Jack Firth (footballer)

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Template:Short description Template:Use dmy dates Template:Use British English Template:Infobox football biography Jack Firth (8 August 1907 – 8 December 1987) was an English professional footballer who made more than 200 appearances in the Football League playing as a wing half or inside forward for Birmingham, Swansea Town and Bury.

Life and career

Jack Firth was born on 8 August 1907Template:Sfnp in Brightside, Sheffield;[1] he was a son of Albert Firth, a coal miner, and his wife Harriet. The family spent time living in Barnsley[2] before settling in Woodlands, where Firth attended the village school and captained its football team.[1] He was a member of the Doncaster schools representative team that played in the English Schools Shield.[1] On leaving school, he worked at Brodsworth Main Colliery, first as a screener and then in the office.[1] He began his football career with Woodlands Prims, and then joined his works team, initially in the reserves.[1] A trial with Doncaster Rovers during the 1925–26 season came to nothing, and in March 1926, he joined Football League First Division club Birmingham on a similar basis. The trial went well, he signed professional forms, "and was glad to forget the colliery and the coal-getting."[3][1]

Firth made his first-team debut for Birmingham on 29 October 1927, replacing the indisposed Wally Harris as stand-in for Johnny Crosbie at inside right for the 3–1 defeat away to Sheffield United,[4] the team Firth supported as a boy. The Sunday Mercury reporter wrote that he "revealed a great deal of footcraft, but he was too slow in parting with the ball and should have fed his partner oftener."[5][1] Starting at inside left, he scored his first goal 12 minutes into the visit to Middlesbrough on 25 February 1928 following a corner, and finished the game at right half after Jimmy Cringan was injured; it was only after the reorganisation that Middlesbrough equalised.[6] He ended the season with six appearances, and made twice that number in 1928–29, six at inside forward and six at right half, in the last of which he broke a collarbone.Template:Sfnp[7]

He was a regular at right half the following season and for the first couple of months of the next, until dropped in favour of Cringan. Template:Sfnp[8] Brought into the forward line to face Grimsby Town with Joe Bradford away on international duty with England and George Briggs and George Hicks injured,[9] and despite carrying an injury for much of the second half, Firth scored a hat-trick in the last half-hour of the game to secure a 4–1 win.[10] He regained a regular place in the side from mid-February onwards, scored in the FA Cup sixth round replay and played in the semi-final win against Sunderland, but Bob Gregg was preferred for the 1931 FA Cup Final, which Birmingham lost 2–1 to West Bromwich Albion.Template:Sfnp[11] He remained at the club for another two years, during which he made just 14 appearances, and was not retained at the end of the 1932–33 season.Template:Sfnp[12]

Firth signed for Swansea Town of the Second Division in August 1933.[13] He was a regular in their team for three seasons, mainly as an inside forward, and in his first season scored ten goals from 34 league appearances, a return that made him Swansea's second top scorer with only one fewer than Syd Lowry's 11.[14] He was made available for transfer in 1936,[15] and signed for Bury, another Second Division club. His manager, Norman Bullock, thought he would "prove a very good utility player",[16] but, apart from a run of five games at inside right in February 1937 that produced four goals, he rarely played.[14]

He returned home at the end of that season, and rejoined Brodsworth Main, both colliery and football team.[14][17] In addition to football, Firth played league cricket in Yorkshire.[18]

Firth died in Doncaster on 8 December 1987 at the age of 80.Template:Sfnp

Career statistics

Appearances and goals by club, season and competition[14]
Club Season League FA Cup Total
Division Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals
Birmingham 1927–28 First Division 6 1 0 0 6 1
1928–29 First Division 12 2 0 0 12 1
1929–30 First Division 36 0 3 0 39 0
1930–31 First Division 25 4 2 1 27 5
1931–32 First Division 9 0 0 0 9 0
1932–33 First Division 5 0 0 0 5 0
Total 93 7 5 1 98 8
Swansea Town 1933–34 Second Division 34 10 4 0 38 10
1934–35 Second Division 36 4 2 0 38 4
1935–36 Second Division 32 2 1 0 33 2
Total 102 16 7 0 109 16
Bury 1936–37 Second Division 7 4 0 0 7 4
Career total 202 27 12 1 214 28

References

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  13. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  14. ↑ a b c d Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  15. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  16. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  17. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  18. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".

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Sources

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