[1][2] Playing at inside left or centre forward, Riley had a run of seven Third Division North matches for Darlington early in the 1949–50 season, beginning with the visit to Doncaster Rovers on 3 September.
He scored on his second appearance, in a 4–3 defeat of Bradford City, and again on his sixth, in a 2–1 loss at home to Mansfield Town.
His eighth and last senior appearance for Darlington came in December.
[3] In October 1949, Riley was selected for an Army XI to play Aston Villa.
This biographical article related to association football in England, about a forward, is a stub.