Goode Bertram Image 3 Hull City 1912

Description

Chester, Cheshire born inside right Bertram Goode began his football career with Old St Mary’s in 1904 and played for Hoole in 1905 and Saltney in 1906 before joining hometown professional Combination League club Chester in 1907, where he scored 13 goals in 17 Combination matches. After a season with The Seals he was signed by First Division club Liverpool in July 1908, making his Football League debut at Bristol City the same November, playing 5 more matches either side of the New Year before losing his place. In 1909-10 he scored his only goal for Liverpool in his only first team match that season, in a 4-2 defeat at Sheffield United in late December 1909, before he was released in June 1910, when he joined Birmingham & District League club Wrexham for the first time, where he is remembered as one of the greatest strikers in the Welsh club’s history.

Goode clearly impressed during his first season at The Racecourse Ground and was signed by First Division club Aston Villa for £250 in April 1911. Although mainly a reserve at Villa Park, he scored a brace in a 5-0 win over former club Liverpool in December 1911, and he was then sold to Second Division Hull City for £300 in May 1912 after 3 goals in 7 appearances. A regular during The Tigers’ 1912-13 campaign, Goode scored 10 goals in 30 appearances during a single season at Anlaby Road before re-joining first Chester in 1913 and then Wrexham, where he won the Welsh Cup with them in 1915 before the onset of the First World War forced the suspension of peacetime football in May of that year, and during the War he played as a wartime guest for both Millwall and Southampton.

After the conflict he returned to The Racecourse Ground and when Wrexham joined The Football League in 1921 he was still with The Dragons, playing in their inaugural League fixture against Hartlepools United that August. After a single League season in which he scored 5 goals in 36 appearances, Goode returned to Chester in 1922 after a brief spell with non league Rhos Athletic, but he returned once again to Wrexham in 1923 and had three more seasons with The Dragons adding 5 goals in 21 appearances, scoring in his final match in a 5-6 home defeat to Accrington Stanley in October 1925 before retiring in May 1926, already aged nearly 40.