John Goodall

Early career

Goodall was born of Scottish parents in Westminster, London, but became an English international footballer. His brother Archie, who was born in Ireland, was capped for Ireland. As such they became the first brothers in history to play for different countries. When he was a child his parents moved to Kilmarnock, where he first learnt the 'Scottish' passing game playing for Kilmarnock Burns and Kilmarnock Athletic. Then he played for Great Lever in Bolton. He was eventually signed by Preston’s chairman and manager, Major William Sudell who had led the struggle for professionalism (once stating that stopping the inevitability of paid footballers was "like trying to stop Niagara with a three-legged stool") and had gathered a group of Scots together at Preston to form one of strongest sides in the country. Sudell gave The Football League its name and was its first treasurer.

Preston North End

Goodall signed for Preston North End at the beginning of the 1885–86 season, ultimately scoring 50 goals in 56 games for the club. He had been a part of the 1888 Cup Final team, which had lost to West Bromwich Albion but it was the following year that his fame was assured.

In that year, the inaugural season of The Football League, the Preston North End side went undefeated through their League campaign and won the FA Cup without conceding a goal to earn the club the nickname "The Invincibles".

Goodall finished the season as the League’s top scorer with 21 goals in 21 games and went on to be selected to represent the England national team against the Welsh national team.

In all, Goodall was capped six times versus Wales, seven times against Scotland, and once against Ireland, scoring 12 goals. He saw his last international in 1898 having appeared at inside right, centre forward, and inside left. One opponent said of him: "his feet seemed to move in quicksilver".

Derby County

Goodall left Preston North End for Derby County in 1889 at the height of his fame. His brother Archie a centre-half, played alongside John at Derby County.

He was retained by the Derby club until 1898. It was at Derby County where the older Goodall became a mentor to Stephen Bloomer, the best goal scorer of that generation, from the start of the 1892–93 season. Bloomer allegedly credited Goodall with his early development and partly as a result of this combination, the ‘Rams’ came strongly to the fore but were never quite able to convert their talents into silverware finishing third in the League twice, runners-up once (in 1895), FA Cup semi-finalists twice, and runners-up once (in 1898).

Goodall did not feature in the 1899 FA Cup Final as he was by now fading as a first-time fixture at the Baseball Ground but in 1900–01 he was taken on by New Brighton Tower, a club based in the Wirral, that pursued an expensive policy of buying ex-internationals in order to strengthen their League status. However, at the end of Goodall’s first season the owners, citing financial difficulties, withdrew the club from the League despite finishing 4th in the Second Division of The Football League. Goodall, finally, played out his League career in relative obscurity with Glossop North End, in Derbyshire, in the Second Division.

Cricket

Goodall played first-class twice for Derbyshire. In the 1895 season he made his debut in a match against Yorkshire in June when he scored a healthy 32 in his second innings to help Derbyshire to victory. In the 1896 season he kept wicket against Warwickshire in July, taking one catch in another victory for Derbyshire.

Watford

He married Sarah Rawcliffe from Lancashire in Glossop and, when his playing career came to an end, moved with his wife to Hertfordshire in 1903 where he took up a position as the first player/manager of Watford of the Southern League for 3/10s/0d a week and stayed in position until May 1910, when he became the groundsman.

An Observer reporter visited Goodall in May 1903, as he prepared for the new season and, in part, wrote this:

His impact of his reign at Watford was immediate. The club broke various records in winning Division Two of the Southern League in 1903–04. They went through the campaign undefeated, recording the highest FA Cup victory in the club’s history (6–0 versus Redhill 31 October 1903) and having both the highest season (Bertie Banks) (21 goals) and single game goal scorer in the club’s history (Harry Barton (6 goals v. Wycombe Wanderers 26 September 1903).

Goodall played his last football game for Watford on 14 September 1907 at the age of 44 years, 87 days in a Southern League game against Bradford Park Avenue, becoming the oldest person ever to have played for Watford. He came back to football in 1910 with RC Roubaix and retired in 1913 as player-manager of Mardy. Thereafter, lived out a rather impecunious existence, tending to an allotment to provide vegetables for his family and forlornly walking one of his pet foxes around the town.

Goodall was the most notable of the few ‘southerners’ able to break into the new ‘professional’ game and was, in some ways, responsible for aiding the development of the game in the South of England. He was a curling player of some repute, and while at Watford he played five cricket matches for Hertfordshire County Cricket Club in 1905 and 1906. In addition, he always maintained a rather strange penchant for domesticated foxes, walking them on the pitch during the interval at Deepdale.

He died in Watford in May 1942 and is buried at Watford North Cemetery in an unmarked grave.

Personal life

Goodall married Sarah Rawcliffe on 4 January 1887 at All Saints Church, Preston. At this stage, he was still working as an iron turner.