Thomas Clay (19 November 1892 – 21 February 1949) was a 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 ...

who played fullback for

Leicester Fosse Leicester City Football Club is an English professional association football, football club based in Leicester in the East Midlands of England. The club competes in the Premier League, the highest level of English football league system, Eng ...

(the original name for Leicester City),

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

and

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

during the 1910s and 1920s.

Biography

Football career

Thomas Clay joined Leicester Fosse in April 1911 and made his first appearance for the team against Bradford Park Avenue F.C. on 11 November that year, having previously made a name for himself for local side Belvoir Sunday School Juniors. Tommy came to the attention of Tottenham during an

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 ...

tie between the two sides in 1914. Together with teammate Harry Sparrow he was signed by Spurs following the match. Tommy played for Spurs throughout the

First World War 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 ...

participating in 107 friendly matches. He captained the side in 1920 when it won the Second division title. In March 1921 he kept a clean sheet as stand-in

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 a 1 – 0 victory over Sunderland. Later the same year, although not captain, he played in the

1921 FA Cup Final The 1921 FA Cup Final was contested by Tottenham Hotspur and Wolverhampton Wanderers, which at the time was a Football League Second Division club, at Stamford Bridge. Spurs won by a single goal, scored by Jimmy Dimmock, eight minutes into the s ...

. He continued to play for Tottenham, totting-up 318 league appearances (23 goals) and 33 FA Cup matches (1 goal), until May 1929 when he became player-coach at Northfleet club with close associations with Tottenham. In August 1930 he was appointed coach of newly formed amateur team, Bedouins, and in 1931/32 season he coached St Albans City. He won his first of four

Caps against Wales at Highbury on 15 March 1920 and the last on 8 April 1922 against

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a Anglo-Scottish border, border with England to the southeast ...

Cricket coaching and later career

In 1923 Thomas had been a trialist for Leicestershire County Cricket Club and between 1926 and 1929 during his time at Spurs he took up cricket coaching at Public Schools including

Highgate Highgate ( ) is a suburban area of north London at the northeastern corner of Hampstead Heath, north-northwest of Charing Cross. Highgate is one of the most expensive London suburbs in which to live. It has two active conservation organisat ...

, St Paul's and

Berkhamsted Berkhamsted ( ) is a historic market town in Hertfordshire, England, in the Bulbourne valley, north-west of London. The town is a civil parish with a town council within the borough of Dacorum which is based in the neighbouring large new town ...

. He coached Dutch football side

HVV Den Haag HVV (Haagse Voetbal Vereniging: Dutch for ''(The) Hague Football Club'') is an amateur football club in The Hague, Netherlands. It was founded in 1883 as an extension of HCC, (The)'' Hague Cricket Club''. In 1978, on the occasion of the club's ...

between 1937 and 1939. After retiring from football he subsequently ran a pub and sports outfitters in St Albans. He was working as a builders' labourer in

Southend-on-Sea Southend-on-Sea (), commonly referred to as Southend (), is a coastal city and unitary authority area with borough status in southeastern Essex, England. It lies on the north side of the Thames Estuary, east of central London. It is bordered ...

when he died in 1949, aged 56.

Honours

Tottenham Hotspur *

Football League Second Division The Football League Second Division was the second level division in the English football league system between 1892 and 1992. Following the foundation of the FA Premier League, the Football League divisions were renumbered and the third t ...

: 1919–20 *

: 1920–21

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Clay, Thomas English footballers Men's association football fullbacks England men's international footballers Footballers from Leicester 1892 births 1949 deaths Tottenham Hotspur F.C. players Leicester City F.C. players English Football League players English Football League representative players English football managers English expatriate football managers Expatriate football managers in the Netherlands HVV Den Haag managers FA Cup final players