John Martin (1882 – after 1911) 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 le ...

who scored 55 goals from 122 appearances in the

Football League The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, the league is the oldest such competition in the world. It was the top-level football league in Engla ...

playing as a

centre forward Forwards (also known as attackers) are outfield positions in an association football team who play the furthest up the pitch and are therefore most responsible for scoring goals as well as assisting them. As with any attacking player, the role ...

for Lincoln City and Blackburn Rovers. He also played Southern League football for Brighton & Hove Albion and Millwall Athletic and in the North-Eastern League for

Hartlepools United Hartlepool United Football Club is a professional association football club based in Hartlepool, County Durham, England. The team competes in League Two, the fourth tier of the English football league system. They were founded in 1908 as Har ...

Life and career

Martin was born in 1882 in

South Shields South Shields () is a coastal town in South Tyneside, Tyne and Wear, England. It is on the south bank of the mouth of the River Tyne. Historically, it was known in Roman times as Arbeia, and as Caer Urfa by Early Middle Ages. According to the 20 ...

County Durham County Durham ( ), officially simply Durham,UK General Acts 1997 c. 23Lieutenancies Act 1997 Schedule 1(3). From legislation.gov.uk, retrieved 6 April 2022. is a ceremonial county in North East England.North East Assembly �About North East E ...

. He played football for Tyne Dock N.E.R., from which he joined

Wearside League The Wearside Football League is a non-league football competition based in northern England. It consists of three divisions which sits at steps 7 to 9 (or levels 11 to 13) of the National League System and is a feeder to the Northern League Di ...

club Kingston Villa ahead of the 1902–03 season. He spent two seasons with the club, and was selected for a Wearside League representative team in 1904, before moving into the

with Lincoln City. He made his debut on 3 September 1904 in a 2–0 win away to Doncaster Rovers in the

Second Division In sport, the Second Division, also called Division 2 or Division II is usually the second highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Following the rise of Premier League style compet ...

. In the following season, Martin was the club's leading scorer, with 20 goals from League and

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual knockout football competition in men's domestic English football. First played during the 1871–72 season, it is the oldest national football competi ...

games. This earned him a transfer to the First Division with Blackburn Rovers. In his first season, he was Blackburn's leading scorer with 17 League goals from 36 games: at in height and not lightly built, he used his physical strengths well. In his second, he faced competition for the centre-forward position, and a poorer goal return left the player reportedly unhappy with both himself and the club. He spent the 1908–09 season with Brighton & Hove Albion, where he scored 18 goals from 37 Southern League appearances. He then played for Millwall Athletic, where he led the Lions in scoring in the 1909–10 and 1910–11 seasons, with 12 goals from 39 and 31 matches respectively, before returning to the north-east to spend the 1911–12 season with

of the

North Eastern League The North Eastern League was an association football league for teams in the North East of England. The league was founded in 1906 and was initially successful, with teams defecting from the rival Northern Football Alliance to play. Although som ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Martin, Jack 1882 births Year of death missing Footballers from South Shields English men's footballers Men's association football forwards Kingston Villa F.C. players Gateshead A.F.C. players Lincoln City F.C. players Blackburn Rovers F.C. players Brighton & Hove Albion F.C. players Millwall F.C. players Hartlepool United F.C. players English Football League players Southern Football League players