Broad Jimmy Image 5 Stoke City 1923

Description

Stalybridge, Lancashire centre forward Jimmy Broad began his football career with St Mark’s in West Gorton in 1907 and played for Stalybridge Celtic in 1908, had been on the books of both Manchester City in 1909-10 and 1912-13, and Manchester United in 1910-11 without breaking into either of their first teams, and after a spell in Spain with Deportivo La Coruna in 1911 he joined First Division Oldham Athletic in August 1913, making his Football League debut against Middlesbrough in March 1914, scoring twice in a 3-0 win at Boundary Park.

He played 15 games scoring 5 times prior to the outbreak of the First World War, during which he served in the Armed Forces and played in the Scottish League for Morton in 1917 and as a wartime guest for Blackburn Rovers and later for Bacup in 1918, and on resumption of peacetime football initially signed for Southern League Millwall in April 1919 for “a big fee”, scoring 39 goals in 54 games for them mainly in the Southern League, but including in that 6 goals in 10 games in their inaugural Football League season, when he scored in their first League fixture against Bristol Rovers in August 1920.

In June 1921 Stoke signed both Jimmy and his brother Tommy, paying £2,000 for Jimmy, and in their first season Broad missed only one game and scored 27 goals, including 4 in a 5-1 win over Crystal Palace in December 1921 as Stoke were promoted as Second Division runners up, albeit despite Broad’s 26 goals in their 1922-23 campaign, when he hit hat-tricks against Blackburn Rovers and Preston North End, they were immediately relegated the following season. He was Stoke’s leading goalscorer in each of his three seasons at The Victoria Ground, and after an impressive 67 goals in 116 games for Stoke he had a brief spell coaching Barcelona from August to October 1924, returning to non league Sittingbourne before he joined Everton for £1,400 in November 1924, where in just over a year he scored 8 goals in 21 appearances for The Toffees, before joining New Brighton for £200 in December 1925, playing the rest of the season for them, scoring 4 goals in 13 games.

He had a brief spell at Watford in August 1926 making 2 appearances that December, scoring on his debut at Bristol Rovers and in February 1927 he was released, joining Peterborough & Fletton United the next month and Caernarvon Town in October 1927. He moved to play for Taunton United in September 1928 and spent 1929-30 at New Brighton without making any further appearances for them. After a spell coaching in Switzerland in 1930 he joined Fleetwood in August 1931 and finished his playing career with Morecambe later the same year. He later coached in Turkey, South America, Norway and The Netherlands and was Chelmsford’s groundsman.

His older brother Tommy Broad also played for a number of clubs including West Bromwich Albion, Chesterfield, Oldham Athletic, Bristol City, Manchester City, Stoke and Southampton.