Halifax Town goalkeepers: The colourful characters who have played in goal for The Shaymen over the years

It was respected journalist and broadcaster Brian Glanville whose novel ‘Goalkeepers Are Different’ suggested that such football species were, indeed, a breed apart.

And whether it be Gordon Banks making a miraculous save from Pele in a World Cup or Gary Sparke tossing the ball into his own net at Anfield, it proves that goalies can be remembered for things which other players can’t.

Over the years, Halifax Town have had their fair share of custodians who would make sporting news, and here, in the first part of two articles, I thought I’d take a look at some of them and recall some of the more interesting tales.

The first in a long line of great goalkeepers to have played for Halifax Town was Charlie Sutcliffe, who arrived from Heckmondwike in December 1911 when the club was playing its first season in the Yorkshire Combination.

Sutcliffe helped the side reach the final of the West Riding Junior Cup, but like his team mates, had an off day in the final as they were beaten 2-0 by Mirfield United on 13 April 1912, hours after he’d just got married.

So the story goes, that two days later Sutcliffe had been booked to sail the ill-fated Titanic on her maiden voyage, but he developed a cold and never boarded.

In later years he became so nervous of the thought of what might have happened, he smoked a pipe prior to kick-off to calm himself down. In 1925 Sutcliffe won an FA Cup winners’ medal with Sheffield United.

Succeeding him between the sticks at Halifax Town was the great Bob Suter. He came via Goole Town having spent many years at Notts County, in two spells.

Already aged thirty-three by the time he joined the club, then playing home games at Sandhall Lane, he made his debut against Chesterfield Town in September 1913 and was ever-present that term, enhancing his already glowing reputation with some superlative performances.

Suter became everything and more to the club over the years, helping them settle in at Exley after the First World War, then mucking in to transform a Corporation tip at The Shay into a football ground in readiness for League football in 1921.

Suter was the club’s first choice keeper immediately after the war, and agile enough to make two appearances in the Division Three (North) in February 1921.

By then, he’d turned forty, but who would have thought that he would be being called upon for first team duty by the time he was into his 49th year?

With both Howard Matthews and Cliff Binns unavailable, Suter took his place between the sticks for the visit of South Shields on 20 April 1929, though he couldn’t prevent the Shaymen slipping to a 2-0 defeat.

But it wasn’t just a one-off. That was the first of three first team appearances Suter made within the space of five days, and when he turned out in the last of these in a West Riding Senior Cup tie against Huddersfield, he was aged 48 years and 288 days.

Later, his son of the same name, was signed on by Halifax Town. He would make four appearances during the 1932-33 season, the first time a father and son had played for the club.

During his lengthy association with Halifax Town, Suter oversaw many keepers, offering coaching and advice. During the 1920-21 season he gave way to Harry Jeffrey, a keeper signed from Leeds United and one evidently made of stern stuff.

In the Midland League game at Castleford Town on 18 December 1920, he was badly injured when diving at the feet of an opponent and laid out.

So bad was he concussed, it seemed, that he was taken away in an ambulance for treatment, with team mate Tom Birtwhistle donning his keeper’s jersey.

But Jeffrey wasn’t finished. After half-time, he returned and finished the rest of the game, though Town, already behind, conceded one more goal to lose 4-2.

Herbert Bown had kept goal for Leicester City both sides of the war, and was a key member of Halifax Town’s famous ‘cup side’ of 1923-24.

He’d arrived at The Shay the previous season and after scoring a penalty in Sid Hetherington’s testimonial on 3 May 1923, fancied his chances when Town

were awarded another for handball in the last match of the season against Crewe Alexandra.

Bown tucked his kick away to send the Shaymen on the way to a 2-1 victory, his success from the spot putting top scorer Ernest Dixon, with 22 league and cup goals to his name, to shame after he’d seen his earlier effort from 12 yards hit the bar.

Bown thus became the first goalkeeper to score a goal for the Shaymen.

At 5ft 7½in Jerry Best, who kept goal for Halifax Town at the start of the 1926-27 season, was the smallest goalkeeper on the club’s books.

If his height – or lack of it – made him stand out (in a roundabout sort of way) then the fact that he was still acting as a goalkeeper was a minor miracle in itself.

When he signed for Coventry City, his first professional club, in 1920, he was nursing a wartime injury after being shot in the arm!

It was injury to Best that let in Lewis Barber, but once he’d claimed the goalkeeping jersey he never looked back.

Barber, hailing from Wombwell, never missed another game during that 1926-27 season once he’d come into the side in October and was generally regarded as Town’s best keeper of that pre-Second World War era.

So much so that upon the season’s close, he moved to First Division Manchester City in a deal worth £1,200 – a club record for Halifax Town – and eventually

ousted regular first choice Bert Gray.

He was ever-present in 1929-30 and widely tipped for England honours, and doubtless Barber would have fulfilled that dream when tragedy struck in a game at

Chelsea on 15 November 1930 when he sustained a knee injury, one which resulted in his premature retirement from top class football.

Tall and lean, Walter ‘Watty’ Shirlaw cut an instantly recognisable figure in Halifax Town’s goal after signing from Bradford City in June 1932.

In his second season with the club he would miss just one game, but his non-appearance for Town’s game at Stockport County on 6 January 1934 thrust young

Stanley Milton inadvertently into the spotlight.

It was his league debut and but inexplicably Town wrote themselves into the record books, losing 13-0, a Football League record score, one that has since been equalled but never surpassed.

It wasn’t as if it was a weakened Town side that day, either, for Milton apart, only centre-forward Bill Chambers was missing from the side which had climbed to fourth in the table a week earlier.

Town were only 2-0 down at half-time but collapsed in the second period, with Milton conceding 11 goals.

More may have been made of his misfortunate had the following day’s papers not been filled with news of the death of the great Herbert Chapman, who had passed away on the morning of that game.

Contrary to popular belief, though, this defeat didn’t hamper Milton’s career. He remained at The Shay for three seasons and made a further seven league appearances before moving to York City, where he made nine more league appearances, time enough for Milton to write himself into the record books once again.

When Rochdale defeated York 7-0 on 14 January 1939 they inflicted on the Minstermen their heaviest-ever home defeat – Milton was in goal.

A goalkeeper who made a happier debut was Ernie Ferneyhough. He was understudy to Charlie Briggs but was called up for what turned out to be his only first team appearance for the match at Rochdale on 18 February 1939.

Town won an exciting encounter 5-4 on a mud-bath of a pitch, the first time a Halifax Town keeper has been on the winning the side on his only league

appearance.

It was a feat matched years later by local amateur John Hough (though he had turned out in the West Riding Senior Cup) in September 1979, and on loan Phil Morgan, whose appearance in the memorable 2-0 defeat of Rushden & Diamonds in February 1998 on the way to Halifax Town winning the Conference, would be his only one before being recalled by parent club Stoke City.