Charlie Radford

Charlie Radford
Personnel
Surname	Charles Radford
birthday	March 19, 1900
place of birth	Walsall ,  England
date of death	July 13, 1924
Place of death	Wolverhampton ,  England
position	Striker , defender (right)
Men's
Years	station	Games (goals) 1
1919-1920	Walsall FC	26 (12)
1920-1924	Manchester United	91 0(1)
National team
Years	selection	Games (goals)
1914	England pupil	2 0(0)
1 Only league games are given.

Charles "Charlie" Radford (born March 19, 1900 in Walsall , † July 13, 1924 in Wolverhampton ) was an English football player . Radford was initially active as a striker at FC Walsall after the First World War , and from 1920 to 1924 he was a defender at Manchester United . He died in a motorcycle accident in July 1924.

Career

Radford was one of the outstanding footballers of his year while he was still at school, and in the spring of 1914 he played in the international student games against Wales (6-2) and Scotland (0-0). In the game against Scotland in front of over 20,000 spectators at Hampden Park , he was one of the outstanding players on his team, according to the press. By the First World War, the regular operation was suspended from 1915 to 1919, when it resumes it belonged in the season 1919/20 in the Birmingham & District League playing FC Walsall on. After his debut on September 27, 1919 against Wednesbury Old Athletic as a right half- forward , he took over the position of center forward from Billy Benton a few weeks later and remained on this until the end of the season when he scored 12 goals in 26 league games.

During the break of the season he was signed by the first division club Manchester United , but had to wait almost a year for his first appearance in the Football League. In the meantime he was used in the reserve team, since there the center forward was occupied by Billy Goodwin , Radford was retrained as a right defender. With the reserve team he won the championship of the Central League at the end of the season . On May 7, 1921 he ran in a 3-0 home win against Derby County for the first time in a competitive game for the first team of United. For the following first division season he had a regular place as a right defender and mostly played on the side of left defender Jack Silcock , but the team rose from bottom of the table in the second division . Radford was one of the regular staff there too, after finishing fourth in the 1922/23 season, they only placed 14th in 1923/24. The last weeks of the 1923/24 season , in which he had mostly formed the defense with Charlie Moore , he missed after he had been suspended by an FA committee for six weeks because he had already received four warnings for foul play during the season and At the beginning of March against Nelson FC the field was sent off, which even brought him a comparison with the notorious predator Frank Barson . In the four years of his affiliation he had played 91 league games (1 goal) and five games in the FA Cup for Manchester.

In the evening hours of July 13, 1924, Radford had an accident on the way to Walsall to his apartment, when he collided with his motorcycle with a bicycle near Wolverhampton and suffered serious facial injuries in the fall. He was admitted to Wolverhampton General Hospital , where he succumbed to his injury shortly afterwards. In an obituary, the Derby Daily Telegraph correspondent noted: "While Radford may not have been liked by everyone because he put a lot of energy and vigor into his game, it is undeniable that he was United's best defender."

Individual evidence

1. ^ Gavin Willacy / English Schools Football Association: England Schoolboys, International Players records 1907-99 . Redwood Books Ltd., Trowbridge 1999, p. 16 .
2. ↑ HONOR FOR WALSALL SCHOOLBOY FOOTBALLERS. RADFORD INCLUDED IN ENGLISH TEAM. . In: Walsall Observer, and South Staffordshire Chronicle , February 28, 1914, p. 10.  (paid link)
3. ↑ SCHOOLS INTERNATIONAL. . In: Birmingham Daily Gazette , May 18, 1914, p. 4.  (paid link)
4. ↑ cf. Tony Matthews: The Saddlers: The Complete Record of Walsall Football Club . Breedon Books Publishing, Derby 1999, ISBN 978-1-85983-156-4 , pp. 163 .
5. ↑ Garth Dykes: The United Alphabet - A Complete Who's Who of Manchester United FC ACL & Polar Publishing Ltd., Leicester 1994, ISBN 0-9514862-6-8 , p. 312 .
6. ↑ THE OFF-SIDE LAWS. . In: Birmingham Daily Gazette , March 27, 1924, p. 8.  (paid link)
7. ^ Radford Sent Off. . In: Derby Daily Telegraph , March 15, 1924, p. 4.  (paid link)
8. ↑ NOTED FOOTBALLER'S TRAGIC DEATH. . In: Dundee Evening Telegraph , July 14, 1924, p. 7.  (paid link)
9. ↑ CLOSE SEASON CHATTER . In: Derby Daily Telegraph , July 19, 1924, p. 5.  (paid link)