Burns Jack Image 1 Brentford 1935

Description

Fulham, London born inside left Jack Burns played for junior side Crypto in 1926 before joining Queen’s Park Rangers as an amateur the following year, making his Football League debut against Southend United in January 1928, scoring in a 3-2 victory at Loftus Road. He soon became a regular in The R’s first eleven, scoring 13 goals during their 1928-29 campaign including a hat-trick in an 8-0 thrashing of Merthyr Town in March 1929. In 1929-30 he was a regular as Rangers finished third in the Third Division (South) narrowly missing out on promotion. He scored a further hat-trick for The R’s against Notts County in a 4-1 victory on Christmas Day 1930 in a season where he scored a further dozen goals across the campaign.

His form brought him Amateur international recognition and he made his debut in a 2-1 win over Wales at The Smithfield Athletic Ground, Aberystwyth, in February 1930. He won a further 15 amateur international caps, captaining his country on six occasions, through to March 1935, scoring twice and missing only one international after his debut.

Described as “an outstanding player with plenty of speed”, in the close season of 1931 he joined Third Division (South) Brentford having scored 34 goals in 125 appearances for Queen’s Park Rangers, and it was while at Brentford that he became a left half from 1932. He was a regular as they won the Third Division (South) Championship in 1932-33 and two seasons later when The Bees won the Second Division Championship to enter the top flight for the first time in their history. However Burns only played 9 matches in the First Division in the autumn of 1935, moving to non league Leyton the next year after 16 goals in 153 appearances for Brentford, where he saw out his playing career.