John Peden

Jack Peden
Personnel
Surname	John Peden
birthday	July 12, 1863
place of birth	Maze, County Antrim ,  Ireland
date of death	September 15, 1944
Place of death	Belfast ,  Northern Ireland
position	Outside / half forward (left)
Men's
Years	station	Games (goals) 1
1886-1893	Linfield Athletic
1893-1894	Newton Heath	28 (7)
1894	Sheffield United	8 (2)
1895-1899	Lisburn Distillery
1899-1906	Linfield FC
National team
Years	selection	Games (goals)
1887-1899	Ireland	24 (7)
1 Only league games are given.

John "Jack" Peden (born July 12, 1863 in Maze near Lisburn , County Antrim , † September 15, 1944 in Belfast ) was an Irish football player . The 24-time national player won six Irish championship and four cup titles, played 36 games in the English First Division and is one of the most important Irish footballers of the 19th century.

Club career

Peden began playing football in adolescence and subsequently played for Clarence, Prospect, Distillery Seconds and Innisfoil. In the 1885/86 season he completed at least one game for the 1st team of Lisburn Distillery before he was one of the founding members of the Linfield Athletic Club in March 1886 , which was founded by workers in the local spinning mill. As a left winger , he met the team's first game against Distillery in September 1886 and was appointed to the Irish national team as the first Linfield player in February 1887 due to his services . Since there was no league game operation until the establishment of the Irish League in 1890, numerous friendlies were played and entered the English FA Cup for the first time in 1888/89 . After victories in the qualifying rounds over Ulster FC , Bolton Wanderers and Cliftonville FC , they reached the first main round, in which they withdrew from the competition after a 2-2 draw at Nottingham Forest immediately before the second leg of Nottingham officials was pushed and won the game, which was subsequently declared a friendly game, 3-1. In the following season they reported again for the FA Cup, but the team failed in the final qualifying round at Lisburn Distillery.

The Irish League, introduced for the 1890/91 season, dominated Linfield in the early years and won the first three championships, and Peden was also involved in two of the three successes in the Irish Cup competition during this time. After he had noticed the officials of the English club Newton Heath in February 1893 at a friendly match between both clubs, he signed an amateur contract that same month during an international match at Villa Park and was registered by the club from Manchester in the Football League . Nevertheless, Peden finished the season at Lisburn, which resulted in the win of the double , before he moved to England after 108 goals in 130 competitive games for a career as a professional footballer in the summer of 1893.

After good performance at the beginning of the season on the left wing, his form at Newton Heath continued to decline over the course of the season and, in particular, in his occasional appearances as a center forward , he disappointed. At the end of the season, Newton Heath had to compete as penultimate in a "test match" against Liverpool for further membership in the Football League First Division and was relegated to the Second Division by a 2-0 defeat . Peden then left Manchester and moved to Sheffield United , where he met a former Linfielder teammate with the Scot Bob Hill . In Sheffield, however, Peden did not find his way around and after nine competitive appearances he returned to Ireland at the end of 1894 for a longer stay, which coincided with the birth of his twin daughters. Since professionalism has now been allowed in Irish football, Peden decided to stay in Ireland. He invested the money he earned in England in a candy and tobacco shop called "The Forward" in Belfast city center, which he ran into old age, and in the summer of 1895, somewhat surprisingly, joined Lisburn Distillery instead of his former club Linfield FC . The reason for this, in addition to a weekly salary of £ 1, allegedly record earnings for a footballer in Ireland at the time, was also the uncertain future of his ex-club, which had to leave his home ground only shortly before.

For four years Peden played at Distillery and won in his first season, in addition to the first championship in the club's history, the national cup and the County Antrim Shield . His achievements in the league between 1896 and 1899, in addition to his return to the national team, for which he was not considered as an England legionnaire, for three appointments in the selection of the Irish League, for which he had already played for the first time in 1893 before his move to England and had contributed a goal to the 3-0 win against the selection of the Scottish Football League . With the second championship win in the season 1898/99 ended his contract with Distillery, Peden had scored 44 goals in 87 competitive games for the club. He then returned to Linfield FC in the summer of 1899 and played a further 74 competitive games (32 goals) for the club, although he was an advanced footballer. After he allowed himself to be reamateurised in 1900, he mainly held a coaching role from 1903, but did not play his last game until April 1906 at the age of 42. In addition to a championship and cup title, Peden also won his fourth Belfast Charity Cup with Linfield FC during this time .

With his wife Mary, Peden had four children, one of whom died in childhood. His son John was active in the 1920s as a football player with a number of Irish first division clubs and in the Irish amateur national team. Peden died in September 1944 at the age of 81. An obituary from Northern Irish sports newspaper Ireland's Saturday Night reads:

“He was an artist in the field. His sprinting skills [...] made him one of the fastest wingers of his time. His control of the ball was a pleasure and he was adept at pulling the defense, then pulling inwards and shooting with tremendous force. "

National team

Peden made his debut on February 19, 1887 in a 4-1 defeat by Scotland in the Irish national team , becoming the first Linfielder international. A month later, he scored his first of seven international goals in a 4-1 home win over Wales. Highlights of his international career were three goals in a 4-3 win against Wales on April 5, 1893 and his 1-0 winning goal in February 1898 against Wales, which meant Ireland's first international win on a foreign place. From this lot he also received the game ball, which he displayed in the window of his shop for years. He played his 24th and last international match in March 1899 in a 1-0 win against Wales.

Although he was not considered for the national team for almost three years due to his move to England, only Olphert Stanfield (30), Bob Milne (28), Samuel Torrans (26) and Billy Scott (25) were given until the beginning of the First World War more international appearances for Ireland, in six Irish international victories up to this point only Scott was involved.

successes

• Irish Masters: 1890/91, 1891/92, 1892/93, 1895/96, 1898/99, 1901/02
• Irish Cup Winner: 1891, 1893, 1896, 1902
• County Antrim Shield: 1889/90 (withheld), 1895/96, 1896/97
• Belfast Charity Cup: 1890/91, 1891/92, 1892/93, 1900/01

literature

• Ian Nannestad: John Peden: An Early Irish Soccer Hero . In: Soccer History . No. 11 , 2006, p. 28-30 ( PDF ).

Web links

• NIFG: John Peden

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Cf. 1911 census  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.