Beaton Simon Image 1 Huddersfield Town 1910

Description

Inverness born right half Simon Beaton began his football career with Inverness Thistle from where he moved to England to join Aston Villa, spending 1907-08 on Villa’s books without making a first team appearance. The following season he joined Newcastle United but similarly didn’t make their first eleven, and it was during a “loan” spell with Middlesbrough in 1909-10 that he made his Football League debut, which came at Chelsea in February 1910, making his only other ‘Boro appearance a week later in a home win over Tottenham Hotspur.  However ‘Boro were then fined 10 guineas for breaking Football League rules by playing Beaton as he was still officially registered as a player with Newcastle! He duly returned to United who took a similarly dim view of the matter and told him he would not now be retained when the 1909-10 season ended.

Beaton joined newly elected Second Division club Huddersfield Town with his Newcastle team mate Bill Hughes for a total of £75 in the 1910 close season and he made his debut in their inaugural League fixture, a 1-0 win at Bradford Park Avenue that September. He was a regular for The Terriers over the next four seasons, scoring once, in a resounding FA Cup success over non league club Horsforth in October 1910, in 118 appearances, before leaving the club at the end of the 1913-14 season. He appears to have retired in the summer of 1914 although during the First World War he played football as a wartime guest for both Crystal Palace and Tottenham Hotspur.