Clark Charles Image 3 Plymouth Argyle 1908

Description

Viewpark, near Uddingston, Lanarkshire born centre half Charles Clark began his career with his hometown club, Scottish junior side Thorniewood, before joining Hamilton Academical. In his early days at Hamilton, Clark found it difficult to combine football with his other passion, music, and on more than one occasion the latter took precedence. As well as playing 60 times over three years for his club, he was also chosen to represent Lanarkshire Juniors against Glasgow in 1898 and the Senior side against Ayrshire in 1901.

Clark created history in his time at Douglas Park by becoming the first player to score a hat-trick for Accies in a League match (on November 5th, 1898 against Port Glasgow Athletic), almost a year to the day after Accies’ first League game.

Originally a forward, he was converted to centre half and it was his performances in the half back line that brought him to the attention of First Division club Everton, whom he joined in 1901 for a fee of £60, making his Football League debut against Stoke in November 1901. After two seasons at Goodison Park, where he struggled to break into the first team making just 7 appearances, scoring once, he moved to Home Park in the summer of 1903 to be one of Frank Brettell’s new Plymouth Argyle professionals in the Southern League.

Clark was one of the most reliable and consistent members of Argyle’s first professional side, and was virtually an ever present across six seasons with the club scoring 9 goals in 272 appearances. In his second season he received a Western League winners’ medal and played a remarkable 54 times. Not surprisingly, he was described as ‘absolutely untiring’ and ‘always a dominating factor in a game’ and was an extremely popular club captain when given the role in 1906 succeeding his namesake Andy Clark. After leaving Argyle in 1909 he spent a single season with Crystal Palace making 32 appearances before retiring in 1910.