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 le ...

who played as a striker. Born in

Brigg Brigg ( /'brɪg/) is a market town in North Lincolnshire, England, with a population of 5,076 in the 2001 UK census, the population increased to 5,626 at the 2011 census. The town lies at the junction of the River Ancholme and east–west tra ...

Lincolnshire Lincolnshire (abbreviated Lincs.) is a county in the East Midlands of England, with a long coastline on the North Sea to the east. It borders Norfolk to the south-east, Cambridgeshire to the south, Rutland to the south-west, Leicestershire ...

he played for

Gainsborough Trinity Gainsborough Trinity Football Club is a football club based in Gainsborough, Lincolnshire, England. Established in 1873, the club became members of the Football League in 1893 and remained members of the Second Division until 1912, making Gainsbo ...

Sheffield United Sheffield United Football Club is a professional football club in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England, which compete in the . They are nicknamed "the Blades" due to Sheffield's history of cutlery production. The team have played home games at ...

and

Hull City Hull City Association Football Club is a professional Association football, football club based in Kingston upon Hull, Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire, England, that compete in the . They have played home games at the MKM Stadium since moving ...

. 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 Bramal ...

. 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 knockout football competition in men's domestic English football. First played during the 1871–72 season, it is the oldest national football competi ...

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

final Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: *Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which decides a winner for an event ** Another term for playoffs, describing a sequence of cont ...

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 (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

and into the resumption of league football in 1919. He was transferred to

Rotherham County Rotherham County F.C. was an English football club based in Rotherham, South Yorkshire. They spent a number of years in the English Football League before merging with rivals Rotherham Town in 1925 to form Rotherham United. History The club w ...

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