John Thomas Palethorpe (23 November 1909 – 6 June 1984) was an English professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby lea ...

who played for

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Stoke City Stoke City Football Club is a professional association football club based in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England. The team competes in the , the second level of the English football league system. Founded as Stoke Ramblers in 1863, the cl ...

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 ...

Sheffield Wednesday Sheffield Wednesday Football Club is a professional association football club based in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. They compete in the EFL Championship, the second level of the English football league system. Formed in 1867 as an off ...

Aston Villa Aston Villa Football Club (commonly referred to as simply Villa) is a professional football club based in Aston, Birmingham, England. The club, founded in 1874, compete in the Premier League, the top tier of English football. The team have p ...

and

Crystal Palace Crystal Palace may refer to: Places Canada * Crystal Palace Complex (Dieppe), a former amusement park now a shopping complex in Dieppe, New Brunswick * Crystal Palace Barracks, London, Ontario * Crystal Palace (Montreal), an exhibition buildin ...

. He was a tall

centre forward In the sport of association football, a forward (attacker or striker) is an outfield position which primarily plays further up the pitch than midfielders and defenders. As with any attacking player, the role of the forward relies heavily on be ...

who scored 106 League goals (113 including

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 ...

) in a career which lasted from 1929 to 1938, making 177 League appearances (197 including FA Cup).

Playing career

Early days

Palethorpe was born in

Leicester Leicester ( ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city, Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area, and the county town of Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England. It is the largest city in the East Midlands with a popula ...

on 23 November 1909 he trained to be a

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before concentrating on football. He played

non-League football Non-League football describes association football, football leagues played outside the top leagues of a country. Usually, it describes leagues which are not fully professional. The term is primarily used for football in England, where it is ...

for

Maidenhead United Maidenhead United Football Club is a semi-professional football club based in Maidenhead, Berkshire, England. Affiliated to the Berks & Bucks FA, they are currently members of the . The club were established in October 1870 and have played at ...

in the

Spartan League The Spartan League was a football league in England covering London and adjacent counties. Established in 1907, it merged with the South Midlands League in 1997 to form the Spartan South Midlands League. History The Spartan League was establi ...

in the 1929–30 season, scoring a club record 65 goals in 39 appearances in his only full season at York Road, including seven in one match against Wood Green Town.History
Maidenhead United F.C.

Reading

He signed professionally for Reading for the following term and had two good full seasons at

Elm Park Elm Park is a suburban planned community in East London and part of the London Borough of Havering. Located east-northeast of Charing Cross, it is identified as a district centre in the London Plan with several streets of shops and a priority f ...

scoring 54 goals in 59 League appearances. In March 1932 Jack scored a hat-trick in just seven minutes as Reading beat Mansfield Town 7–1. This was a record until Trevor Senior scored three goals in four minutes 50 years later. Jack helped Reading finish runners up in Division Three South in the 1931-32 campaign.

Stoke City and Preston North End

Towards the end of the 1932–33 season Palethorpe transferred to Stoke City and his eight goals in 10 matches helped them win the Second Division championship and promotion to the

First Division 1st Division or First Division may refer to: Military Airborne divisions *1st Parachute Division (Germany) *1st Airborne Division (United Kingdom) * 1st Airmobile Division (Ukraine) * 1st Guards Airborne Division Armoured divisions *1st Armoure ...

. Palethorpe's first taste of top flight football the following season only lasted for 11 games as he switched to Second Division leaders Preston North End who hoped he would do a similar job to what he did at Stoke and guarantee promotion. Palethorpe formed a fine goalscoring partnership with George Stephenson ensuring that Preston gained promotion as runners-up. However the following season he lost his place to Bud Maxwell and in December 1934 he joined Sheffield Wednesday for a fee of £3,100.

Sheffield Wednesday

Palethorpe gained an immediate place in the Wednesday first team, somewhat controversially replacing the popular Neil Dewar as Wednesday's centre forward. He made his debut on 15 December 1934 against Everton and scored his first goals on

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, a hat-trick against

Birmingham City Birmingham City Football Club is a professional football club based in Birmingham, England. Formed in 1875 as Small Heath Alliance, it was renamed Small Heath in 1888, Birmingham in 1905, and Birmingham City in 1943. The team compete in the ...

. In the second half of that season Palethorpe played an integral part in Sheffield Wednesday's excellent run and eventual triumph in the FA Cup of that season scoring goals in the third and fourth rounds as well as one in the semi-final win over

Burnley Burnley () is a town and the administrative centre of the wider Borough of Burnley in Lancashire, England, with a 2021 population of 78,266. It is north of Manchester and east of Preston, at the confluence of the River Calder and River B ...

Villa Park Villa Park is a association football, football stadium in Aston, Birmingham, with a seating capacity of 42,918. It has been the home of Premier League club Aston Villa F.C., Aston Villa since 1897. The ground is less than a mile from both Witt ...

. However his most important goal came in the 4–2

final Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: *Final examination or finals, a test given at the end of a course of study or training *Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which d ...

triumph against

West Bromwich Albion West Bromwich Albion Football Club (), commonly known as West Brom or The Albion, is a professional association football club based in West Bromwich, West Midlands, England. They compete in the EFL Championship, the second level of the Englis ...

when he put Wednesday a goal up inside two minutes after receiving a pass from Ronnie Starling and shooting just inside the post. Despite a good record of 17 goals in 34 matches in all competitions, Palethorpe was once again on his way to another club in September 1935 as he joined Aston Villa for £2,500.Sheffield Wednesday Archive.
Gives statistics of Sheffield Wednesday career.

Latter career

Palethorpe was still only 25 when he joined Villa but his career seemed to be on a slippery slope, he played only six games in thirteen months at Villa as they were relegated from Division One in the 1935–36 season. In October 1936 he moved, this time to Third Division Crystal Palace for whom he scored 11 goals in 39 league matches. In 1938 he moved into non-league football again, playing for Chelmsford City, Shorts Sports and

Colchester United Colchester United Football Club is a professional association football club based in the city of Colchester, Essex, England. The team competes in , the fourth level of the English football league system. Founded in 1937, the club spent its ea ...

. He effectively retired from playing in 1939 although he did make some appearances for Colchester in the Wartime Leagues. He later did some coaching at North Town and back at his first club Maidenhead. Throughout his career, Jack Palethorpe had a reputation for never staying at a football club for any length of time, his longest stint at any one club was two seasons and 59 league appearances at Reading. He had the unusual record of playing for four different First Division clubs (Stoke, Preston, Sheffield Wednesday and Aston Villa) but never actually completing a full season with any one of them. His nickname throughout his career was "SOS" and this may have something to with the Palethorpe Sausage company which he may or may not have been associated with. He had the reputation of having a very good sense of humour and was known as the dressing room comedian. After leaving football he worked for the

Fairey Aviation Company The Fairey Aviation Company Limited was a British aircraft manufacturer of the first half of the 20th century based in Hayes in Middlesex and Heaton Chapel and RAF Ringway in Cheshire that designed important military aircraft, including the ...

. Jack Palethorpe died on 6 June 1984 in

Slough Slough () is a town in Berkshire, England, in the Thames Valley, west of central London and north-east of Reading, at the intersection of the M4, M40 and M25 motorways. It is part of the historic county of Buckinghamshire. In 2021, the ...

aged 74."''The Men Who Made Sheffield Wednesday Football Club''", Tony Matthews, Page 187 Gives biographical information.

Career statistics

Source:

Honours

;

* Second Division Champions, 1932–33 ;

winner:

1935 Events January * January 7 – Italian premier Benito Mussolini and French Foreign Minister Pierre Laval conclude an agreement, in which each power agrees not to oppose the other's colonial claims. * January 12 – Amelia Earhart ...

* Charity Shield winner 1935

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Palethorpe, Jack 1909 births 1984 deaths Footballers from Leicester English men's footballers Men's association football forwards Maidenhead United F.C. players Reading F.C. players Stoke City F.C. players Preston North End F.C. players Sheffield Wednesday F.C. players Aston Villa F.C. players Crystal Palace F.C. players Chelmsford City F.C. players Shorts Sports F.C. players Colchester United F.C. players English Football League players English football coaches 20th-century English sportsmen