Arthur Bridgett

Arthur Bridgett
Personnel
Surname	George Arthur Bridgett
birthday	October 11, 1882
place of birth	Forsbrook ,  England
date of death	July 26, 1954
Place of death	Ashley ,  England
position	Storm
Men's
Years	station	Games (goals) 1
1902	FC Stoke	7 00(0)
1903-1912	Sunderland AFC	320 (111)
1912-1915	South Shields FC	(47)
1923-1924	Port Vale	14 00(7)
National team
Years	selection	Games (goals)
1905-1909	England	11 00(3)
Stations as a trainer
Years	station
1912-1915	South Shields FC
	North Shields FC
1 Only league games are given.

George Arthur Bridgett (born October 11, 1882 in Forsbrook , † July 26, 1954 in Ashley ) was an English football player. Bridgett, who was mostly called up as a left winger, made eleven international appearances for England and was one of the most dangerous wingers of his time.

Club career

Bridgett played for the school team at Stoke St. Peter's School and subsequently for the Burslem Park Boys and Trentham before he began his professional career at Stoke FC in the Football League First Division in March 1902 . In January 1903, the altruistic and light-footed winger moved to the reigning champions AFC Sunderland and immediately established himself there in the left wing position, but could also be called in as an inside or center forward. Although Sunderland was one of the best teams in the country with four league titles at the time, there were no great successes during his time. In addition to three third places in the championship, only a quarter-final in the FA Cup was the best result. In December 1908, against local rivals and later champions Newcastle United , contributed two goals to the 9-1 success in the so-called Tyne Wear Derby , and the game is still one of the outstanding events in the rivalry between the two clubs. He was also used twice for the Football League in representative games. In his ten years at Sunderland Bridgett scored 111 goals and was one of the top scorers on the outside position, at the end of his Football League career in 1924 there were only two other players with Billy Meredith and George Wall who were up to this point as wingers had scored over 100 goals in the Football League.

In May 1912, a year before Sunderland won the championship again, he moved for 175 pounds as a player-coach to South Shields FC in the North-Eastern League . South Shields applied several times for admission to the Football League and strengthened itself with numerous first division players, including Arthur Cartlidge , Jock Grieve and striker Irvine Thornley . In 1913/14 and 1914/15 he won the league championship with the team, but applications for admission to the Football League were unsuccessful. After the 1914/15 season, national game operations were discontinued due to the First World War and Bridgett played at least temporarily as a guest player at Port Vale during the war . After the war, he coached North Shields FC and possibly also played as a player at Hartlepools United , before making a surprising comeback in the Football League at Port Vale at the age of 41. Between November 1923 and May 1924 Bridgett scored seven goals in 14 league games before he finally left the professional field and played for the Sandbach Ramblers .

Bridgett, who on religious grounds refused to play on Good Friday and Christmas Day and was known locally as a lay preacher , died in Ashley , Staffordshire in 1954 .

National team

On April 1, 1905 Bridgett came in a 1-0 win against Scotland for the first time for the English national team, the then attendance of 121,452 meant a new international record. Despite the success, he then had to wait three years until he - again against Scotland - came to his second appearance. In June 1908 he was part of the squad on the first international tour of the English professional national team to continental Europe and made a total of four appearances in the country comparisons against Austria , Bohemia and Hungary . He was also part of the English national team on the next international trip to Austria-Hungary the following summer. His international career ended on June 1, 1909 with an 8-1 win against Austria. In his eleven internationals (10 wins, 1 draw) he had scored three goals and, among other things, fed center forward Vivian Woodward with his crosses , who were all Bridgett's eleven internationals were also used.

literature

• Garth Dykes, Doug Lamming: All the Lads - A Complete Who's Who of Sunderland AFC Polar Print Group Ltd, Leicester 2000, ISBN 1-899538-15-1 , pp. 53 f .
• George Thompson: South Shields FC - The Football League Years . Yore Publications, Harefield 2000, ISBN 1-874427-43-7 .

Individual evidence

1. ^ Joyce, Michael: Football League Players' Records. 1888 to 1939. 4Edge, 2004, ISBN 1-899468-67-6 .