Harry Kirtley (23 May 1930 – 13 December 2007) was an English

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 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

Sunderland Sunderland () is a port city in Tyne and Wear, England. It is the City of Sunderland's administrative centre and in the Historic counties of England, historic county of County of Durham, Durham. The city is from Newcastle-upon-Tyne and is on t ...

Cardiff City Cardiff City Football Club ( cy, Clwb Pêl-droed Dinas Caerdydd) is a professional association football club based in Cardiff, Wales. It competes in the Championship, the second tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1899 as R ...

and

Gateshead Gateshead () is a large town in northern England. It is on the River Tyne's southern bank, opposite Newcastle upon Tyne, Newcastle to which it is joined by seven bridges. The town contains the Gateshead Millennium Bridge, Millennium Bridge, Sage ...

Club career

Kirtley made his debut for Sunderland on 16 April 1949 in a 1–1 tie against

Manchester City Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The tw ...

at Maine Road. In his career at Sunderland, he made 101 appearances and scored 18 goals during 1948 to 1955. From Sunderland he moved to

where he scored 4 goals in 38 appearances in one season. He then returned to the North East with

, he played 96 times and scored 14 goals up to leaving in 1960. He had a short stint with Welsh side Rhyl before retiring, and settled in Rhyl afterwards. Kirtley died in 2007 and current chairman of Sunderland, Niall Quinn, said "It's always very sad when we lose a member of our Sunderland family."

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kirtley, Harry 1930 births 2007 deaths English footballers Sunderland A.F.C. players Cardiff City F.C. players Gateshead F.C. players Rhyl F.C. players English Football League players Association football inside forwards