Tommy Shanks
 Shanks while with Brentford in 1905. | |||
| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Thomas Shanks[1] | ||
| Date of birth | 30 March 1880 | ||
| Place of birth | New Ross, Ireland | ||
| Date of death | 1 March 1919 (aged 38)[2] | ||
| Place of death | Billericay, England | ||
| Position(s) | Inside forward | ||
| Youth career | |||
| Wexford | |||
| Senior career* | |||
| Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) |
| Derby West End | |||
| Derby Fosse | |||
| 1898–1900 | Derby County | 27 | (9) |
| 1901–1903 | Brentford | 36 | (10) |
| 1902–1903 | Woolwich Arsenal | 44 | (28) |
| 1904–1906 | Brentford | 53 | (17) |
| 1906–1909 | Leicester Fosse | 57 | (16) |
| 1909–1911 | Leyton | ||
| 1911–1912 | Clapton Orient | 0 | (0) |
| 1912–1913 | York City | ||
| International career | |||
| 1903–1905 | Ireland | 3 | (0) |
| *Club domestic league appearances and goals | |||
Thomas Shanks (30 March 1880 – 1 March 1919) was an Irish footballer.
Career
[edit]Shanks was born in Wexford and started his playing career with local club Wexford before moving to England to play for Derby West End and then Derby County in 1898.[3] He spent three seasons at the Baseball Ground, playing 28 times and scoring 9 goals, but could not hold down a regular place.[3] In October 1901 he moved to Brentford of the Southern League, helping the Bees to promotion to Division One,[4] before being signed by Second Division Woolwich Arsenal in January 1903.[5]
He made his Arsenal debut against Burslem Port Vale on 10 January 1903 and went on to be a regular that season as an inside forward, scoring five times.[3] His performances for his club earned him the first of three caps for Ireland, against Scotland on 21 March 1903.[2] Shanks' 1903–04 season was a record-breaking one; he scored 24 goals that season, including four hat-tricks, as Arsenal earned promotion to the First Division.[3] He was the first Arsenal player ever to score more than 20 in a league season.[6] However, a cash-strapped Arsenal sold him back to Brentford in the summer of 1904 and he never played for Arsenal in the top flight.[5] In all he played 48 matches and scored 29 goals for the Woolwich Reds.[3]
He played for another two seasons in the Southern League for Brentford before returning to League football with Leicester Fosse in 1906.[3][4] In three seasons with Leicester he scored 16 goals in 59 appearances, including the only goal in a 1–0 win over Stoke in April 1908,[3] which earned them promotion to the First Division for the first time.[5] In 1909 he moved back to London to play for Leyton and saw out his career at Clapton Orient and York City.[5][7]
References
[edit]- ^ Joyce, Michael (2012). Football League Players' Records 1888 to 1939. Nottingham: Tony Brown. p. 260. ISBN 978-1905891610.
- ^ a b "Tommy Shanks". National Football Teams. Benjamin Strack-Zimmermann. Retrieved 16 July 2015.
- ^ a b c d e f g "Thomas Shanks". 11v11.com. Retrieved 6 September 2017.
- ^ a b White, Eric, ed. (1989). 100 Years Of Brentford. Brentford FC. pp. 356–358. ISBN 0951526200.
- ^ a b c d "Tommy Shanks". arsenal.com. Retrieved 16 July 2015.
- ^ "Tommy Shanks: the mystery of the star of Arsenal's promotion « The History of Arsenal". www.blog.woolwicharsenal.co.uk. Retrieved 6 September 2017.
- ^ "Tommy Shanks". Spartacus Educational.com. Retrieved 16 March 2019.