Reginald William Newton (26 June 1926 – 21 November 1976) 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 played as a

goalkeeper In many team sports which involve scoring goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or intercepting o ...

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 ...

for

Brentford Brentford is a suburban town in West London, England and part of the London Borough of Hounslow. It lies at the confluence of the River Brent and the Thames, west of Charing Cross. Its economy has diverse company headquarters buildings whi ...

and

Leyton Orient Leyton Orient Football Club is a professional football club based in Leyton, East London, England, who compete in , the fourth tier of the English football league system. They are the second oldest football club in London to play at a professio ...

Playing career

Leyton Orient

, Newton began his career with the Dagenham Works team and earned a move to the

with

in April 1948. He made 23 league appearances for the struggling

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 ...

club during the 1948–49 season and departed

Brisbane Road Brisbane Road, originally known as Osborne Road, is a football stadium in Brisbane Road, Leyton, East London, England. It has been the home ground of Leyton Orient since 1937, before which it was the home of amateur football team Leyton F.C., w ...

at the end of the campaign.

Brentford

Newton moved across

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

to sign for

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 ...

club

in July 1949, in a part-exchange for Alan Smith. Newton was a second-choice goalkeeper behind Alf Jefferies,

Ted Gaskell Edward Gaskell (19 December 1916 – 10 February 2009) was an English professional footballer, coach and manager. He is best remembered for his time in the Football League with Brentford, with whom he had a 15-year association as a goalkeeper ...

and

Gerry Cakebread Gerald Cakebread OBE (1 April 1936 – 16 September 2009) was an English footballer who made over 340 appearances in the Football League for Brentford as a goalkeeper. He remained a part-time player throughout his professional career. Cakebread ...

for much of his time at

Griffin Park Griffin Park was a football ground in Brentford in the London Borough of Hounslow, England. It was the home ground of Brentford F.C. from its opening in September 1904 to August 2020. The ground is in a predominantly residential area and was ...

, but was first-choice during the 1953–54 season and made 42 appearances in a campaign which saw the Bees relegated to the Third Division South. Newton left the club in February 1957, having made 87 appearances in just under eight years with Brentford. Nonetheless, his service to the club was recognised when he was awarded the share of the benefits from a

testimonial match A testimonial match or testimonial game, often referred to simply as a testimonial, is a practice in some sports, particularly in association football in the United Kingdom and South America, where a club has a match to honour a player for servic ...

shared with George Bristow,

Ken Horne Kenneth William Horne (25 June 1926 – 3 September 2015) was an English professional footballer and coach, best remembered for his 11 years in the Football League with Brentford, for whom he made over 220 appearances. He was inducted into the c ...

and

Billy Sperrin William Thomas Sperrin (9 April 1922 – 21 June 2000) was an English football inside forward and coach. He made 100 appearances as a player for Brentford and was later a member of the coaching staff at Hillingdon Borough for 12 years. Club ...

in 1956.

Later career

Newton dropped into

non-League football Non-League football describes football leagues played outside the top leagues of a country. Usually, it describes leagues which are not fully professional. The term is primarily used for football in England, where it is specifically used to de ...

to sign for Kent League First Division club Tunbridge Wells United in February 1957. New Brentford manager

Malky McDonald Malcolm MacDonald (26 October 1913 – 26 September 1999) was a Scottish professional footballer and manager, best remembered for his time as a utility player with Celtic and as a manager with Kilmarnock and Brentford. MacDonald managed the Sco ...

re-signed Newton in July 1957, as backup for Gerry Cakebread and

Sonny Feehan John Ignatius "Sonny" Feehan (17 September 1926 – 11 March 1995) was an Irish footballer who played as a goalkeeper for several clubs in both Ireland and England. Born in Dublin, Feehan began his football career as an amateur with Dublin-bas ...

. He failed to make an appearance during the 1957–58 season and was

transfer-list The transfer market is the arena in which football players are available for transfer to clubs. The transfer market consists of a list of players available for transfer, and also the money moving between clubs as they contest to purchase and sell ...

ed in May 1958. Newton ended his career with spells at Southern League clubs

Yiewsley Yiewsley ( ) is a large suburban village in the London Borough of Hillingdon, England, 2 miles (3 km) south of Uxbridge, the borough's commercial and administrative centre. Yiewsley was a chapelry in the ancient parish of Hillingdon, Middl ...

and

Chelmsford City Chelmsford City Football Club is a semi-professional football club based in Chelmsford, Essex, England. Currently members of they play at the Melbourne Stadium. History Chelmsford Chelmsford Football Club was established in 1878 by members o ...

Personal life

Upon the outbreak of the

Second World War 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 ...

, Newton joined the

Army An army (from Old French ''armee'', itself derived from the Latin verb ''armāre'', meaning "to arm", and related to the Latin noun ''arma'', meaning "arms" or "weapons"), ground force or land force is a fighting force that fights primarily on ...

and was trained at

Aldershot Aldershot () is a town in Hampshire, England. It lies on heathland in the extreme northeast corner of the county, southwest of London. The area is administered by Rushmoor Borough Council. The town has a population of 37,131, while the Alders ...

to be a PT instructor. While at Aldershot he was friends with

Frank Swift Frank Victor Swift (26 December 1913 – 6 February 1958) was an English footballer, who played as a goalkeeper for Manchester City and England. After starting his career with local clubs near his home town of Blackpool, in 1932 he was signed b ...

Denis Compton Denis Charles Scott Compton (23 May 1918 – 23 April 1997) was an English multi-sportsman. As a cricketer he played in 78 Test matches and spent his whole cricket career with Middlesex. As a footballer, he played as a winger and spent most o ...

Bill Shankly William Shankly (2 September 1913 – 29 September 1981) was a Scottish football player and manager, who is best known for his time as manager of Liverpool. Shankly brought success to Liverpool, gaining promotion to the First Division and winnin ...

and

Matt Busby Sir Alexander Matthew Busby (26 May 1909 – 20 January 1994) was a Scottish association football, football player and manager, who managed Manchester United F.C., Manchester United between 1945 and 1969 and again for the second half of the 197 ...

. During and after his later years as a player at Brentford, Newton worked as a decorator. He died in November 1976, at the age of 50.

Career statistics

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Newton, Reg 1926 births 1976 deaths Men's association football goalkeepers Brentford F.C. players Chelmsford City F.C. players English Football League players English men's footballers Hillingdon Borough F.C. players Leyton Orient F.C. players Footballers from the London Borough of Tower Hamlets Southern Football League players Tunbridge Wells F.C. players British Army personnel of World War II Royal Army Physical Training Corps soldiers Kent Football League (1894–1959) players Military personnel from London