Joseph Ernest Kitchen (Joe Kitchen)(20 June 1890 – 23 November 1974) was an English

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 as a striker. Born in

Brigg Brigg (Wikipedia:IPA for English#Key, /'brɪg/) is a market town in North Lincolnshire, England, with a population of 5,076 in the United Kingdom Census 2001, 2001 UK census, the population increased to 5,626 at the 2011 census. The town lies ...

Lincolnshire Lincolnshire (), abbreviated ''Lincs'', is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East Midlands and Yorkshire and the Humber regions of England. It is bordered by the East Riding of Yorkshire across the Humber estuary to th ...

he played for

Gainsborough Trinity Gainsborough Trinity Football Club is a Association football, football club based in Gainsborough, Lincolnshire, Gainsborough, Lincolnshire, England. Established in 1873, the club became members of the English Football League, Football League i ...

Sheffield United Sheffield United Football Club is a professional football club based in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. The club competes in the Championship, the second tier of English football. They are nicknamed "the Blades" due to Sheffield's history ...

and

Hull City Hull City Association Football Club is a professional association football club based in Kingston upon Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire, England. They compete in the , the second level of the English football league system. They play their home ...

. He was known as a prolific goal scorer.

Club career

Kitchen came to prominence whilst playing for Division Two side

. Though clubs were interested in securing his services, Kitchen signed for

in 1909 as part of a £600 deal that also took fellow forward Gee Gee Brown to

Bramall Lane Bramall Lane is a association football, football stadium in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England, which is the home of Sheffield United F.C., Sheffield United. The stadium was originally a cricket ground, built on a road named after the Bramall ...

. Making his United début aged only 17, Kitchen became a mainstay of the side, scoring regularly throughout his time with the Blades. He scored several goals for Sheffield during their

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 ...

campaign of 1915, scoring the third and final Sheffield goal in the

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 ...

a few minutes from the final whistle. The goal was a solo effort, he picked the ball up just over the centre line, beat two defenders and then slipped past the Chelsea keeper, who had come out to challenge Kitchen, before placing the ball in the empty net. Kitchen remained at United for the duration of

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

and into the resumption of league football in 1919. He was transferred to Rotherham County for £650 in 1920 after a disagreement over his contract but failed to settle and returned to

within a matter of months after United agreed to repay the fee. Falling out of favour by this time Kitchen finally moved on to

the following season for a much reduced fee of £250 from where he drifted through a number of clubs including two further spells back at Gainsborough.

Honours

Sheffield United *

: 1914–15

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kitchen, Joseph 1890 births 1974 deaths People from Brigg English men's footballers Men's association football forwards Brigg Town F.C. players Gainsborough Trinity F.C. players Sheffield United F.C. players Rotherham County F.C. players Hull City A.F.C. players Scunthorpe United F.C. players Shirebrook Miners Welfare F.C. players Barton Town F.C. (1880) players English Football League players 20th-century English sportsmen