An ambulance quickly arrived at the ground in North London together with a helicopter which landed in the centre circle of the pitch.
Fans were all asked to leave the ground as medics treated Billy who was taken to Paddington hospital and put into an induced coma.
Sadly, despite all medical efforts, Billy couldn’t make it and the striker died on Thursday 25th September.
The football community has responded to this heart-breaking news with a Tweet the club put out on the social media platform X getting over 4.5 million views.
Messages of condolence poured in from throughout the country from all sorts of football organisations.
Isthmian Premier Division matches against Lewes and Cheshunt were understandably postponed as players, staff and everyone connected with Chichester City grieved.
A wall of flowers, sympathy cards and football shirts at Oaklands Park grew in size as people paid their respects.
The players all met up with manager Miles Rutherford and Dabba at Oaklands, alongside other coaches and physios, the chairman and club secretary the following Saturday at 9am.
This has obviously been a difficult time for everyone, especially Billy’s family.
The players trained on Tuesday and Thursday this week.
Dabba described Billy as, “Kind, considerate, a real gentleman, polite, a team-player, coachable beyond belief, and an absolutely lovely human being”.
He added, “We were obviously honoured and privileged to have him here with us. He was one of the humblest people I’ve come across and the conversations I had with him will stay with me for the rest of my life. He worked so hard and had some injuries in his career. I was so honoured for him to be here with this beautiful bunch of incredible players and people at this football club. If my two kids turn out like Billy I’ll be the proudest dad in the world. Billy’s family was incredible”.
Chi skipper Rob Hutchings said, “He integrated into the squad really quickly. He was shy to start with but he was a genuine, nice person. He also always had a smile on his face.”
Centre back Ben Pashley added, “You could tell from minute-one he didn’t want to talk about himself – he’d much rather talk about other people. He was a really self-less, humble guy. I never heard him moan about anything – he just got on with it. He was level-headed and calm”.
“He never came into the club as the big ‘I am’. He was very modest” said Hutchings.
“Billy was one of life’s good guys and he loved being around us” added Pashley poignantly.
Billy played at the Arsenal Youth Academy from 14-years-old and signed a professional contract at that club before being loaned to Derby County and moving on to Eastbourne Borough and then Hastings United.
He scored in the 2-1 pre-season game with Isthmian Premier champions Horsham who were promoted to National League South this year, and netted in two league fixtures away at Hashtag United and Carshalton Athletic on August Bank Holiday Monday.
Chichester are in FA Trophy action at Oaklands Park on Saturday 4th October (Kick Off 3pm).
RIP Billy.
