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Jim Gotts

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Jim Gotts
Personal information
Full name James Atkinson Gotts
Date of birth (1917-01-17)17 January 1917
Place of birth Seaton Delaval, England
Date of death December 1998(1998-12-00) (aged 81)
Place of death Ealing, England
Position(s) Forward
Youth career
East Cramlington Black Watch
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1935 East Cramlington Black Watch
1935–193? Ashington
1946 Brentford 0 (0)
1946 → Colchester United (guest) 0 (0)
1946–1947 Brighton & Hove Albion 2 (0)
Total 2 (0)
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

James Atkinson Gotts (17 January 1917 – December 1998) was an English professional footballer who played in the Football League as an outside right for Brighton & Hove Albion. He played twice for Brentford in the 1945–46 FA Cup, appeared for Colchester United in the Southern League Cup, and played North-Eastern League football for Ashington.

Career

[edit]

James Atkinson Gotts was born on 17 January 1917 in Seaton Delaval, Northumberland.[1] He attended Seaton Delaval School, with whose football team his goalscoring ability first became apparent. He joined East Cramlington Black Watch Juniors, where the 16-year-old "maintained his special forte of marksmanship" with 26 goals from 10 Bedlington and District Junior League matches in the first half of the 1933–34 season.[2] Gotts scored in the first minute of the Bedlington Junior Cup final, which Cramlington won in front of scouts from several Football League clubs, and was reportedly "booked for a further look over".[3]

That interest came to nothing, but he soon moved on to Ashington of the North-Eastern League, and was selected in "his proper position" of centre forward for their first team in late October 1935.[4] He continued for a time in the first team, but appeared increasingly for the reserves in the latter part of 1936 and in 1937,[5] and is known to have undergone knee surgery following a football injury.[6]

Gotts served in the Royal Navy during the Second World War.[7] In January 1946, he resumed his football career, signing professional forms with Brentford.[8] He made four appearances and scored once in the Football League South wartime league,[9] and played twice without scoring in the 1945–46 FA Cup, on 31 January in a 5–0 victory at home to Bristol City in the fourth round and nine days later in a 3–1 win away to Queens Park Rangers.[10] Gotts played once as a guest for Colchester United, on 13 April in a Southern League Cup match in which Colchester won 5–2 away to Guildford City.[11] According to the Essex County Standard, Gotts' "brilliant placing of the ball from long distances often led to shots rights on the target."[12]

In June 1946, ahead of the Football League's post-war resumption, Gotts signed for Third Division South club Brighton & Hove Albion. His debut was delayed because of an injury sustained during pre-season, but he eventually made his first appearance in the Football League on 21 December, playing at outside right – characterised as a "lively winger" and one of seven players used in that position over the season – in a 3–1 defeat away to Torquay United.[13] His second and last, a week later, was in an even heavier defeat away to Port Vale.[14] He was released at the end of the season,[13] and made no more appearances in League football.[14]

Gotts died in Ealing, west London, in December 1998 at the age of 81.[1]

References

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  1. ^ a b "Jim Gotts". Barry Hugman's Footballers. Retrieved 25 October 2021.
  2. ^ "Juniors do well". Blyth News. 21 December 1933. p. 8.
  3. ^ "Cramlington B.W. Juniors win trophy". Morpeth Herald. 13 September 1935. p. 4.
  4. ^ "Teams". Morpeth Herald. 25 October 1935. p. 4.
  5. ^ Blyth News and Morpeth Herald. 1936–1937 passim.
  6. ^ "Jim Gotts footballer continued". Gotts Surname Family History. Ian Gotts. Retrieved 25 October 2021.
  7. ^ "James Atkinson 373 Gotts RN". Gotts Surname Family History. Ian Gotts. Retrieved 25 October 2021.
  8. ^ "Good news for the Villa". News Chronicle. London. 4 January 1946. p. 4.
  9. ^ Rollin, Jack (2005). Soccer at War 1939–45. London: Headline. p. 291. ISBN 978-0-7553-1431-7.
  10. ^ "Profile: Jim Gotts". Brentford FC History. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 24 April 2013.
  11. ^ "Players: Jim Gotts (Midfielder / Forward)". Coludata.co.uk. Retrieved 25 October 2021.
  12. ^ "United's surprise Consolation Cup win". Essex County Standard. April 1946. Retrieved 25 October 2021 – via Coludata.co.uk.
  13. ^ a b Carder, Tim; Harris, Roger (1997). Albion A–Z: A Who's Who of Brighton & Hove Albion F.C. Hove: Goldstone Books. p. 99. ISBN 0-9521337-1-7.
  14. ^ a b "Player search: Gotts, JA (Jim)". English National Football Archive. Retrieved 25 October 2021.
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