Robertson Tom Image 1 Millwall Athletic 1896

Description

Lesmahagow, Lanarkshire born full back Tom Robertson (usually referred to as Tom and sometimes as Jack) began his football career with junior club Newton Thistle in 1892 and joined Scottish League St Bernard’s in 1893, from where he joined First Division Stoke in May 1894, making his Football League debut at Bolton Wanderers in September the same year. He scored once in 26 appearances before returning to Edinburgh to join Hibernian in 1896, before joining Southern League Millwall Athletic.

He re-joined Stoke in May 1897 where he spent 3 seasons as a regular in their first eleven and was part of their 1899 FA Cup semi final team beaten 3-1 by Derby County at Molineux. He scored twice in exactly 100 appearances in his second spell for The Potters before joining Liverpool in April 1900 for £400. Robertson was only on Liverpool’s books for two years but he won the League Championship in the first of those seasons, 1900-01, which was also a first League title for The Reds too.

He made 22 consecutive appearances from the start of the season before John Glover took over for the next nine matches. But Robertson was back in place for the final three fixtures as the title was secured by two points from runners-up Sunderland. Glover started the 1901-02 season as a regular but Robertson came back into contention during the second half of the campaign and made a further 17 First Division appearances. Robertson joined Southern League Southampton in May 1902 having scored once in 47 appearances. Liverpool were quite annoyed by the transfer as the Evening Telegraph explained: “It cost them close upon £400 for his transfer from Stoke, and they have not had two years’ service out of him. So far as they are aware, Robertson had no grievance, and as he was offered the maximum rate of wages, some very unpleasant things are being said in Liverpool as to the inducement for him to journey south.”

Robertson enjoyed great success with The Saints winning the Southern League two years in succession in 1903 and 1904. He joined Brighton in the summer of 1904 having scored once in 50 appearances for Southampton, having a single season at Albion before retiring in 1905.