Williams started off in amateur football with Clifton Athletic before joining Bristol Rovers in 1975. Unusually, he began with the League club as an amateur, combining playing League football with studying on a teacher training course, and later with teaching at Mostyn High School in Cardiff. After already making 113 League appearances, he finally turned fully professional in 1978. In May 1983, he was promoted to the position of player-manager after Bobby Gould left. He won 51 of his 108 games in the post, and won the Gloucestershire Cup twice.
He was still player-manager of Rovers when Norwich City manager Ken Brown took him to Carrow Road before the start of the 1985-86 season. Williams won a second division championship medal in his first season with the Canaries and went on to serve the club as player-coach, assistant manager and, for one game, caretaker manager before he left in 1992.
Welsh international
It was during his time with Norwich in Division 1 that he played five times for Wales. In 1988, he also coached the Wales national football team as caretaker manager, including a 1−3 loss against Yugoslavia, prior to the appointment of Terry Yorath.
Management and coaching
In July 1992 Williams was appointed assistant manager at Bournemouth. In February 1994 he took on the same position at Everton before becoming reserve team coach at Leeds United. After completing a youth team coaching role at Manchester United in 2002, he spent some time as a driving instructor in Harrogate, returning to Norwich to as Assistant Academy Manager in the summer of 2004. In addition to his role at Carrow Road, he also coached the Welsh international youth sides as assistant to Brian Flynn. In May 2007 at the age of 52 Williams left Norwich and retired from club coaching though continued his involvement with the Welsh youth squads. He briefly became assistant manager of the Welsh team when Flynn was appointed caretaker in September 2010. In February 2013, soon after Flynn had been made manager of Doncaster Rovers, he appointed Williams as his assistant. Williams left the role at the end of the 2012/13 season.
