Clubs:
Coleorton
Peggs Green Victoria
Birmingham City, 1920 - 1935
Bristol City, 1935 - 1936
Honours:
England International, 1923 - 1930 (12 Caps, 7 Goals)
English League Football XI (five appearances)
Division 2 Championship, 1921 (With Birmingham FC)
FA Cup Finalist, 1931 (With Birmingham FC)
Without doubt, the most successful footballer ever to have come from the
Coalville District was the late Joseph Bradford, the Birmingham FC and England Forward.
Joe was born at Peggs Green, a hamlet then in Thringstone Parish, on January
22nd 1901 (the same day that Queen Victoria died).
In his history of Birmingham Football Club*, Tony Matthews wrote, "Joe
Bradford was one of the finest goalscorers of his day, a marksman with
formidable shooting power from inside or centre-forward. Perfectly
proportioned, he was fast over a short distance, could use both feet and was a
fine header of the ball."
From his youngest days, Bradford was always something a bit special: He hit 65
goals in the season 1915 - 1916 for Coleorton and in 1920, he scored fourteen
goals in a match for Peggs Green Victoria against Birstall Rovers! Both Aston
Villa and Derby County gave him trials, but it was the 'Blues' who signed him
on 11th February 1920, Peggs Green recieving £100 and a further £25
when he made his debut.
He then remained with Birmingham for fifteen years, scoring 267 goals in 445
appearances which, to this day, remains the all-time club record. In September
1929 he scored eleven goals in eight days (three for Birmingham v Newcastle;
five for the Football League v the Irish League, and three for the Blues v
Blackburn). He helped Birmingham win the Second Division Title in 1921 and
scored against West Brom in the 1931 FA Cup Final.
After leaving Birmingham, Bradford played a final season for Bristol City,
retiring in May 1936 to run a cafe in Birmingham. He later managed public
houses in Birmingham, Droitwich and Stourbridge and ran a sports club with
Aston Villa's Eric Houghton. He scouted for Arsenal in 1946 - 47 and was
president of Sutton FC.
Joe Bradford played for his country on twelve occasions and scored seven goals.
He also represented the Football League XI five times. Interestingly,
Bradford's cousin was Hughie Adcock of Coalville (1903 - 75), who played for
Leicester City, Bristol Rovers and England. They played in the same England
side on three occasions in 1929 in matches against France, Spain and Northern
Ireland.
For many years, Joe's brother was landlord of the New Inn at Peggs Green. Joe
passed way on 6th September 1980, aged 79 years.
* 'Birmingham City : A Complete Record, 1875 - 1989' by Tony Matthews,
Breedon Books Sport, 1989.
Clubs:
Thringstone House
Walsall, 1925 - 1926
Peterborough United, 1926
Northampton Town, 1926 - 1932
Shelbourne (Ireland), 1932 - 1934
Racing Club Calais (France)
Of lesser fame, but nonetheless an accomplished professional footballer, was
Robert JH
Maloney. Bob was born at Thringstone in about 1907, his family being
well-established in the village.
He began his playing career for the
Thringstone
House Club , later playing briefly for Walsall and Peterborough. It was as
a Central Defender with Northampton Town however that Bob spent most of his
professional career, having been bought by The Cobblers from Peterborough in a
£1,000 transfer deal that also included a wing-back named Allon in
November 1926. Here Maloney made 183 League and 11 FA Cup appearances, scoring
four league goals. His last appearance for the Cobblers was against Grimsby in
1932, in which he was granted a testimonial.
Following his departure from Northampton, his career took on an international
look. He spent two seasons playing for Shelbourne FC in Dublin, making 27
league and 5 FAI Cup appearances, and later moved to France where he played for
Racing Club Calais.
He later returned to the Northampton area and set up a small engineering
business after the Second World War.
Robert Maloney died on January 1st 1981 in Rushden, Northants. In his Last Will
and Testament, he bequeathed £500 to
Thringstone
Parish Church and his family presented a new pulpit in his memory in 1982.
Photographs to be added soon.
(Many thanks to Terry Bracher, Northampton Central Library, who went 'out of
his way' to assist in this matter. Also to Fionnuala O'Connor, of 'ShelsWeb').
Sources:
Grande, Frank - 'Northampton Town FC: The Official Centenary History 1897 -
1997'. Published by Yore Publications, Harefield, 1997.
Grande, Frank - 'The Definitive Northampton Town FC'. Published by Tony Brown
on behalf of the Association of Football Statisticians, 1996
Grande, Frank - 'Who's Who, The Cobblers. The Story of Northampton Town FC
Players, 1920 - 1988'. Published by Sporting and Leisure Press, Buckingham,
1988.
Another noteworthy local footballer was Michael T Noon, a former landlord
of the Crown and Cushion beerhouse on South Street, Whitwick (now demolished).
Noon joined Villa from Burton as a defender, making 74 league and 8 F.A. Cup
appearances between 1899 and 1906, and scoring one league goal. Mr Noon, who
moved from Villa to Plymouth, still has descendants in the area - among them,
two granddaughters living in Thringstone: Mrs Margaret Fern is Deputy Warden at
Thringstone House Community Centre, and Miss Ann Noon, a teacher at Holy Cross
Roman Catholic School, Whitwick.
Thanks to Mrs Perkins (Birmingham Libraries). Source:
Goodyear, David and Matthews, Tony - The Aston Villa Story: A Complete
Record, 1874 - 1992. Published by Breedon Books.
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Click for the Joe Bradford page on the Swannington site.