[3] He attended Cwrt Sart Central School in Briton Ferry, and played football as a youngster for Garthmor and for Neath schoolboys.
[4] He played for Swansea Town in the wartime competitions, regularly in 1943–44 and occasionally the following season,[5] before joining Briton Ferry Athletic, where he was instrumental in their Welsh League Division Two West title win in 1946–47.
According to the Western Mail, it was "a blow to [Briton Ferry] when he signed for Norwich, because it meant that they faced their first season in Division I of the Welsh League without the 'key' man who had taken them there.
After he was recommended to Brighton & Hove Albion by former Welsh international player Les Jones and impressed in a trial, he returned to English football, albeit briefly.
[7] Rees spent the 1950–51 season back in the Football League, under the management of Les Jones at Scunthorpe & Lindsey United, newly elected to the Third Division North.