor and
Stan Woodhouse on the left, Murphy only missed one league match, scoring four goals.
The following season saw Murphy continuing on the left-wing until early March when he lost his place to
Stan Cribb. Although he regained his place for the start of
the 1928–29 season, Cribb once again replaced him and Murphy only made the occasional appearance before being released at the end of the season, with Saints having recruited
Johnny Arnold to fill the left wing position. In his time with the Saints, Murphy made a total of 81 appearances, scoring nine goals. He spent one season at Oldham, before joining his final league club
Tranmere Rovers, after which he joined non-league
Ellesmere Port Town. He died at St. Helens in June 1975, aged 81. ==References==