Crockford Harold Image 1 Exeter City 1922

Description

Derby born centre forward Harold Crockford had an itinerant career in the 1920’s playing for 9 clubs in less than as many years. He began his football career with Chatham before the First World War but after the War he joined Second Division Fulham in 1919 and made his Football League debut forFulham at Barnsley in March 1920, and had scored 9 goals in 26 games for The Cottagers by the time he joined Exeter City in 1922, where he produced 17 goals in 31 games in 1922-23 being Exeter’s top scorer. This included two hat-tricks scored against Reading and Newport County, scoring all three goals at Reading in a 3-1 win at the end of December 1922 and three in a 4-0 win over Newport in February.

That summer he moved to Port Vale but after 2 goals in 6 games he signed for Chesterfield in October 1923, again top scoring with 19 goals as Chesterfield finished Division Three (North) in 3rd place. He scored a hat-trick for The Spireites in a 5-1 win over Darlington in January 1924. After 30 goals in 52 games he moved to Gillingham in March 1925 but the move didn’t work out and after a goal in 6 games he joined Accrington Stanley that summer. After 5 goals in 11 games he was off again in November, this time joining Walsall where his 17 goals in 25 games once again saw him as the club’s top scorer.

Once again bags were packed as he joined Second Division Darlington in the summer of 1926 where he scored 8 times in 20 games in 1926-27, but he couldn’t help them avoid relegation, before finally joining Norwich City, where (for whatever reason) he only played twice during the remainder of 1927 before subsequently going non league with Bedford Town in 1928 and Tunbridge Wells Rangers in 1929.