Goodman Bert Image 4 Charlton Athletic 1923

Description

Dalston, London born full back and utility player Bert Goodman had played amateur football before the First World War for teams such as London Fields and Tufnell Park in 1911, Tottenham Thursday and Page Green Old Boys before he joined Athenian League club Maidstone United in 1913. A year later he joined Southern League club Croydon Common, playing 21 matches and scoring 3 goals in their final season in the Southern League before peacetime football was suspended due to the onset of the First World War, and he also scored 8 goals in 22 wartime appearances for The Commoners in their 1915-16 campaign, thereafter Croydon Common was disbanded. During the War he also made 6 appearances in wartime league matches for Clapton Orient in their 1916-17 and 1917-18 campaigns and again played for Maidstone United in 1919.

Goodman was a rare but not unique example of a Jewish footballer, he was nicknamed “Kosher” for obvious reasons. Other prominent Jewish footballers of the time included Luton’s Irish international Louis Bookman and Swindon’s Harry Morris.

After the War he joined Second Division Tottenham Hotspur and made his Football League debut against Lincoln City in September 1919, predominantly playing at right back he scored once in 17 matches as Tottenham won the Second Division Championship, but he left them to join Kent League club Margate in the 1920 close season, where he made at least 29 appearances during 1920-21. He joined newly elected Third Division (South) club Charlton Athletic in the summer of 1921 and stayed the next four seasons at The Valley scoring 19 goals in 133 appearances. He played in Charlton’s inaugural League fixture, a win over Exeter City in August 1921, and missed only 4 matches in their inaugural campaign, playing at left back, but from October 1922 he was mainly deployed at centre forward, scoring 12 of his 20 career goals that campaign, although subsequently he was used across the half back line as well as at centre forward, regularly appearing at left half but also at centre and right half – a genuine utility player!

In June 1925 he joined Gillingham but only played 6 times for them, all at right half, in their opening 6 matches before losing his place and moving back to London with Clapton Orient in March 1926. He made the last of 12 appearances for Orient in February 1927 before joining Southern League Guildford City later that year, his last known club before his eventual retirement, after which he coached Tooting Town.