Alexander Gilchrist Tait (3 December 1871 – 6 April 1949) was a Scottish professional footballer who played full back for teams including Glenburn Athletic,

Ayr Ayr (; sco, Ayr; gd, Inbhir Àir, "Mouth of the River Ayr") is a town situated on the southwest coast of Scotland. It is the administrative centre of the South Ayrshire council area and the historic county town of Ayrshire. With a population ...

, Royal Albert F.C., Rangers,

Motherwell Motherwell ( sco, Mitherwall, gd, Tobar na Màthar) is a town and former burgh in North Lanarkshire, Scotland, United Kingdom, south east of Glasgow. It has a population of around 32,120. Historically in the parish of Dalziel and part of Lanarks ...

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 ...

Tottenham Hotspur Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, commonly referred to as Tottenham () or Spurs, is a professional association football, football club based in Tottenham, London, England. It competes in the Premier League, the top flight of English footba ...

Leyton Leyton () is a town in east London, England, within the London Borough of Waltham Forest. It borders Walthamstow to the north, Leytonstone to the east, and Stratford to the south, with Clapton, Hackney Wick and Homerton, across the River L ...

and

Croydon Common Croydon Common Football Club was an amateur and, later on, professional football club based in Croydon. History The team formed in 1897 as an amateur church team competing in local leagues. They turned professional in 1907, joining the Southern L ...

. He is also distantly related to British cricketer

Andrew Flintoff Andrew "Freddie" Flintoff (born 6 December 1977) is an English television and radio presenter and former international cricketer. Flintoff played all forms of the game and was one of the sport's leading all-rounders, a fast bowler, middle-orde ...

Football career

Sandy Tait was one of 13 children and worked as a pitboy leading the

pit ponies A pit pony, otherwise known as a mining horse, was a horse, pony or mule commonly used underground in mines from the mid-18th until the mid-20th century. The term "pony" was sometimes broadly applied to any equine working underground.English ...

while beginning his career at local club Glenbuck Athletic. He had a brief spell with Ayr and spent three years with Royal Albert but no league appearances are recorded for either of these initial clubs. Tait had a loan spell with Rangers in 1891–92 making his debut at left back in the Scottish League on 12 September 1891 in a 6–1 win at Vale of Leven. Tait made 6 appearances in season 1891–92 before being replaced at left back by Dunbar. Tait joined

for the following two seasons, making 17 appearances in 1893–94.

Preston North End

In 1894 Tait left Motherwell and joined

making his First Division debut at right back in a 3–1 win v Nottingham Forest on 23 March 1895 and made 3 appearances as Preston finished in 4th place in 1894–95. In the following season Tait was a regular first at right back with England international Bob Holmes at left back then switching over to left back with Holmes at right back. Tait made 26 appearances as Preston finished 9th in 1895–96. On 23 November 1895 Preston visited Small Heath at their Coventry Road ground on a blustery afternoon with a bitterly cold wind. Tait was playing at right back with a half time score of 2–1 to Small Heath when the Preston goalkeeper John Wright, playing only his second game, was found to have a fractured wrist from an accidental first half collision. Tait went into goal and Preston played on with 10 men equalising but then conceding three late goals to lose 2–5. When Preston finished 4th in the table in 1896–97 Tait began at left back but lost his place to Hugh Dunn and made only 16 appearances. In 1897–98 Tait played at right back in the first match and the last four but made only 8 appearances in the season as Preston slipped to 12th place of 16 teams in the First Division. Tait shared the full back duties with Holmes and Dunn again in 1898–99 making 26 appearances mainly at left back.

Tottenham Hotspur and Croydon

After playing 76 matches Tait moved on to

in the Southern League. While with Preston Tait was known as "Terrible Tait" a reference to his ferocious tackling and took his football very seriously but always played the game to the rules and was never booked. The full back joined the Spurs making his debut at left back at Millwall Athletic in a 3–1 win on 2 September 1899 and made 32 appearances in 1899–1900 when Tottenham were Southern League champions. Tait played at left back in all 8 FA Cup ties and was a member of the Lilywhites

1901 FA Cup Final The 1901 FA Cup Final was an association football match between Sheffield United and Tottenham Hotspur on Saturday, 20 April 1901 at the Crystal Palace stadium in south London. It was the final match of the 1900–01 FA Cup, the 30th edition of ...

winning side v Sheffield United after a replay. In 1900–01 Tait made 22 appearances in the Southern League as Tottenham finished 5th. Tait was also a regular for the Tottenham side playing in the Western League. Tottenham rose to runners up in the Southern League in 1901–02 when Tait made 26 appearances. Tait made 25 appearances scoring one goal, a penalty in a 3–1 win v New Brompton, during 1902–03 when Tottenham finished 4th in the Southern League. Tait continued to play in the Western league side that ran alongside the Southern League matches. Tottenham were runners up in the Southern League in 1903–04 when Tait made a further 25 appearances. In season 1904–05 Tait made another 25 appearances at left back scoring one goal a penalty in a 2–0 win v Watford. In season 1905–06 Tait made 27 appearances scoring one goal as Tottenham finished in 5th place. Tait was the regular left back again in 1906–07 making 24 appearances as Tottenham reached 6th place in the Southern League table. In 1907–08 Burton took over as the left back restricting Tait to a single appearance in the Southern League side. Tait was captain of Tottenham during the latter part of his career at White Hart Lane. He had excellent positional sense and a football brain. He was not especially fast but his tackling ability carried him through. He gave Spurs eight seasons of sterling service playing a total of 349 first team games, which comprised 207 in the Southern League, 78 in the Western League, 15 in the London League, 14 in the Southern and District Combination League and 35 in the FA Cup, with five goals in all competitions. He later moved on to

first as a player then manager before finishing his career as manager of

for whom he also made a few South Eastern League and London League appearances.

Honours

Tottenham Hotspur *

Southern League First Division The Southern League is a men's football competition featuring semi-professional clubs from the South and Midlands of England. Together with the Isthmian League and the Northern Premier League it forms levels seven and eight of the Englis ...

: 1899–1900 *

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 ...

: 1900–01

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tait, Sandy 1871 births 1949 deaths Footballers from East Ayrshire English Football League players Southern Football League players Scottish men's footballers Rangers F.C. players Motherwell F.C. players Preston North End F.C. players Tottenham Hotspur F.C. players Croydon Common F.C. players Leyton F.C. players Royal Albert F.C. players Leyton F.C. managers Southern Football League managers Scottish expatriate sportspeople in Sweden Men's association football fullbacks Scottish football managers Association football coaches People from Glenbuck