Harry Allen (soccer player, 1866)

Harry Allen
Personnel
birthday	January 19, 1866
place of birth	Walsall ,  England
date of death	February 23, 1895
Place of death	Walsall ,  England
position	Middle runner
Men's
Years	station	Games (goals) 1
1883-1886	Walsall Swifts
1886-1894	Wolverhampton Wanderers	123 (8)
National team
Years	selection	Games (goals)
1888-1890	England	5 (0)
1 Only league games are given.

Harry Allen (born January 19, 1866 in Walsall , † February 23, 1895 ibid) was an English football player . The five-time England international played 123 league games as a center runner for Wolverhampton Wanderers in the early days of the Football League and led the team as captain to win the FA Cup in 1893 .

Career

Allen was active from 1883 for three years with the Walsall Swifts and reached the final of the Birmingham Senior Cup three times in a row with this club from 1884 to 1886 . Either Aston Villa (1884 0: 4, 1885 0: 2) or West Bromwich Albion (1886 0: 1 in the replay) proved too strong. In the FA Cup 1883/84 Allen was with the team in the fourth round and lost to Notts County 4-0, in the FA Cup 1885/86 he was eliminated with the club against Wolverhampton Wanderers in the third round. From 1886, Allen was part of the Wanderers' squad and established himself in the middle runner position . In February 1888 Allen made his debut in a 6-1 win against Wales in the English national team , in the following two months he was also called up against Scotland (5-0) and Ireland (5-1) in the national team.

Allen denied in the first season 1888/89 the Football League all 22 league games when the team in the final table finished third. They were also successful in the FA Cup that season, only in the final against the "Invincibles" from Preston North End , who had previously won the championship title undefeated, did they prove to be 3-0 without a chance. In the following three seasons Allen continued to be part of the Wolves' regular staff, the team repeatedly occupied places in the top half of the table and Allen came to two further international appearances in 1889 (2: 3, one own goal by Allen) and 1890 (1: 1) against the Scottish selection.

In the 1892/93 season the Wanderers achieved their worst result to date in the league with 11th place, but in the FA Cup they reached the final again after 1889. Allen led his team in the final as captain on the field of the completely overcrowded Fallowfield Stadium in Manchester with over 45,000 spectators . After an hour of play, Allen scored the 1-0 winning goal against Everton FC with a long-range shot , giving Wolverhampton Wanderers their first national title. Allen, who was portrayed in a newspaper article as “perhaps the most excellent header player in the kingdom” immediately before the final, stood out not only with his headball strength but also with his tackle behavior and as a “good passer who always tried to find a teammate instead of just pushing the ball up front to beat “out. In February 1894, a benefit game between the Wanderers and a selection known as "Internationals" was played in his favor.

An increasingly poor state of health and persistent back problems finally ensured that Allen, who had played his last competitive game in November 1893, ended his football career in October 1894 after a total of 123 league and 30 cup games for the Wanderers. He then became a pub owner and coal trader in Wolverhampton , although he succumbed to tuberculosis in February 1895 at the age of 29 .

Individual evidence

1. ^ Englandfootballonline.com: England Players - Harry Allen , accessed October 3, 2016
2. ↑ Tony Matthews: The Wolves Who's Who . Britespot Publishing, Cradley Heath 2001, ISBN 978-1-904103-01-1 , pp. 5 f .
3. ↑ Patrick Talbot: White Shirt, Black Country . Black Country Society, Kingswinford 2004, ISBN 978-0-904015-72-0 , pp. 32 f .
4. ^ Steve Carr: The History of the Birmingham Senior Cup. Part One 1876 to 1905 . Grorty Dick, Wednesbury, S. 72 ff . (no year (approx. 2000)).
5. ↑ NOTTS COUNTY v. WALSALL SWIFTS. . In: Athletic News , January 27, 1885, p. 2.  (link with costs)
6. ↑ THE ENGLISH CUP FINAL. PORTRAITS & BIOGRAPHIES OF THE TEAMS . In: Lancashire Evening Post , March 25, 1893, p. 4.  (paid link)
7. ^ Tony Matthews, Wolverhampton Wanderers - The Complete Record . Breedon Books, Derby 2008, ISBN 978-1-85983-632-3 , pp. 92 .
8. ↑ FOOTBALL . In: Sheffield Daily Telegraph , February 27, 1894, p. 8.  (paid link)
9. ↑ Tony Matthews: The Legends of Wolverhampton Wanderers . Breedon Books, Derby 2006, ISBN 978-1-85983-518-0 , pp. 11 .
10. ^ Douglas Lamming: A English Football Internationalists' Who's Who . Hutton Press Ltd, Beverley 1990, ISBN 0-907033-93-8 , pp. 10 .