Crossley Charlie Image 1 Sunderland 1914

Description

Willenhall, Staffordshire born inside right Charlie Crossley began his football career with Short Heath United in 1910, and played for Willenhall Swifts in 1911, The Siemens Institute the same year and Hednesford Town in 1912.He then joined Midland League club Walsall in 1913 before being signed by First Division Champions Sunderland in February 1914, for whom he made his Football League debut against Tottenham Hotspur in March 1914.

During the First World War, Crossley was a stoker on a submarine destroyer and also played as a guest for Tottenham Hotspur, Clapton Orient and Huddersfield Town. After the resumption of peacetime football he once again played for Sunderland, scoring 9 goals as Sunderland finished fifth in the League Championship in the first post war season. In February 1920, he represented the North versus the South in an England trial, but nothing came of it. He had scored 17 goals in 46 games for The Wearsiders before a move to Everton in August 1920, where he scored 21 goals in 55 games, of which a career best 18 goals came in his first season at Goodison Park, when he finished the club’s top goalscorer.

In June 1922, Crossley moved to Second Division West Ham United where he played 16 matches, scoring once, but did not make their Wembley Cup Final side that season and in July 1923 he moved to Third Division Swindon Town for a two-year spell in Division Three (South), where he managed 14 goals in 43 appearances. He joined Ebbw Vale as player-manager in September 1925, where he saw out his career.