John Bruton (21 November 1903 – 13 March 1986) was a professional footballer and manager who spent the major part of his career in both capacities with

Blackburn Rovers Blackburn Rovers Football Club is a professional football club, based in Blackburn, Lancashire, England, which competes in the , the second tier of the English football league system. They have played home matches at Ewood Park since 1890. T ...

Playing career

Born in

Westhoughton Westhoughton ( ) is a town and civil parish in the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton, Greater Manchester, England, southwest of Bolton, east of Wigan and northwest of Manchester.Bolton Bolton (, locally ) is a large town in Greater Manchester in North West England, formerly a part of Lancashire. A former mill town, Bolton has been a production centre for textiles since Flemish people, Flemish weavers settled in the area i ...

, he initially played as an amateur with Wigan Borough,

Bolton Wanderers Bolton Wanderers Football Club () is a professional football club based in Horwich, Bolton, Greater Manchester, England, which competes in . The club played at Burnden Park for 102 years from 1895 after moving from their original home at Pike's ...

and

Horwich RMI Horwich ( ) is a town and civil parish in the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton, Greater Manchester, England. Prior to 1974 in the historic county of Lancashire. It is southeast of Chorley, northwest of Bolton and northwest of Manchester. It ...

while working in the coal mines before signing for

Burnley Burnley () is a town and the administrative centre of the wider Borough of Burnley in Lancashire, England, with a 2001 population of 73,021. It is north of Manchester and east of Preston, at the confluence of the River Calder and River Bru ...

as a professional in 1925 - it was reported that he came up from the pit and signed professional forms on an overturned tub at the pit head. At

Turf Moor Turf Moor is an association football stadium in Burnley, Lancashire, England, which has been the home of Burnley F.C. since 1883. This unbroken service makes Turf Moor the second-longest continuously used ground in English professional football ...

he established himself as one of the best wingers in the country and won representative honours with the Football League team. He also made three appearances for

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. He scored 44 times in 176 games for Burnley before becoming

' record £6,500 signing in December 1929. A maker of goals as well as a scorer, Bruton proved to be remarkably consistent during his playing career with Rovers. In the 1930–31 season, Bruton was Rovers' top-scorer with 19 league goals, closely followed by his unrelated namesake

Les Bruton Leslie Hector Ronald Bruton (1 April 1903 – 2 April 1989) was an English footballer who played at centre-forward in the 1920s and 1930s for various clubs, having his most successful period with Blackburn Rovers. Football career Bruton was bor ...

on 18. He scored 115 times in 344 appearances for Blackburn before moving on to

Preston North End Preston North End Football Club, commonly referred to as Preston, North End or PNE, is a professional football club in Preston, Lancashire, England, who currently play in the EFL Championship, the second tier of the English football league syste ...

in 1939, although he was prevented from making any first team appearances for Preston as a result of the outbreak of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. He was awarded a benefit match in 1935 when Blackburn Rovers beat Celtic 1–0 on Monday, 22 April at Ewood Park.

Management career

After the war he returned to

Ewood Park Ewood Park () is a football stadium in Blackburn, Lancashire, England, and the home of Blackburn Rovers F.C., founding members of the Football League and Premier League, who have played there since 1890. It is an all seater multi-sports facili ...

as assistant trainer and assistant secretary. During manager

Will Scott William Scott (1893–1972) was an English footballer and football manager who managed in England in the 1940s and 1950s. Scott began his career as an amateur with South Shields prior to the First World War, but joined the Navy in 1914. He gue ...

's absence through illness, Bruton took over the running of the club and on Scott's return was appointed assistant manager. He was the natural successor when Rovers' lack of consistency led to Scott finally vacating the manager's chair in December 1947. On taking control Bruton's immediate aim was to avoid the team's relegation from Division 1, but nine defeats in the last ten games sealed the club's fate. In an attempt to regain First Division status, Bruton signed Dennis Westcott, a proven goal-scorer from

Wolves The wolf (''Canis lupus''; plural, : wolves), also known as the gray wolf or grey wolf, is a large Canis, canine native to Eurasia and North America. More than thirty subspecies of Canis lupus, subspecies of ''Canis lupus'' have been reco ...

, and also unearthed an exciting prospect at left-back in the shape of Bill Eckersley. However, success proved just as elusive and after the club finished in fourteenth place in the Second Division, Bruton was summoned to a board meeting and dismissed in May 1949. In 1950 he was appointed manager at Bournemouth & Boscombe Athletic, who played in the

Third Division South The Third Division South of The Football League was a tier in the English football league system from 1921 to 1958. It ran in parallel with the Third Division North with clubs elected to the League or relegated from Division Two allocated to on ...

. He remained at

Dean Court Dean Court, currently known as the Vitality Stadium for sponsorship purposes, is a football stadium in Kings Park, Boscombe, a suburb of Bournemouth, Dorset, England and the home ground of AFC Bournemouth. History In 1910, Boscombe F.C. was gi ...

for six years until 1956.* After retiring as a manager he continued as a scout for both Blackburn Rovers and Bournemouth and also for

Portsmouth Portsmouth ( ) is a port and city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. The city of Portsmouth has been a unitary authority since 1 April 1997 and is administered by Portsmouth City Council. Portsmouth is the most dens ...

References

External links

*
England profile
(scroll to 3rd row of cards) {{DEFAULTSORT:Bruton, Jack 1903 births People from Westhoughton Footballers from Greater Manchester Sportspeople from the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton 1986 deaths English men's footballers England men's international footballers Wigan Borough F.C. players Bolton Wanderers F.C. players Leigh Genesis F.C. players Burnley F.C. players Blackburn Rovers F.C. players Preston North End F.C. players English football managers Blackburn Rovers F.C. managers AFC Bournemouth managers English Football League representative players Men's association football wingers