Wright John “Jocky” Image 2 Plymouth Argyle 1905

Description

Hamilton, Lanarkshire born inside forward John “Jocky” Wright began his football career with Hamilton Academical in 1891 and also represented Lanarkshire against East of Scotland, scoring in a 3-2 defeat at Airdrie in January 1892. He played for Motherwell in 1892 before returning to The Accies in 1893. He joined Clyde in 1894 where he scored 4 goals in 18 League appearances before moving south to join First Division Bolton Wanderers in June 1895, making his Football League debut at Stoke the same September and being an ever present for Bolton in 1895-96 as The Trotters both finished fourth in the League Championship and got through to the FA Cup semi final, where they lost 3-1 in a replay to eventual winners Sheffield Wednesday at The Town Ground, Nottingham.

He was a regular for two further seasons at Burnden Park before Sheffield Wednesday signed him in November 1898 having scored 17 goals in 94 appearances for Bolton, Although The Wednesday were relegated come the end of the season, he scored 27 goals in the 1899-1900 campaign as they won the Second Division Championship to return to the top flight at the first time of asking, including hat-tricks against Barnsley and Burslem Port Vale. He then had two seasons in the First Division with Wednesday before he returned to Hamilton in September 1902 after 43 goals in 110 appearances, and he then re-joined with Bolton Wanderers the following month. His second spell at Burnden Park produced 5 goals in 34 appearances before he moved to Southern League Plymouth Argyle in May 1904.

A fixture at Argyle for the next three seasons, the 1905-06 Plymouth Argyle handbook states that he was “always clever, frequently brilliant, and has never been known to play a bad game”. Wright left Plymouth in the summer of 1907 to join Watford after 17 goals in 110 appearances for The Pilgrims, and he made 28 appearances without scoring during his single season at Cassio Road, before joining Brentford in the summer of 1908, where he scored 10 goals in 56 appearances over the next two seasons before retiring in the summer of 1910.

Jocky Wright had two sons who played in the Football League,  one of them, Doug Weight, also played for England in 1938 while with Newcastle United (he also played for Southend United and Lincoln City), and a grandson who played for England Schools.