Boyne Reg Image 1 Aston Villa 1914

Description

Leeds born centre forward Reg Boyne played junior football in Yorkshire before moving to New Zealand, where he played in intermediate league football before returning to England. Boyne joined First Division Aston Villa on trial in August 1913 and was awarded a professional contract in December that year. He made his Football League debut in a 1-0 defeat to Bradford City on 27th December 1913. Boyne made just three further appearances during the 1913-14 season and only managed four appearances during the whole of the 1914-15 season, before competitive football was suspended due to the ongoing First World War, during which his younger brother Harold was killed on the Western Front in February 1917. Boyne made a further five wartime appearances for Villa and also appeared as a guest for Notts County, Leicester Fosse, scoring twice in 23 appearances, and Loughborough Brush, before departing Aston Villa for Southern League club Brentford in August 1919.

While the club’s League form was lacking, Boyne had a good 1919-20 season, top-scoring with 13 goals in 28 games. He was retained for the 1920-21 season and received another chance at League football, with Brentford having entered into the newly created Third Division. Boyne had the honour of scoring Brentford’s first League goal, which came with the only goal of the game versus Millwall on 30th August 1920 (although he had missed their inaugural League fixture at Exeter City). In a dire debut season, at the end of which The Bees had to apply for re-election, Boyne scored 10 goals in 22 further appearances, however he was released in May 1921 and returned to live in New Zealand.