Lost In France by Spencer Vignes

Author:Spencer Vignes
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Pitch Publishing
Published: 2016-06-15T00:00:00+00:00

7

End of an Era

THE telegram arrived postmarked Birmingham during the last week of June 1911, just as Leigh was beginning to think Sunderland might have been right about him never kicking, punching or catching another ball again in anger. It was from Aston Villa Football Club and they wanted him to be their first-choice goalkeeper for the 1911/12 season. There was one proviso – he would have to go to Birmingham to undergo a fitness test. This amounted to little more than a formality with Leigh showing club officials his healed left arm, stopping a few shots and running a couple of laps around a pitch. Job done, Aston Villa told him to return to London and not say a word to anyone about agreeing to play for them.

With the newspapers as usual having concentrated on nothing but cricket throughout the summer months, it wasn’t until a fortnight before the season began that the news finally leaked out. People were genuinely surprised, believing the severity of the injury had left him with no alternative but to retire. Second Division Huddersfield Town even sent two directors to London to try and get him to change his mind, Leigh having played the final five games of the 1910/11 season for the Yorkshire club after it had become clear his days at Sunderland were numbered. He met them over lunch and promised to think about the offer, no more than that. However, someone clearly got their wires crossed because no sooner had Leigh made his debut for Aston Villa than Huddersfield announced they were going to sue the goalkeeper for breach of contract. Leigh responded by asking how they planned on doing this considering he was an amateur who didn’t sign contracts. Sure enough the matter died a death – at least for the time being.

Aston Villa believed they had pulled off a major coup by getting Leigh to play for them, even if his reputation as Britain’s top goalkeeper had taken a knock in the wake of his rushed comeback from the broken arm. The nation’s sports writers clearly agreed. ‘Roose is a great capture for the club and he is sure to be popular at Aston’, declared the Athletic News in its club-by-club preview of the 1911/12 season, adding ‘It is unnecessary to dwell on the qualifications of the Welsh international. He is a master of the art of preventing opponents from scoring’. After watching his debut at Bradford City, Tom Baxter of The Times wrote ‘Aston Villa are lucky to have secured the services of such a keeper. Naturally Roose is short of practice, but his judgement is splendid’.

Even so, Villa suffered a mixed start to the season losing 2-1 to Bradford and 3-0 at home to recently promoted West Bromwich Albion before enjoying successive wins over Arsenal (4-1), Manchester City (6-2) and Everton (3-2). On 30 September Leigh and his new teammates made the short trip across Birmingham to face West Bromwich for the second time in a month.

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