Stephen Tillotson (born 1884) was an English professional
footballer who played as a
goalkeeper.
Playing career
Blackpool
Tillotson made his debut for
Blackpool
Blackpool is a seaside resort in Lancashire, England. Located on the North West England, northwest coast of England, it is the main settlement within the Borough of Blackpool, borough also called Blackpool. The town is by the Irish Sea, betw ...
in the opening game of the
1907–08 season, a 1–1 draw at Stockport County on 2 September. He remained in goal for the following sixteen games, of which ''the Seasiders'' won only two. He was replaced for the remaining twenty-one games by
William Fiske.
Fiske remained first-choice for almost the entirety of the
1908–09 campaign; only a return by Tillotson in the penultimate League game — a single-goal defeat at Gainsborough Trinity on 17 April — spoiled his run. This was Tillotson's final game for the club. He joined
Lancashire rivals Burnley shortly afterwards.
Burnley
Tillotson was signed by Burnley in August 1909 as an understudy to
Jerry Dawson, who went on to become the club's record appearance holder. He made his debut on 13 November 1909 as Burnley beat
Wolverhampton Wanderers 4–2 at
Turf Moor thanks to a hat-trick from
Walter Abbott. Tillotson kept his place in goal for the following match away at Gainsborough Trinity, but was subsequently dropped as the side suffered a 0–2 defeat. He made one more appearance in the 1909–10 season, keeping a
clean sheet
In team sports, a shutout ( US) or clean sheet ( UK) is a game in which one team prevents the other from scoring any points. While possible in most major sports, they are highly improbable in some sports, such as basketball.
Shutouts are usuall ...
in the 2–0 home win over
Barnsley
Barnsley () is a market town in South Yorkshire, England. As the main settlement of the Metropolitan Borough of Barnsley and the fourth largest settlement in South Yorkshire. In Barnsley, the population was 96,888 while the wider Borough has ...
on 26 February.
For the first five months of the 1910–11 campaign Tillotson was unable to displace Dawson in goal. He made his first appearance of the season in the 2–0 victory against
West Bromwich Albion on 28 January 1911. Tillotson went on to play five more matches for Burnley that year, and kept successive clean sheets in the goalless draws with Leeds City and Barnsley. His final competitive appearance for the club came in the 1–1 draw away at
Leicester Fosse on 8 April 1911.
During the First World War, Tillotson returned to Burnley as a guest player and made eight appearances during the 1917–18 season.
[Simpson (2007), p. 490]
References
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Tillotson, Stephen
1884 births
Year of death missing
People from Brierfield, Lancashire
English men's footballers
Men's association football goalkeepers
Blackpool F.C. players
Burnley F.C. players
English Football League players
Burnley F.C. wartime guest players
Footballers from Lancashire