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Jack Firth (footballer)

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Jack Firth
Personal information
Full name Jack Firth[1]
Date of birth (1907-08-08)8 August 1907
Place of birth Brightside, Sheffield, England
Date of death 8 December 1987(1987-12-08) (aged 80)
Place of death Doncaster, England
Height 5 ft 9 in (1.75 m)[1]
Position(s) Wing half, inside forward
Youth career
Woodlands Prims
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
19??–1926 Brodsworth Main Colliery
Doncaster Rovers 0 (0)
1926–1933 Birmingham 93 (7)
1933–1936 Swansea Town 102 (16)
1936–1937 Bury 7 (4)
1937–19?? Brodsworth Main Colliery
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

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

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Jack Firth was born on 8 August 1907[1] in Brightside, Sheffield;[2] he was a son of Albert Firth, a coal miner, and his wife Harriet. The family spent time living in Barnsley[3] before settling in Woodlands, where Firth attended the village school and captained its football team.[2] He was a member of the Doncaster schools representative team that played in the English Schools Shield.[2] On leaving school, he worked at Brodsworth Main Colliery, first as a screener and then in the office.[2] He began his football career with Woodlands Prims, and then joined his works team, initially in the reserves.[2] 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."[4][2]

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,[5] 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."[6][2] 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.[7] 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.[8][9]

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. [10][11] 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,[12] 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.[13] 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.[14][15] 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.[16][17]

Firth signed for Swansea Town of the Second Division in August 1933.[18] 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.[19] He was made available for transfer in 1936,[20] and signed for Bury, another Second Division club. His manager, Norman Bullock, thought he would "prove a very good utility player",[21] but, apart from a run of five games at inside right in February 1937 that produced four goals, he rarely played.[19]

He returned home at the end of that season, and rejoined Brodsworth Main, both colliery and football team.[19][22] In addition to football, Firth played league cricket in Yorkshire.[23]

Firth died in Doncaster on 8 December 1987 at the age of 80.[1]

Career statistics

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Appearances and goals by club, season and competition[19]
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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  1. ^ a b c d Matthews (1995), p. 87.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g Firth, Jack (29 December 1929). "The 1930 perils of the "Blues"". Sunday Mercury. Birmingham. p. 14 – via Newspapers.com.
  3. ^ "1911 England Census for Jack Firth". RG14/25765 RD 507 ED 06 – via Ancestry.co.uk.
  4. ^ "Sporting news in brief". Sheffield Daily Telegraph. 11 June 1926. p. 9.
  5. ^ "Harris indisposed. Firth in Birmingham team to play at Sheffield". Evening Despatch. Birmingham. 27 October 1927. p. 8 – via Newspapers.com.
  6. ^ "Superior Sheffielders. Birmingham beaten by better side". Sunday Mercury. Birmingham. 30 October 1927. p. 14 – via Newspapers.com.
  7. ^ Forward (27 February 1928). "'Blues' hold Camsell and company". Birmingham Gazette. p. 10 – via Newspapers.com.
  8. ^ Matthews (1995), pp. 170–171.
  9. ^ The Saint (7 April 1929). "Burnley's "double". Birmingham concede full points to Turf Moor side". Sunday Mercury. Birmingham. p. 16 – via Newspapers.com.
  10. ^ Matthews (1995), pp. 172–173.
  11. ^ "Blackpool's visit to St. Andrew's". Birmingham Gazette. 10 October 1930. p. 10 – via Newspapers.com.
  12. ^ "Weakened "Blues" XI". Evening Despatch. Birmingham. 20 November 1930. p. 14 – via Newspapers.com.
  13. ^ "Firth's fine "hat" trick at St. Andrew's. A welcome surprise". Sports Argus. 22 November 1930. p. 1 – via Newspapers.com.
  14. ^ Matthews (1995), p. 173.
  15. ^ "All players expected to be fit for fray. Gregg at inside-left for Birmingham". Birmingham Gazette. 24 April 1931. p. 10 – via Newspapers.com.
  16. ^ Matthews (1995), pp. 174–175.
  17. ^ Argus Junior (6 May 1933). "Leaves of my notebook. Farewell to Liddell and Tremelling". Sports Argus. p. 4 – via Newspapers.com.
  18. ^ "Jack Firth signed on. Birmingham player for Swansea Town". Western Mail. Cardiff. 10 August 1933. p. 5 – via Newspapers.com.
  19. ^ a b c d "Player search: Firth, J (Jack)". English National Football Archive. Retrieved 12 August 2022.
  20. ^ "Swansea Town's retained list". Western Mail. Cardiff. 1 May 1936. p. 4 – via Newspapers.com.
  21. ^ Bullock, Norman (29 August 1936). "They're telling you—and it's official! F.C. managers talk. Bury". Liverpool Echo. p. 7 – via Newspapers.com.
  22. ^ "1939 England Census for Jack Firth". RG101/3595a RD 512A/2 ED KMAG – via Ancestry.co.uk.
  23. ^ "Jottings from the Division II camps". Leicester Evening Mail. 18 April 1936. p. 16 – via Newspapers.com.

Sources

[edit]
  • Matthews, Tony (1995). Birmingham City: A Complete Record. Derby: Breedon Books. ISBN 978-1-85983-010-9.
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