Andrews Len Image 2 Reading 1919

Description

Reading, Berkshire born inside forward Len Andrews attended The University of Reading where he trained as a teacher and while there signed for Southern League hometown club Reading in October 1909, however at the end of his first season they were relegated from the First Division of the Southern League. He then helped them to immediately win the Second Division Championship in 1910-11, before he joined Southampton in the summer of 1912, who had just appointed a new trainer in Jimmy McIntyre. Andrews’ signing from Reading was “one of the best moves of McIntyre’s managerial career” as Andrews went on to become The Saints’ most consistent forward in the three seasons leading up to the First World War, as well as being an expert penalty taker, converting all but two of the 22 penalty kicks he took, gaining a reputation as “a man who could hit the ball harder and more accurately with his left foot than any other player in the game”.

During the First World War, Andrews joined the 5th Battalion Wiltshire Regiment, where he served in Mesopotamia and the Middle East, rising to the rank of Regimental Sergeant Major.

After the War, he re-signed for Reading in July 1919. During the 1919-20 season he was part of the last Southern League representative XI, playing in a fixture against The Corinthians. At the end of the 1919-20 season Reading, along with most of the Southern League clubs, formed the Third Division of the Football League. Andrews spent the first season of the new division with Reading, playing in their inaugural League fixture, a 1-0 win at Newport County that August. During his second spell at Reading, Andrews formed a “exciting partnership” with Jimmy Carr on the left wing, which was to be briefly reprised at Southampton a few years later, before returning to Southampton in August 1921 after 5 goals in 36 appearances for The Royals during the 1920-21 campaign. He is known to have scored 17 goals in 103 appearances for Reading but that total doesn’t include FA Cup games nor the 1910-11 Southern League Second Division season.

In his first season back at The Dell he helped The Saints to the Third Division (South) Championship. By now the goals were few and far between and, although his enthusiasm carried him through another two seasons, he was no longer a first choice player, losing out firstly to Joe Clark for much of the 1922-23 season and then to Henry Johnson the following season. On 17th February 1923 he was drafted in as goalkeeper for a match at Port Vale when Tommy Allen was taken ill; he clearly acquitted himself well as the game finished goalless.

He played his final match for Southampton at Blackpool on 24th November 1923. During his two spells with Southampton he played 180 games in all competitions, scoring 40 goals of which exactly half were from penalties. In August 1924 he joined Watford on a free transfer. He made 40 appearances for the club, and finished the 1924-25 season as joint top scorer alongside Fred Pagnam with 7 goals. However, he was released by Watford at the end of the season and retired from the game, aged nearly 37.