Stevenson General Image 2 Millwall Athletic 1904

Description

Padiham, Lancashire born right back General Stevenson began his football career with Hapton in 1893. General’s father must have been in the military as he named two of his sons, General and Admiral! General joined Padiham in 1895 and on 9th December 1897 The Sheffield Evening Telegraph announced that “Mr Tom Watson, on behalf of the Liverpool F.C., has signed on General Stevenson, full back of the Padiham Club, who is considered one of the best backs in the Lancashire Combination, and last season captained the Hapton team when they won the Lancashire Junior Cup. Both the Blackburn Rovers and Burnley clubs were after him, but he decided to go to Liverpool.”

Nearly a year passed before Stevenson made his Football League debut, which came at Nottingham Forest in November 1898. He went on to play 22 games for Liverpool over the final two seasons at the end of the nineteenth century, his most notable appearance being in the FA Cup semi-final second replay with eventual winners Sheffield United, which Liverpool lost 1-0 at The Baseball Ground, Derby at the end of March 1899, before he lost his place in the team to Archie Goldie in December 1899. He then joined Barnsley in the 1900 close season, having a further two seasons at Oakwell where he played 61 times for The Tykes, being ever present in 1900-01, before joining Southern League Wellingborough in 1902.

He joined Millwall Athletic in 1903 and spent the majority of his career at Millwall playing in the Southern League and the Western League, which the Lions won twice, in 1908 and 1909. He also won The London League and the Southern Professional Charity Cup with them in 1904. He became The Lions’ club captain and played 318 games, scoring nine goals for the club. His benefit match against Northampton Town in 1909 attracted a crowd of 10,000. He finally moved back to Lancashire to join Accrington Stanley in 1912 before retiring in 1913.

His son, Arthur, was a rugby league player for Wigan.and as a footballer played for among others Sheffield United and Middlesbrough, Wigan Borough and Bristol City in the 1920’s and early 1930’s.