Jack Holliday

Jack Holliday
Personal information
Full name John William Holliday[1]
Date of birth 19 December 1908
Place of birth Cockfield, England
Date of death 1987 (aged 78–79)
Playing position Centre forward, inside left
Youth career
Cockfield
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1930–1932 Middlesbrough 6 (4)
1932–1944 Brentford 212 (119)
Total 218 (123)

* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only.


John William "Jack" Holliday (19 December 1908 – 1987) was an English football centre forward who played in the Football League for Brentford and Middlesbrough.[1][2] In 2013 Holliday was voted by the Brentford supporters as the club's fourth-greatest ever player and he holds the club record for most goals in a season.[3] He was posthumously inducted into the Brentford Hall of Fame in 2015.[4]

Playing career

Middlesbrough

A forward, Holliday joined hometown club Middlesbrough in March 1930.[1] Behind George Camsell in the pecking order, he spent most of his time in the club's reserve team, winning the North Eastern League title with the club in the 1930–31 and 1931–32 seasons, also scoring an incredible 78 goals on the way to the latter triumph.[1] Despite these exploits, Holliday rarely featured at first team level, but found the net when given a chance, scoring four goals in six Division One appearances.[1] He departed Boro in May 1932.[1]

Brentford

Holliday and Middlesbrough teammates Billy Scott and Bert Watson moved to join Division Three South side Brentford in May 1932, in what would become one of the most celebrated transfers in the club's history.[1] Flourishing under Harry Curtis' management, Holliday's career at Griffin Park got off to a flying start, scoring 39 goals in 35 games in the 1932–33 season to send the Bees to Division Two as champions.[5][6] With 38 league goals, he claimed the club record for most league goals scored in a season and most league hattricks (five),[7] records which as of 2015 have never been surpassed.[1] He was also the first player to score five goals in a single game for Brentford, which he achieved in an incredible 5–5 draw with Luton Town on 1 February 1933.[8] The Bees narrowly missed out on a second successive promotion during the 1933–34 season, finishing fourth in Division Two,[6] with Halliday scoring 27 goals from 41 appearances.[5] His 25 goals during the 1934–35 season helped Brentford to the Division Two championship and to promotion to the top tier of English football for the first time in the club's history.[1][5][6]

Holliday's goalscoring form in Division One failed to meet the heights of previous seasons, but he still managed 13 goals from 38 appearances during the 1935–36 season, which culminated in Brentford's highest-ever league placing of fifth.[6] Holliday was eventually converted into a utility player by manager Curtis and stayed with the Bees throughout the remainder of the 1930s,[9] playing his last professional game for the club on the final day of the 1938–39 season, a 2–0 defeat to Arsenal at Highbury.[10] The breakout of the Second World War in September 1939 saw professional football suspended, but Holliday remained with the club through the war years, making his final appearance against Reading on the final day of the 1943–44 season.[2] In seven years of competitive football with Brentford, Holliday scored 121 goals in 222 games.[1] Only two players have surpassed Holliday's goalscoring record for the club (Jim Towers and George Francis)[1] and his 9 hattricks in league matches is a club record.[7]

International career

Holliday's form during the 1934–35 season saw him called up to represent an England XI in a friendly versus an Anglo-Scots team at Highbury on 8 May 1935.[11] His England team suffered a 1–0 defeat.[11]

Management career

After his retirement from football in 1944, Holliday remained with Brentford and served as a trainer to the senior and reserve teams until May 1961.[1][9]

Personal life

Holliday was a member of the West Ealing bowling club between 1950 and 1980.[12] He represented Middlesex at the sport and won the West Ealing Championship ten times.[1] He died in 1987.[13]

Honours

As a player

Middlesbrough Reserves

Brentford

As an individual

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 Haynes, Graham; Coumbe, Frank (2006). Timeless Bees: Brentford F.C. Who's Who 1920-2006. Harefield: Yore Publications. p. 116. ISBN 978-0955294914.
  2. 1 2 Joyce, Michael (2004). Football League Players' Records 1888 to 1939. SoccerData. ISBN 1-899468-67-6.
  3. ↑ The Football League. "Brentford - Football League 125". Retrieved 18 November 2014.
  4. 1 2 Chris Wickham. "Kevin O'Connor and Marcus Gayle join others in being added to Brentford FC Hall of Fame". brentfordfc.co.uk. Retrieved 14 June 2015.
  5. 1 2 3 "Brentford Football Club History". brentfordfchistory.co.uk. Retrieved 14 June 2015.
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Football Club History Database - Brentford". fchd.info. Retrieved 14 June 2015.
  7. 1 2 Brentford Football Club Official Matchday Magazine versus Bournemouth 04/09/04. 2004. pp. 46, 47.
  8. ↑ TW8 Official Brentford Matchday Programme versus Port Vale 14/04/01. London: Morganprint Blackheath Ltd. p. 30.
  9. 1 2 Chapman, Mark. "Boro Connections: Five players that shaped Brentford football Club's history". www.brentfordfc.co.uk. Retrieved 2016-05-22.
  10. ↑ "Brentford Football Club History". Retrieved 18 November 2014.
  11. 1 2 England - International Results 1930-1939 - Details Archived 3 March 2016 at the Wayback Machine.
  12. ↑ "Club History". Retrieved 18 November 2014.
  13. ↑ "Doing The 92 ~ Jack Holliday". Archived from the original on 2016-03-04. Retrieved 18 November 2014.
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