French Jackie Image 1 Southend United 1931

Description

Stockton, County Durham born right back Jackie French began his senior football career with local professional club Middlesbrough, where he made his Football League debut after their relegation to the Second Division in a match with Leicester City in January 1925, his only appearance for ‘Boro. He joined Southend United later in 1925, and had seven seasons with The Shrimpers, scoring twice in 184 appearances for them before joining Brentford in 1932. He played five times for The Bees as they won the Third Division (South) Championship, but after their promotion he joined non league Tunbridge Wells Rangers in 1933.

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 French played in a 3-1 defeat by Clapton Orient, albeit in a Third Division (South) fixture on 6th December 1930.