Sibbald Jack Image 2 Southport 1922

Description

Wallsend, Northumberland born inside forward (he played regularly in all three inside forward positions) Jack Sibbald began his football career with Walker St Christopher in 1907 and played for Wallsend Elm Villa in 1908 before signing for Southern League club Brentford in 1909, scoring on his debut and only appearance in the 1909-10 season. While not a prolific goalscorer, he scored 21 goals in 88 appearances for The Bees before missing the 1913-14 season, probably through injury.

He then signed for Second Division Blackpool in the summer of 1914, making his Football League debut and scoring in a 2-1 home defeat to Leicester Fosse in October that year, after which he rarely missed a game for The Seasiders until peacetime football was suspended in May 1915 with the onset of the First World War. After the War he returned to Bloomfield Road and was again a regular in the first peacetime season, 1919-20, before leaving Blackpool after 15 goals in 58 appearances, returning to non league football in the north east, first with Wallsend and later in 1920 with West Stanley.

Sibbald returned to Football League action in 1921 when he re-joined Blackpool, scoring twice more in 15 appearances during the 1921-22 season, after which he moved to Third Division (North) club Southport, where he enjoyed two seasons, in the second of which he missed just one match, scoring 13 goals including a hat-trick at Barrow in a 3-1 win in January 1924, finishing the season as The Sandgrounders’ top goalscorer. A move to Walsall in the summer of 1924 after 16 goals in 74 appearances saw Sibbald again do well, scoring 12 goals in 40 appearances, missing only 3 matches for The Saddlers, finishing as the second top scorer to Frank Burrill. However this proved his final season of League football, already 35 years old, and it is possible he stayed at Fellows Park as a reserve team player a further two seasons before returning to Wallsend in 1927, his final club before his eventual retirement.