Goodall, John: Rare tribute to ‘Honest John’

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Derby County’s John Goodall received a singular tribute from the football world in 1896. Peter Seddon explores “Honest John’s” life and discovers why the honour bestowed upon him marked a symbolic turning point in football history.

John Goodall features in the Hall of Fame of every club he was associated with. Here he stands fourth left as player/manager of the Watford side of 1905-06

ON Saturday, January 25, 1896 a most unusual game was staged at Derby County’s Baseball Ground – a testimonial billed as “Derby County versus The Gentlemen of England”.

At face value, the contest was unremarkable. Foul weather restricted the gate to a disappointing 5,000, as Derby County ran out winners by 4-3.

And this was no thriller – in truth Derby’s well-drilled professional players, fresh from a training break at a state of the art hydropathic establishment in Ashover, won at a mere canter.

But thereby hangs the tale. The Derby County players were the new breed of hard-bitten thoroughbred professionals, mostly working class men who played for money without a hint of shame.

Football to them was a job. In contrast, the “Gentlemen of England” were the old breed of unpaid amateurs – all highly-talented players in their own right, but mostly university-educated men of privileged background and professional standing who played for the love of the game rather than “filthy lucre”.

That made the friendly fixture an unlikely one indeed, since voluntary fraternisation between the “pure” amateurs and “tainted” professionals was hardly to be encouraged.

The man in whose honour the yawning gap was bridged was Derby County’s own “gentleman professional” John Goodall, whose fine character and reputation for fair play was held in such universal esteem that he earned the sobriquets “Honest John” and “Johnny Allgood”.

So the John Goodall Testimonial was far more than just another friendly fixture – the Baseball Ground that day witnessed a symbolic moment in football history. It was the moment the posh old guard paid public homage to the common new breed – the day when professional football, hitherto reviled by much of educated society, truly came of age.

And it never looked back.

John Goodall, the modest intermediary, was born in London on June 19, 1863, to Scottish parents. His father was a corporal in the Royal Scottish Fusiliers based at Woolwich, so it was a mere quirk of a posting that enabled Goodall to later star for England. A similar quirk enabled his Belfast-born younger brother, Archie, (also a Derby County player) to represent Ireland.

Yet both boys grew up in Scotland, for in 1865 their father was posted to Edinburgh, and the family later moved to Kilmarnock. By the age of 17, John was good enough to make his football debut for Kilmarnock Athletic while working as an iron turner.

Four years later, in 1884, he was lured south into English football – professionalism would not be legalised until 1885, nor the Football League formed until 1888, but the game was becoming ever more organised, and thinly-disguised financial arrangements were commonplace.

Goodall made his English debut on September 13, 1884 for the Bolton side Great Lever. Coincidentally it was at home against Derby County, who were playing their first ever game.

It was an inglorious start for the Rams but a dream one for Goodall – Great Lever triumphed 6-0 and the debutant from north of the border scored four.

The Derby committee must surely have eyed up the star forward, but they had to wait five years before he pulled on a Rams’ shirt. By the time he did, via the all-conquering Preston North End side, John Goodall had become the first true legend of British football.

He signed for Preston in 1885, and captained them to the double in the inaugural Football League season of 1888-89, when they remained unbeaten in the League and won the FA Cup without conceding a goal – no wonder they were dubbed “The Invincibles”.

And Goodall was at the centre of everything they did – his accurate passing, intelligent finishing and football brain reaped constant rewards. It was no surprise when he made his England debut in 1888 – and he was later made captain, scoring 12 goals in just 14 appearances.

But it certainly was a surprise, indeed a major shock, when Goodall (and his brother Archie) signed for Derby County in May 1889. The club secretary was so proud of his coup that he posted bills in the town centre heralding the sensational news.

The full nature of the inducement package remained under wraps, but part of the deal was that the new boys would be given the tenancy of a pub – John and Archie duly took possession of The Plough on London Road on Friday, May 3, 1889.

Many glasses were certainly raised to John Goodall, for the signing ushered in the first golden age for Derby County. Although they won no major trophies while Goodall was with the club, the side earned a reputation for being the most entertaining in the League, narrowly missing honours on several occasions when luck went cruelly against them

In fact, the Derby County side of the mid-1890s was arguably the most celebrated in the club’s long history.

Goodall’s influence extended well beyond his own playing ability. Equally important was his role as a figurehead to young players, for it was the veteran who nurtured Steve Bloomer when the nervous youngster was feeling his way.

Years later, Bloomer wrote of his mentor with undisguised affection: “Johnny Goodall was a wonderful footballer, brilliant captain and Nature’s gentleman, but little did I think when all the fuss was made over his arrival from Preston what an influence for good was being brought into my life.

“I always maintain that no player has ever known as much about football and its methods than this old friend of mine.”

With such glowing references, it wasn’t surprising that the benefit fund launched by the Derby Daily Telegraph late in 1895 attracted many generous subscribers.

Following the visit of the “Gentlemen of England” barely a month later, the fund had swelled to a healthy £277, an amount equivalent to almost two years’ wages for an average professional footballer at that time. Goodall received the cheque with his customary modesty at a smoking concert held at the Drill Hall on May 12, 1896.

It was the biggest benefit purse in football to that date. Despite his obvious popularity in Derby, the old enemy “anno domini” inevitably caught up with Johnny.

He left Derby County in October 1899, aged 36, to join the then League side New Brighton Tower, based on the Wirral.

He joined Glossop North End, also a League side, in 1901, then became Watford’s first ever manager in May 1903, a post he allied with continuing to play.

He remains the oldest player in Watford’s history, making his last appearance for them against Bradford Park Avenue on September 4, 1907 – his age was 44 years and 87 days.

Even then he found the lure of the game irresistible. In 1910 he accepted the post of player-manager at Racing Club de Roubaix in France, and finally hung up his boots in 1913, aged 50, as player-manager of the Welsh club Mardy.

He retired to Hertfordshire, where he indulged his love for fishing, birdwatching and nature. He even tamed a fox which visited his garden.

But how many would have guessed that the gentle old man had once been a football legend? Or that he twice played cricket for Derbyshire, was a champion curler, an adept bowls and billiards player, keen golfer and one-time member of the Derby County baseball team.

Not to mention swimming – on one famous occasion he saved a man from drowning in the Derwent by St Mary’s Bridge!

John Goodall died aged 78 on May 20, 1942. In the midst of war, his passing went largely unreported. Yet, in 1896, a spokesman for the “Gentlemen of England” had said of him: “Goodall was a man of the right stamp. We honoured him because he proved that professional footballers could also be gentlemen.

“The game has come of age and we wish it and Goodall a long and healthy future.” John Goodall deserves to be remembered as a true Derby County great. The young blood Steve Bloomer may have been “Football’s First Superstar”, but his kindly senior mentor was just as surely the “Father of Professional Football”.

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