Frank Moss (5 November 1909 – 7 February 1970) was an English football player and manager. 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 ...

, Moss was born in Leyland,

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly. The non-metropolitan county of Lancash ...

, and first played for Preston North End, joining them in 1928. After a year and 24 games for Preston, he joined

Oldham Athletic Oldham Athletic Association Football Club is a professional football club in Oldham, Greater Manchester, England, which competes in the National League, the fifth tier of the English football league system. The history of Oldham Athletic be ...

(as an understudy to

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 ...

No. 1 Jack Hacking). He played 29 league games in one-and-a-half seasons, before signing for Arsenal in November 1931 for £3,000. Moss immediately took the first-team keeper's jersey from

Charlie Preedy Charles James Fane Preedy (11 January 1900 – February 1978) was an English football goalkeeper. One of six children, Preedy was born in Neemuch, British India, where his father was serving with the Royal Artillery. The family returned to El ...

, and was a near ever-present for the Gunners for the next four seasons; he won a hat-trick of First Division titles ( 1932-33, 1933-34 and 1934-35) and played in the

1932 FA Cup Final The 1932 FA Cup Final was contested by Newcastle United and Arsenal at Wembley Stadium in what became known as the "Over The Line" final. Newcastle won 2–1, both of their goals scored by Jack Allen. Arsenal had led 1–0 with a Bob John goal, ...

, which Arsenal lost to Newcastle United after a controversial equaliser from Jack Allen, where the ball went behind the goal-line and out of play before being crossed back in for Allen to score. He also won the FA Charity Shield in 1933 and

1934 Events January–February * January 1 – The International Telecommunication Union, a specialist agency of the League of Nations, is established. * January 15 – The 8.0 Nepal–Bihar earthquake strikes Nepal and Bihar with a maxi ...

. Moss also played five times for England, making his debut on 14 April 1934 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 ...

Wembley Wembley () is a large suburbIn British English, "suburb" often refers to the secondary urban centres of a city. Wembley is not a suburb in the American sense, i.e. a single-family residential area outside of the city itself. in north-west Londo ...

, keeping a clean sheet as England won 3–0. His final match for England was the "

Battle of Highbury The Battle of Highbury was a football match between England and Italy that took place on 14 November 1934 at Arsenal Stadium, Highbury, London. England won 3–2 in a hotly contested and frequently violent match. Background This was Italy's firs ...

" match against World Champions

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

on 14 November 1935 at

Highbury Highbury is a district in North London and part of the London Borough of Islington in Greater London that was owned by Ranulf brother of Ilger and included all the areas north and east of Canonbury and Holloway Roads. The manor house was sit ...

, in which seven Arsenal players started the match; England won 3–2. Moss is also the only Arsenal goalkeeper to score in a first-class match. On 16 March 1935, in a First Division match against Everton, Moss dislocated his left

shoulder The human shoulder is made up of three bones: the clavicle (collarbone), the scapula (shoulder blade), and the humerus (upper arm bone) as well as associated muscles, ligaments and tendons. The articulations between the bones of the shoulder mak ...

; with no substitutes allowed in those days, Moss was forced to play the rest of the game on the left wing, and he scored Arsenal's first goal in a 2–0 win. That match also proved to be Moss's downfall, however. He found it hard to recover from the injury - he played five more matches in 1935-36 but the injury quickly recurred. He was finally advised to retire in the summer of 1937 at age 27. He played 161 matches for Arsenal in total. After retiring as a player, Moss was appointed manager of Hearts, where he became both the club's youngest manager and the first to enjoy complete autonomy in matters of team selection. He led his side to a second-place league finish in his first season in charge, however with the outbreak of

World War II 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 opposing ...

in 1940 he resigned to return home, and left football altogether. He died in 1970 at the age of 60.

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Moss, Frank 1909 births 1970 deaths People from Leyland, Lancashire Sportspeople from Lancashire English footballers England international footballers Association football goalkeepers Preston North End F.C. players Oldham Athletic A.F.C. players Arsenal F.C. players English football managers Heart of Midlothian F.C. managers Scottish Football League managers English Football League players English Football League representative players FA Cup Final players

See also

References