Kimpton Sid Image 2 Southampton 1913

Description

Leavesden, Hertfordshire born forward Sid Kimpton, after playing for his local village team, had an unsuccessful trial with Watford in 1909 before he  joined Southern League club Southampton in September 1910; after one match for the reserves, making his Southern League debut the following month in a 3-0 defeat to Crystal Palace. Kimpton scored in his next match a week later, in a 3-2 defeat at Brentford. By the end of the season, Kimpton had made 29 appearances, scoring seven goals, as The Saints finished one point above the relegation places.

For the 1911-12 season, Southampton’s new manager George Swift recruited eleven new players, including centre forward Henry Hamilton from Huddersfield Town. Kimpton retained his place in the side, but moved back to right half where he played for the first half of the season, before being replaced by John Denby in December. Kimpton returned to the side in March, when he took over the outsidenright berth from Jack Wilcox for the rest of the season, at the end of which Southampton were once again just above the relegation zone.

George Swift resigned in the summer of 1912 and Jimmy McIntyre was recruited as “trainer” with Ernest Arnfield returning as secretary-manager. The Saints started the 1912-13 season badly, only winning one match by the end of October. As the managerial team tried to improve performances by recruiting new players, Kimpton managed to retain his place in the side, either at centre forward or on the right wing, until February when he was dropped.

He returned to the side the following November and continued at outside right for the rest of the 1913-14 season. He started the 1914-15 season on the wing, before reverting to centre forward at the end of October, where he remained for the rest of the season, scoring ten goals as The Saints finished in sixth place, their best Southern League finish for five years, however the onset of the First World War forced the suspension of peacetime football, during which Kimpton worked for Thornycroft but continued to play for Southampton in wartime leagues and friendlies.

On the resumption of football in 1919, Kimpton was one of only three pre-war players who were re-signed by Southampton, but he was now in his thirties and only made two appearances in Southampton’s final Southern League season. Before he left The Saints, he was rewarded with a benefit match. In his Southampton career, he made 149 appearances in peace-time matches, scoring 30 goals.

Kimpton is best known for his coaching career across Europe between 1921 and 1950, when he coached in Czechoslavakia, Poland, and from the mid 1920’s in France, where he coached several club sides but also the French national team during the 1934 World Cup and beyond, He won the French League title with Racing Club de Paris in 1936 and twice won Le Coupe de France in 1936 and 1939. He also had a spell coaching at Coventry City in 1926.