Jack Taggart

Jack Taggart
Personnel
Surname	John Taggart
birthday	February 3, 1872
place of birth	Belfast ,  Ireland
date of death	May 12, 1927
Place of death	Walsall or Oldbury ,  England
position	External rotor (left)
Men's
Years	station	Games (goals) 1
1889-1891	Glentoran FC
1891-1892	Distillery FC
1892-1893	Middlesbrough FC
1893-1896	West Bromwich Albion	68 (4)
1896-1901	Walsall FC	113 (1)
National team
Years	selection	Games (goals)
1899	Ireland (IFA)	1 (0)
1 Only league games are given.

John "Jack" Taggart (born February 3, 1872 in Belfast , † May 12, 1927 in Walsall or Oldbury ) was an Irish football player . Taggart played in the divisions of the English Football League between 1893 and 1901 over 180 games for West Bromwich Albion and Walsall FC and came in 1899 to a use in the Irish national team .

Career

Taggart, who was nicknamed "Mit" in Ireland, played for Glentoran FC from the 1889/90 season at the latest and won the final of the County Down Cup with the club in 1890 . After he had not appeared in the Irish Football League's inaugural season 1890/91 , he played a few more games for Glentoran in the fall of 1891 before joining Distillery FC in November 1891 . In May 1892 he lost with the club the final of the Charity Cup with 0-1 against Linfield . For the international match Ireland against Wales in February 1892 Taggart was nominated as reserve player. Previously, he had been on the winning side in a related selection game ("Reds" vs. "Whites"; final score 7: 2), but the selection committee relied on his two teammates Thanny McKeown and Sammy Spencer as well as Bill Cunningham , who was in had played for the losing team. In March 1892 he was appointed to a Belfast selection team for a city comparison against Derry , after the game was canceled twice due to weather conditions, the tournament finally took place in April (final score 3: 2).

In November 1892 Taggart moved to England for Middlesbrough FC in the Northern Football League . When Middlesbrough reduced weekly wages to 30 s per player in early March 1893 because of allegedly poor performance  , a large number of professional players went on strike. Taggart left Middlesbrough only a little later and joined, as did his two teammates and compatriots Bob Crone and William McCabe , the first division of West Bromwich Albion .

In the late stages of the 1892/93 season , Taggart came in a 3-1 home win against Derby County to his league debut and took part in the end of the season a few weeks later on the first trip abroad from West Bromwich. This led the team to Ireland for two games; but both against Linfield Athletic (1: 3) and against the Ulsterville Rangers (which were a league selection, 0: 1) it set defeats. In the following two seasons belonged Taggart, it preferred to pass the ball to a teammate instead it up towards striker set to shoot, stand to the permanent staff and with the club in the FA Cup final in 1895 , which with 0: 1 against Aston Villa in London's Crystal Palace was lost in front of over 40,000 spectators. In the league, on the other hand, the performances were mixed. After avoiding the need for a " test match " to stay in the league in the 1894/95 season only thanks to a 6-0 runaway win on the last day of the game against The Wednesday (which pushed FC Stoke past FC Stoke in the goal quotient ), one year ended up later in the last place in the table. Taggart was not considered in the professional squad in the first half of the season and had to play in the reserve, only in January 1896 he moved back to the first team. In the “test matches” against Liverpool and Manchester City , two wins and one draw from four games were enough to keep them from the league, Taggart was involved in all four games.

In the summer of 1896, Taggart left West Bromwich and moved to FC Walsall , which returned to the Second Division after a year in non-league football . There were disputes between the two clubs regarding the transfer fee. While West Bromwich had put Taggart on the list for £ 80 and reduced their own claims to £ 40, Walsall was only willing to pay £ 30. In a decision by a Football League commission , Walsall was ordered to pay a £ 25 transfer fee and also to play a game against West Bromwich, which had to guarantee the releasing club £ 15.

At Walsall, Taggart was part of the permanent staff for the following three seasons, when the club regularly placed in the midfield of the league. In the Birmingham Senior Cup he was victorious with Walsall in both 1897 (final 2-1) and 1898 (final 3-0) each against Wolverhampton Wanderers . A curiosity occurred in March 1899 in the replay of the semi-finals for the Birmingham Senior Cup 1899 against Burslem Port Vale . After the referee interrupted the game due to a snowstorm in the middle of the second half when the score was 2-0 for Port Vale, the players of Walsall changed clothes despite instructions from the referee to the contrary. When the teams were called back onto the pitch, eight Walsall players in civilian clothes appeared to resume the game, including Taggart, who went to the pitch in a long “Newmarket” coat, with a smoking pipe in his mouth and a gold pocket watch chain with an appendage. Since the Walsall players refused to put their soaked jerseys back on, the referee finally broke off the game.

A few weeks earlier, Taggart had come to an assignment for the Irish national team on March 4, 1899 . For the first time active professionals in England were considered for the game, in addition to Taggart, Archie Goodall (Derby County), Tom Morrison (Burnley) and the amateur John Hanna (Royal Artillery) joined the squad. The reason for the change of heart at the selection committee was a 2:13 defeat a few weeks earlier against England. The team with the runner row Goodall - Bob Milne - Taggart won 1-0 against Wales in front of 10,000 spectators in Grosvenor Park in Belfast . Taggart prepared the winning goal by Philip Meldon and was one of the best players on his team. He was called up for another international match against Scotland at the end of March, but Walsall refused to release.

After he was only used sporadically in the season 1899/1900 , Taggart made another 20 league appearances in the following season , when Walsall ended up third from last in the table due to a slightly poorer goal quotient against FC Barnsley and therefore had to stand for re-election. In addition to the two clubs, which are also up for re-election, Stockport County and Burton Swifts , the two applicants Bristol City and Doncaster Rovers received more votes than Walsall, which means that the club was eliminated from the Football League and entered the Midland League for the following season . Taggart was no longer part of the squad here and, after two years in local football, ended his footballing career in March 1903 for health reasons. Taggart stayed in Walsall and subsequently ran a pub called Horse and Jockey . He stayed with his former club West Bromwich Albion even after his career ended, so he regularly followed the club's games and occasionally served as a steward at The Hawthorns stadium . He died of cancer in May 1927.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ nifootball.blogspot.com: Profile of Jack Taggart , accessed October 4, 2017
2. ↑ ^{a b} Old Albion Player's Death. . In: Birmingham Daily Gazette , May 27, 1927, p. 10.  (paid link)
3. ^ Roy France: Glentoran: A Complete Record . Westwick Associates, Sheffield 2001, ISBN 978-0-901100-41-2 , pp. 26 .
4. ↑ FOOTBALL. THE FINAL FOR THE CHARITY CUP. . In: Belfast News-Letter , May 9, 1892, p. 3.  (paid link)
5. ↑ UNDER ASSOCIATION RULES. WALES v. IRELAND. . In: Sporting Life , February 17, 1892, p. 2.  (link with costs)
6. ↑ TRIAL INTERNATIONAL MATCH. . In: Belfast News-Letter , January 18, 1892, p. 3.  (paid link)
7. ↑ BELFAST V. DERRY. . In: Sporting Life , March 2, 1892, p. 7.  (link with costs)
8. ↑ FOOTBALL. . In: Derry Journal , March 14, 1892, p. 5.  (paid link)
9. ↑ FOOTBALL. . In: Londonderry Sentinel , April 12, 1892, p. 4.  (paid link)
10. ↑ TO-DAY'S FOOTBALL. . In: Northern Echo , November 5, 1892, p. 4.  (link with costs)
11. ↑ TEES-SIDE. . In: Athletic News , March 6, 1893, p. 6.  (link subject to charge)
12. ↑ FOOTBALL ITEMS. . In: Sunderland Daily Echo and Shipping Gazette , March 11, 1893, p. 4.  (paid link)
13. ↑ Tony Matthews: Baggies Abroad: The Complete Record of West Bromwich Albion's Global Travels . Pitch Publishing, Durrington 2015, ISBN 978-1-78531-041-6 .
14. ^ ^{A b} Tony Matthews: The Official Encyclopaedia of West Bromwich Albion . Britespot Publishing, Cradley Heath 2002, ISBN 978-1-904103-16-5 , pp. 227 .
15. ↑ THE BLACK COUNTRY. . In: Lancashire Evening Post , January 18, 1896, p. 2.  (paid link)
16. ↑ A HARD FIGHT AT WEST BROMWICH. . In: Athletic News , January 20, 1896, p. 6.  (link with costs)
17. ↑ FOOTBALL. THE FOOTBALL LEAGUE. MEETING AT NOTTINGHAM . In: Sheffield Daily Telegraph , July 7, 1896, p. 9.  (paid link)
18. ^ Steve Carr: The History of the Birmingham Senior Cup. Part One 1876 to 1905 . Grorty Dick, Wednesbury, S. 94 ff . (no year (approx. 2000)).
19. ↑ ATHLETIC NEWS & NOTES . In: Walsall Advertiser , March 25, 1899, p. 6.  (link with costs)
20. ↑ SPORT AND PLAY. FOOTBALL. . In: Lancashire Evening Post , March 23, 1899, p. 2.  (paid link)
21. ↑ BIRMINGHAM SENIOR CUP. . In: Worcestershire Chronicle , March 25, 1899, p. 8.  (paid link)
22. ↑ Malcolm Brodie: 100 Years of Irish Football . Blackstaff Press, Belfast 1980, ISBN 978-0-85640-225-8 , pp. 6 .
23. ↑ IRELAND v. WALES. . In: Sheffield Independent , March 6, 1899, p. 8.  (paid link)
24. ↑ THE IRELAND v. WALES INTERNATIONAL. . In: Lancashire Evening Post , March 6, 1899, p. 2.  (paid link)
25. ↑ ANGLO-IRELAND v. SCOTLAND. . In: Sporting Life , March 17, 1899, p. 4.  (link with costs)
26. ↑ SCOTLAND V. IRELAND. . In: Lancashire Evening Post , March 27, 1899, p. 2.  (paid link)
27. ↑ ITEMS. . In: Athletic News , March 27, 1899, p. 3.  (link subject to charge)
28. ^ Tony Matthews, The Saddlers: The Complete Record of Walsall Football Club . Breedon Books Publishing, Derby 1999, ISBN 978-1-85983-156-4 , pp. 130 .
29. ↑ WALSALL BREWSTER SESSIONS. . In: Walsall Advertiser , February 6, 1904, p. 5.  (link subject to charge)