Biography
Inside left Dave Wright joined Hull City in July 1934, a transfer fee reputed to be £1,000 was paid to Liverpool to claim his signature. Manager Jack Hill handed Wright his City debut in the fifth League game of the 1934/35 season and two days later, in his second start for the club, Dave opened his goalscoring account with the final goal in a 4-0 win over West Ham United. Wright missed only six senior matches over the remainder of the season as the Tigers struggled for form for the first three months, then between November and January embarked on a run of 14 matches that saw only two defeats – Wright scored seven times in that three month period including braces against Manchester United and Nottingham Forest. He scored the last of his 11 League goals for the Tigers on the final day of the season, a 5-1 win over Notts County – despite that decent goal haul he was not retained and left the club in May 1935.
David “Dave” Wright was born in Kirkcaldy in the kingdom of Fife and as a teenager played for Dunniker Juniors before moving to Scottish First Division side Raith Rovers in the summer of 1923. Wright failed to break into the Raith first team and moved to East Fife in September 1924 where he scored 25 goals in just over 50 appearances. In April 1926 he moved to Cowdenbeath where his goalscoring record continued, netting 17 times in 35 starts.
In May 1927 English Division One side Sunderland paid £4,000 for Wright’s services. He made his Sunderland debut in August 1927 and scored his first goal four days later in a 4-2 win over West Ham United (a trick he repeated against the Hammers seven years later in his second start for Hull City). He remained Sunderland’s first choice inside left for the rest of the season but missed the first six months of the 1928/29 season as Sunderland finished fourth in the Division One table. Wright remained a peripheral figure during the 1929/30 season and had scored 8 goals in 53 starts for Sunderland when he left the club in March 1930 – his final goal for the Rokerites came in December 1929 against, of course, West Ham United.
Wright joined Division One side Liverpool in March 1930, a joint fee of £4,800 was paid for Dave and another Sunderland player. He made his Reds’ debut in mid-April 1930 against Burnley, but a foot injury kept him out of the Liverpool first team until November 1930. He scored a hattrick against Newcastle United in February 1931, playing at centre forward, which secured his first team place. For the next two seasons he was a first team regular and an effective goalscorer, netting 13 times in the 1931/32 season and 14 times in the 1932/33 season. Wright dropped out of the Liverpool first team in October 1933 and played a support role for the rest of the season before moving to Hull City in the 1934 close season – he scored 35 goals in exactly 100 senior appearances for the Reds.
Dave left teh Tigers in May 1935 and spent the 1935/36 season with Division Two side Bradford Park Avenue but managed only one goal in 20 starts. He retired from football in 1936 and returned to live in Hull, running a newsagent’s shop and living in Anlaby. He died tragically young in July 1953.
Details
Nationality: Scotland
Date/Place of Birth: 5 October 1905, Kirkcaldy
Hull City First Game: 15 September 1934, Southampton A (Division Two), 28 years, 345 days old
Hull City Final Game: 4 May 1935, Notts County H (Division Two), 29 years, 211 days old
Clubs
Dunniker Juniors, Raith Rovers (1923-1924), East Fife (1924-1926), Cowdenbeath (1926-1927), Sunderland (1927-1930), Liverpool (1930-1934), Hull City (1934-1935), Bradford Park Avenue (1935-1936)
Hull City Record
Career: 33 apps, 11 goals
Dave Wright| Season | LGE App | LGE Gls | FAC App | FAC Gls | FLC App | FLC Gls | EUR App | EUR Gls | OTH App | OTH Gls |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1934/35 | 32 | 11 | 1 | 0 | – | – | – | – | – | – |