Charles Richard Thomson (2 March 1930 – 6 January 2009), also known as Chick Thomson, was a Scottish

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

goalkeeper In many team sports that involve scoring goal (sport), goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie, or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or i ...

. After playing for Clyde he won the

1954–55 Football League The 1954– 55 season was the 56th completed season of The Football League. Final league tables The tables below are reproduced here in the exact form that they can be found aThe Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundationwebsite and in ''Rothmans Bo ...

with Chelsea and the

1959 FA Cup Final The 1959 FA Cup final was contested by Nottingham Forest and Luton Town at Wembley. Forest were playing in their second FA Cup final, while Luton were making their first final appearance in their history. Forest won 2–1 to win their second tit ...

with

Nottingham Forest Nottingham Forest Football Club is a professional association football club based in West Bridgford, Nottinghamshire, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football league system, English football. Founde ...

Life and playing career

Clyde

Born in

Perth Perth () is the list of Australian capital cities, capital city of Western Australia. It is the list of cities in Australia by population, fourth-most-populous city in Australia, with a population of over 2.3 million within Greater Perth . The ...

, the son of

Falkirk Falkirk ( ; ; ) is a town in the Central Lowlands of Scotland, historically within the county of Stirlingshire. It lies in the Forth Valley, northwest of Edinburgh and northeast of Glasgow. Falkirk had a resident population of 32,422 at the ...

, also named

Charlie Thomson Charles Richard Thomson (2 March 1930 – 6 January 2009), also known as Chick Thomson, was a Scottish football goalkeeper. After playing for Clyde he won the 1954–55 Football League with Chelsea and the 1959 FA Cup Final with Nottingham For ...

, Thomson began his career with Clyde. One of his first appearances for the club came in the

Scottish Cup The Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup,Rangers A ranger is typically someone in a law enforcement or military/paramilitary role specializing in patrolling a given territory, called "ranging" or "scouting". The term most often refers to: * Park ranger or forest ranger, a person charged with prot ...

Hampden Park Hampden Park ( ; Scottish Gaelic: ''Pàirc Hampden'') is a association football, football stadium in the Mount Florida area of Glasgow, Scotland, which is the national stadium of football in Scotland and home of the Scotland national football ...

, though his side lost 4–1. He stayed with the club until October 1952.

Chelsea

He became one of the first signings of new Chelsea manager,

Ted Drake Edward Joseph Drake (16 August 1912 – 30 May 1995) was an English football player and manager. As a player, he first played for Southampton but made his name playing for Arsenal in the 1930s, winning two league titles and an FA Cup, as well ...

. Thomson was a member of Chelsea's 1954–55 league title-winning side playing in the final 16 games of the run-in. That included the title decider against Chelsea's main rivals,

Wolverhampton Wanderers Wolverhampton Wanderers Football Club ( ), commonly referred to as Wolves, is a professional association football, football club based in Wolverhampton, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football league s ...

, in which Thomson made a crucial last-minute save to secure a 1–0 win. He struggled to retain his position as Chelsea's first-choice goalkeeper losing out to Bill Robertson. Thomson transferred in 1957 having made 59 Chelsea appearances.

Nottingham Forest

Thomson made his debut for Forest in the opening game of the 1957/58 season at the

City Ground The City Ground is a association football, football stadium in West Bridgford, Nottinghamshire, England, on the banks of the River Trent. It has been home to Nottingham Forest F.C., Nottingham Forest since 1898 and has a capacity of 30,455. ...

in a 2–1 victory against

Preston North End Preston North End Football Club, commonly referred to as Preston, North End or PNE, is a professional association football club in Preston, Lancashire, England. They currently play in the EFL Championship, the second level of the English footbal ...

. Two years after joining Forest he was a member of their

1958–59 FA Cup The 1958–59 FA Cup was the 78th staging of the world's oldest football cup competition, the Football Association Challenge Cup, commonly known as the FA Cup. Nottingham Forest won the competition for their second time, as of 2025, beating Luton ...

winning team. Forest were 2-0 up after 14 minutes.

Luton Town Luton Town Football Club is a professional association football, football club from Luton, Bedfordshire, England. The club currently competes in EFL League One, the third level of the English football league system. Nicknamed "The Hatters", L ...

hit back midway through the second half after Forest's opening goalscorer

Roy Dwight Royston Edward Dwight (9 January 1933 – 9 April 2002) was an English footballer. He scored the opening goal in the 1959 FA Cup Final for Nottingham Forest. Career Fulham Dwight joined Fulham in 1950 as an apprentice, signing on the same day ...

broke his leg in the 33rd minute. Forest had further personnel issue when cramp reduced

Bill Whare William Whare (14 May 1925 – 28 May 1995) was a professional footballer from Guernsey who played as a right-back. Career Born in Guernsey, Channel Islands, Whare spent his entire professional career with Nottingham Forest, making 298 appearanc ...

to little more than a hobbling spectator. Thomson helped Forest protect their 2–1 lead to lift the trophy at

Wembley Wembley () is a large suburbIn British English, "suburb" often refers to the secondary urban centres of a city. Wembley is not a suburb in the American sense, i.e. a single-family residential area outside of the city itself. in the London Borou ...

. Thomson was replaced as the Forest goalkeeper by Peter Grummitt in November 1960. He remained at Forest until 1961, making 136 appearances.

Non League Football

In 1961 he joined Southern League side Rugby Town where he made a further 60 appearances and where he ended his career.

Death

He died on 6 January 2009 in

Sandiacre Sandiacre is a town and civil parish in the borough of Erewash in Derbyshire,England adjoining the border with Nottinghamshire. The population of the parish was 8,889 at the 2011 Census. The name Sandiacre is usually thought to refer to a ''s ...

Honours

Chelsea *

Football League First Division The Football League First Division was the top division of the Football League in England from 1888 until the end of the 1991–92 season, when its teams broke away to form the Premier League. From 1992 to 2004, the name First Division was g ...

: 1954–55 Nottingham Forest *

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual Single-elimination tournament, knockout association football, football competition in domestic Football in England, English football. First played during ...

: 1958–59

References

Charlie Thomson's obituary
* 1930 births 2009 deaths Chelsea F.C. players Clyde F.C. players Men's association football goalkeepers Nottingham Forest F.C. players Footballers from Perth, Scotland Scottish Football League players Scottish men's footballers English Football League players Rugby Town F.C. players 20th-century Scottish sportsmen {{Scotland-footy-goalkeeper-stub