74 Bert Goode

Biography

Inside forward Bert Goode joined Hull City in August 1912, having scored 46 goals for Aston Villa’s reserves the previous season. Manager Ambrose Langley immediately put Goode in City’s first XI and Bert rewarded this choice with a debut goal in the 1912/13 season opener against Blackpool. He followed up a week later with two goals against Glossop and scored four more goals, but during thsi period City’s form had collapsed with a string of Autumn defeats. After three months without a goal Goode scored three times in two starts in mid-March 1913 but when Langley left the Tigers at the end of March 1913 and Harry Chapman took over, Bert was sidelined in favour of Glaswegian John Boyton. Goode left the Tigers in May 1913.

Bertram John Goode was born in the Boughton district of Chester, a residential area between the Shropshire Union Canal and the River Dee – his father was a Chester man who worked in a saw mill. Bert started playing local league football in his late teens and in 1907 he signed for Chester, the local senior side who at the time competed in The Combination, a short-lived rival competition to the Football League. Having scored two goals for Chester to help secure the Welsh Cup title in May 1908, Goode was signed by First Division side Liverpool for a £100 fee.

He spent two seasons at Anfield, starting six games without a goal during the winter months of the 1908/09 season then making a sole appearance the following term, a December 1909 defeat at Sheffield United in which Bert opened (and closed) his goalscoring account for the Reds. In August 1910 Goode joined Wrexham, who competed in the Birmingham & District League, and he netted an impressive 37 goals in 39 starts including four goals for the victorious side in the 1911 Welsh Cup Final. This form earned a move back to the First Division, Aston Villa paying a £225 fee for Goode’s services. Bert was introduced to the Villa first eleven in November 1911 and in his second start for the Villains he punished his former club Liverpool with two goals in a 5-0 defeat. He added another goal against Notts County in March 1912, the last of his seven starts for Villa.

In May 1913 Goode returned to Wrexham, a club he served for 12 of the next 13 years. He scored a hattrrick in the Welsh Cup semi final in February 1915 and helped Wrexham win the Birmingham & District League title twice immediately before World War One. Bert played wartime fixtures for Wrexham, Millwall and Southampton then in the 1820/21 he lifted the Birmingham League title for a third time in four attenpts. Wrexham were elected to the newly formed Division Three North for the 1921/22 season and Goode was retained, scoring 5 times in 36 starts. After spending the 1922/23 season at Cheshire Senior League side Chester, Goode again returned to Wrexham in the 1923 close season and he played infrequently for the first team for three further seasons. His playing days drew to a close in 1926 but he stayed on as trainer for Wrexham, a club that he scored a total of 136 goals for over his three spells with the club.

By 1939 Bert was living in a suburban end-terrace house in Wrexham and working as a labourer. He died in Wrexham in April 1955.

Details

Nationality: England
Date/Place of Birth: 12 August 1886, Chester
Hull City First Game: 7 September 1912, Blackpool H (Division Two), 26 years, 26 days old
Hull City Final Game: 12 April 1913, Bradford Park Avenue H (Division Two), 26 years, 243 days old

Clubs

Old St Mary’s, Hoole, Saltney, Chester (1907-1908), Liverpool (1908-1910), Wrexham (1910-1911), Aston Villa (1911-1912), Hull City (1912-1913), Wrexham (1913-1922), Rhos Athletic (1922), Chester (1922-1923), Wrexham (1923-1926)

Hull City Record

Career: 30 apps, 10 goals

Bert Goode

Season	LGE App	LGE Gls	FAC App	FAC Gls	FLC App	FLC Gls	EUR App	EUR Gls	OTH App	OTH Gls
1912/13	28	10	2	0	-	-	-	-	-	-