Cigarette Cards

In the early 1920’s Pinnace brought out a set of cigarette cards containing many Southport players. Two of those players are pictured below.

After seeing active service on the Somme during World War One Billy Greatorex signed forms for Division One side Preston North End, making his debut in December 1919. The following season Billy broke his leg against Huddersfield and was subsequently transfer listed by Preston at £250. This led to him becoming the first player that Southport paid a transfer fee for after gaining election to the Third Division North in 1921 and he spent two seasons with the club, playing 58 games at right-back. On leaving Southport he played 12 games for Chesterfield before finishing his career with Morecambe where he spent four seasons in the Lancashire Combination.

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Billy Glover scored Southport’s very first goal in the Football League in a 1-1 home draw with Durham on the opening day of the 1921/22 season. In the same season he scored six goals in a 7-1 win over Grimsby, a club record which still stands today. The following season, after scoring twelve goals in twenty-three appearances Billy left Southport, making the short move to fellow Division Three North team Wigan Borough in a £1,200 transfer. Goals continued to flow at his new club including four in a 9-1 victory over Lincoln City but a broken leg in the penultimate game of the 1924/25 season saw him play only a handful more games for Wigan before signing for Welsh club Mold.

October 1927 saw Billy back in England playing for Burscough Rangers in the Lancashire Combination where it is believed he finished his career.

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Some of the oldest cards to feature Southport players are from a set that Taddy’s brought out in 1907. A number of Preston North End players included in this set either had played or would go on to play for Southport including Harry Stringfellow (pictured). Born in Lathom, Harry had something of a nomadic football career starting with Burscough in 1895. He moved from Burscough to Southport Central in 1896 playing approximately 11 games for us before joining Everton in 1898. Unable to break into the first team he left Everton in 1899 and joined Southern League Portsmouth winning the Southern League Championship in 1902. Next stop, staying in the Southern League was Swindon in 1904/05 before moving back up North to join newly elected Second Division club Leeds City (their demise saw the birth of Leeds United) making his Football League debut in their opening fixture at Bradford City for the first game of the 1905/06 season. In the third game of that season, a home game against Lincoln, Harry had the chance to become the first person to score for Leeds City in the Football League but missed a penalty in a 2-2 draw. Harry left Leeds City after one season, signing for Lancashire Combination team Wigan Town on September 4^th 1906 however there is no record of him ever playing for Wigan and he signed for First Division Preston a few weeks later for a fee of £40. After two seasons at Deepdale he returned to Wigan Town in the summer of 1908 before finishing his career at Ormskirk who he joined in 1909.