John Goodall

Infobox Football biography
playername = John Goodall


fullname = John Goodall
dateofbirth = birth date|1863|6|18|df=y
cityofbirth = Westminster
countryofbirth = England
dateofdeath = death date and age|1942|5|20|1863|6|18|df=y
cityofdeath = Watford
countryofdeath = England
position = Forward
years =


1885-1889
1889-1900
1900
1900-1903
1903-1907
clubs = Kilmarnock Burns
Kilmarnock Athletic
Great Lever
Preston North End
Derby County
New Brighton Tower
Glossop North End
Watford
caps(goals) =


021 (20)
211 (76)
006 0(2)
035 0(8)
nationalyears = 1888-1898
nationalteam = England
nationalcaps(goals) = 014 (12)
manageryears = 1903-1910
managerclubs = Watford

John Goodall (19 June 1863 – 20 May 1942) was a footballer who rose to fame as a centre-forward for Preston North End F.C. and the England national team at the time of the development of the Football League.

Early career

Goodall was born of Scottish parents in Westminster, London, but became an English international footballer. He was the most notable of the few ‘southerners’ able to break into the new ‘professional’ game and was, in some ways, responsible for aiding the development of the game in the South of England, becoming Watford F.C's first manager in 1903. He was a curling player of some repute and twice kept wicket in the County Championship for Derbyshire County Cricket Club. In addition, he always maintained a rather strange penchant for domesticated foxes, walking them on the pitch during the interval at Deepdale.

When he was a child his parents moved to Kilmarnock, where he first learnt the ‘Scottish’ passing game playing for Kilmarnock Burns F.C., Kilmarnock Athletic F.C., and Great Lever F.C., in Bolton. He was eventually signed by Preston’s chairman and manager, Major William Sudell who had led the struggle for professionalism (once stating that stopping the inevitability of paid footballers was ‘like trying to stop Niagara with a three-legged stool’) and had gathered a group of Scots together at Preston to form one of strongest sides in the country. Sudell gave The Football League its name and was its first treasurer.

Preston North End

Goodall signed for Preston North End at the beginning of the 1885-86 season, ultimately scoring 50 goals in 56 games for the club. He had been a part of the 1888 Cup Final team, which had lost to West Bromwich Albion but it was the following year that his fame was assured. In that year, the inaugural season of The Football League, the Preston North End F.C. side went undefeated through their League campaign and won the FA Cup without conceding a goal to earn the club the nickname ‘The Invincibles’. Goodall finished the season as the League’s top scorer with 20 goals in 21 games and went on to be selected to represent the England national team against the Welsh national team. In all, Goodall was capped six times versus Wales, seven times against Scotland, and once against Ireland, scoring 12 goals. He saw his last international in 1898 having appeared at inside right, centre forward, and inside left. One opponent said of him: "his feet seemed to move in quicksilver".

Derby County

It came as something of a surprise when Goodall left Preston North End F.C. for Derby County F.C. in 1889 at the height of his fame. His brother Archie (born in Ireland) a centre-half, played alongside John at Derby County and was capped for the Ireland. As such they became the first brothers in history to play for different countries.

He was retained by the Derby club until 1898. It was at Derby County where the older Goodall became a mentor to Stephen Bloomer, the best goal scorer of that generation, from the start of the 1892-93 season. Bloomer allegedly credited Goodall with his early development and partly as a result of this combination, the ‘Rams’ came strongly to the fore but were never quite able to convert their talents into silverware finishing third in the League twice, runners-up once (in 1895), FA Cup semi-finalists twice, and runners-up once (in 1898).

Goodall did not feature in the 1899 FA Cup Final as he was by now fading as a first-time fixture at the Baseball Ground but in 1900-01 he was taken on by New Brighton Tower, a club based in the Wirral, that pursued an expensive policy of buying ex-internationals in order to strengthen their League status. However, at the end of Goodall’s first season the owners, citing financial difficulties, withdrew the club from the League despite finishing 4th in the Second Division of The Football League. Goodall, finally, played out his League career in relative obscurity with Glossop North End, in Derbyshire, in the Second Division.

Watford

He married Sarah Rawcliffe from Lancashire in Glossop and, when his playing career came to an end, moved with his wife to Hertfordshire in 1903 where he took up a position as the first player/manager of Watford F.C. of the Southern League for 3/10s/0d a week and stayed in position until May 1910, when he became the groundsman.

An "Observer" reporter visited Goodall in May 1903, as he prepared for the new season and, in part, wrote this:fact|date=June 2008 cquote|Asked as to the prospects in Watford, the new manager saw no reason why Watford, with its good central position and great railway facilities, should not be able to turn out a team to occupy a respectable position on the Southern League ladder. The moment we got away from the subject of Watford you could hear the rumbling of curling stones, the swish of cricket balls, the rippling of waters "willow-wooed," and the swipes of drivers in the royal and ancient game of "gowf".Of Goodall's fishing one need say no more than that he is an angler.

But John's achievements in the roaring game cannot be passed over. While at Preston he was the champion curler, and once when playing against the best of Scotia's curlers in the championship of Great Britain at Southport, he ran out second.

With reference to the game of golf, Goodall knows all about long drives and good approaches, bunkers, and other hazards; the secret of keeping your eye on the ball is his, and the language thereof! Pigeon shooting also claimed his attention. The gentler game of bowling has attracted him of a summer's evening and he can put a bowl to lie dead on the jack when required. In the cricket field he has kept wicket for Derby County against Yorkshire and Warwickshire. [(He played twice for Derbyshire County Cricket Club in June 1895 and July 1896, scoring 38 runs at an average of 12.) [http://cricketarchive.com/Derbyshire/Players/29/29688/29688.html] )]

In the new manager, Watford have a man who can be relied upon at all times to give a good account of himself in any position, particularly in the van.

His impact of his reign at Watford was immediate. The club broke various records in winning Division Two of the Southern League in 1903-04. They went through the campaign undefeated, recording the highest FA Cup victory in the club’s history (6-0 versus Redhill 31 October 1903) and having both the highest season (Bertie Banks) (21 goals) and single game goal scorer in the club’s history (Harry Barton (6 goals v. Wycombe Wanderers 26 September 1903).

Goodall played his last game for Watford on 14 September 1907 at the age of 44 years, 87 days in a Southern League game against Bradford Park Avenue and, thereafter, lived out a rather impecunious existence, tending to an allotment to provide vegetables for his family and forlornly walking one of his pet foxes around the town. He died in Watford in May 1942 and is buried at Watford North Cemetery in an unmarked grave.

External links

* [http://www.englandstats.com/playerreport.php?pid=398 England profile on Englandstats.com]

References

*The Golden Boys: A Study of Watford's Cult Heroes By Oliver Phillips, Watford FC Books.