Crompton Arthur Image 1 Southend United 1931

Description

Birmingham born left winger Arthur Crompton began his football career playing for Devon County and later he represented the British Army football team before joining Second Division Tottenham Hotspur in 1928, making his Football League debut at Bristol City in November 1928, scoring in a 2-1 defeat. Over two seasons at White Hart Lane he scored 3 goals in 15 appearances, before joining Southend United in the 1930 close season.

It was while at The Kursaal that he got to play at Wembley Stadium in unusual circumstances. Their away fixture at Clapton Orient’s Lea Bridge Road stadium was moved to Wembley Stadium as Orient’s ground had been closed following a bad injury to a Torquay United player resulting from the close proximity of the pitch barrier to the playing surface. While remedial work was carried out the East Londoners were forced to hire the Empire Stadium in order to stage two home games. The first resulted in an easy 3-0 win over Brentford in front of a healthy 8,000 plus crowd. However, the visit of Southend United attracted a crowd of only 1,916 (which must have looked very odd in vast stadium with a then capacity of 100,000) and Crompton played in a 3-1 defeat by Clapton Orient, albeit in a Third Division (South) fixture on 6th December 1930.

Crompton scored 12 goals in his second season for Southend as they finished third in the Third Division (South) but before the season had ended he was sold to Brentford in March 1932, and he scored 11 goals as The Bees won the Third Division (South) Championship in 1932-33. He then transferred to Crystal Palace in the summer of 1933 and had two seasons at Selhurst Park, scoring 6 goals in 28 appearances. He then spent 1935-36 at Tranmere Rovers, scoring 4 goals in 14 appearances before moving into non league football with Northwich Victoria in 1936 before his eventual retirement.