Jackie Bestall
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Jackie Bestall | ||
Personal information | ||
---|---|---|
Full name | John Gilbert Bestall | |
Date of birth | 24 June 1900 | |
Place of birth | Beighton, England | |
Date of death | April 11, 1985 (aged 84) | |
Place of death | Doncaster, England | |
Playing position | Inside Forward | |
Youth clubs | ||
Beighton Miners Welfare | ||
Senior clubs1 | ||
Years | Club | App (Gls)* |
1924-1926 1926-1938 |
Rotherham County Grimsby Town |
427 (76) |
61 (16)
National team | ||
1935 | ![]() |
1 (0) |
Teams managed | ||
1946-1949 1949-1953 . 1959-1960 |
Doncaster Rovers Blackburn Rovers Nelson Doncaster Rovers |
|
1 Senior club appearances and goals |
John Gilbert "Jackie" Bestall, (b. Beighton, 24 June 1900, d. Doncaster, 11 April 1985) was an English international footballer, he also played top division football and captained Grimsby Town, and later managed Doncaster Rovers and Blackburn Rovers.
Contents |
[edit] Rotherham County & Rotherham United
Bestall made his debut for Rotherham County towards the end of the 1924-25 season, playing the last two games. County finished bottom of Division Three (North) that season and merged with Rotherham Town to form the new club, Rotherham United, that took the place of County in Division Three (North) for 1925-26.
Jackie was an ever present in the 1925-26 season and in scoring 12 goals he was instrumental in producing much better fortunes. He playing in the first 17 games of the 1926-27 season before being sold shortly before an FA Cup tie at Lincoln City to Grimsby Town due to financial difficulties.
[edit] Grimsby Town
Bestall is regarded as one of the best players ever to play for Grimsby was a legend with the Town fans, he had a lounge at Blundell Park and the smallest road in Grimsby and Cleethorpes named after him.[1]
Bestall captained Grimsby to the 1933-34 Second Division title and back in to the First Division after two seasons in the Second. This helped Bestall to earn his only England cap aged 34 years, 226 days against Northern Ireland on 6 February 1935.[2] He is the sixth oldest player to make his England debut and the first Grimsby player to be capped.
He played in Grimsby's first FA Cup semi final against Arsenal, but was deliberately injured early on[3] and Arsenal won 1-0.
Bestall played 427 league games for Town, only ever beaten by Keith Jobling and latterly John McDermott.
[edit] After retirement
When Bestall retired he had numerous jobs in football, coaching at Birmingham City and chief scout, chief scout at Doncaster Rovers, managing Blackburn Rovers and two spells as manger of Doncaster.
Club | Division | Years | League | Cup | Total | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
App | Goals | App | Goals | App | Goals | |||
Rotherham County | Third Division (North) | 1924-25 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
Rotherham United | 1925-26 | 42 | 12 | 3 | 0 | 45 | 12 | |
1926-27 | 17 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 17 | 4 | ||
Club Totals | 61 | 16 | 3 | 0 | 64 | 16 | ||
Grimsby Town | Second Division | 1926-27 | 23 | 7 | 2 | 1 | 25 | 8 |
1927-28 | 41 | 10 | 1 | 0 | 42 | 10 | ||
1928-29 | 39 | 11 | 2 | 0 | 41 | 11 | ||
First Division | 1929-30 | 39 | 10 | 2 | 0 | 41 | 10 | |
1930-31 | 42 | 10 | 3 | 2 | 45 | 12 | ||
1931-32 | 37 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 40 | 4 | ||
Second Division | 1932-33 | 40 | 5 | 2 | 0 | 42 | 5 | |
1933-34 | 42 | 11 | 2 | 0 | 44 | 11 | ||
First Division | 1934-35 | 41 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 42 | 5 | |
1935-36 | 41 | 2 | 6 | 2 | 47 | 4 | ||
1936-37 | 31 | 3 | 4 | 0 | 35 | 3 | ||
1937-38 | 11 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 13 | 0 | ||
Club Totals | 427 | 76 | 30 | 7 | 457 | 83 | ||
Career Totals | 488 | 92 | 33 | 7 | 521 | 99 |
Preceded by Jack Bruton |
Blackburn Rovers F.C. Manager 1949-1953 |
Succeeded by Johnny Carey |
[edit] References
- ^ electronicfishcake.com - Player Profile
- ^ englandstats.com - England Cap
- ^ Football Poets - Another Reason for Hating Arsenal