Sam Raybould: the first to score 100 League goals for Liverpool & first to finish top scorer in League

 

RAYBOULD, SAM (LIVERPOOL)

Golden Boot winner 

Season: 1902/03

Goals scored: 31 (out of 68); 21 home, 10 away

Percentage: 45.5 per cent

Runner-up: Grenville Morris (Nottingham Forest), 25 goals

Liverpool finished fifth

Sam Raybould was twenty-five years of age when he joined Liverpool

for £250 in January 1900.

Originally an outside right, he was switched to centre forward (in place of ‘Sailor’ Hunter)

and became a highly successful marksman, being the first player to score 100 League goals

for the Merseyside club, a feat he achieved in 170 matches covering a period of five years up

to December 1905.

Top scorer with seventeen goals when the Reds won the League Championship for the

first time in 1901, his most prolific period came two years later, when he set a new club

record of thirty-one in the League. This stood until 1930/31, when the South African Gordon

Hodgson broke it with a haul of thirty-six.

Not very tall, but solid in build, Raybould was always alert and lively in and around the

penalty area and certainly proved a handful for opposing defenders.

He started the 1902/03 season with two goals in a 5-2 home win over Blackburn and

followed up with penalties in 2-1 defeats at Sunderland and Everton before netting a brace,

including another spot-kick, in a hard-earned 4-2 victory over Sheffield Wednesday at

Anfield.

On target twice in a 2-1 win over West Bromwich Albion, he scored a fine second-half

equaliser to earn a point at Bolton (1-1) and then claimed his first Liverpool hat-trick when

Middlesbrough got thumped 5-0 on Merseyside.

Playing exceedingly well off his inside partners, ‘Geordie’ Livingstone and Edgar

Chadwick, Raybould scored his thirteenth goal of the season in a 2-1 win at Newcastle, added

another in a 4-1 triumph over Wolves (when all four Liverpool goals came in the first 11

minutes) and then helped tear Grimsby to shreds with a four-timer in a 9-2 win at Anfield,

one of his goals, cracked in left-footed, almost tore a hole in the back of the net.

After striking the winner at Villa Park (2-1) and slamming in another penalty in the 5-1

home victory over Bolton, Raybould had a lean spell between the end of December and

mid-February when he claimed only one goal, but he was soon back on track and scored in

each of the next five League games, including two against Newcastle (3-0) and a second-half

equaliser against Sunderland (1-1). He also passed George Allan’s existing club record of

twenty-five League goals in a season, set in 1895/96.

In the last month of the campaign, Raybould – who was lucky to avoid illness and injury

– scored four more goals, two to see off Bury, and in the end Liverpool took fifth place in

the Division, only four points behind champions Sheffield Wednesday. A poor run between

28 March and 18 April, when only one win was recorded in six games, ruined Liverpool’s

chances of winning the title.

A huge favourite with the Anfield fans, Raybould was born in Staveley, Derbyshire in

January 1875 and played for a number of local sides before joining Derby County in 1894.

After scoring twice in five games for the Rams, he surprisingly returned to non-

League football with Ilkeston. Then, following further spells with Poolsbrook United

and Ilkeston Town and a few outings for Bolsover Colliery, he joined New Brighton

Tower in 1899.

After netting ten times in thirteen League games, Raybould was signed by manager

Tom Watson in January 1900. After his fine season in 1902/03, Raybould and his Anfield

teammate Archie Glover were given a seven-month ban from football for agreeing in the

summer of 1903 to ‘financial inducements’ to sign for Southern League Portsmouth. They

were also given a lifetime ban on ever signing for Pompey.

Raybould’s absence proved significant as Liverpool’s form slumped dramatically as they

battled against relegation. The ban was lifted on 31 December 1903 and he was selected for

the first team virtually straightaway, but despite his four goals towards the end of the season,

he couldn’t prevent the dreaded drop into the Second Division.

Raybould scored 127 goals in 224 appearances for Liverpool, and on leaving Anfield in

1907 he moved to Sunderland, and after a season there finished his first-class career with

Woolwich Arsenal. In 1909, he joined non-League Chesterfield and subsequently played for

Sutton Town and Barlborough United before retiring in May 1915.

Raybould never gained international recognition, but he did represent the Football League

against the Scottish League on three occasions. He died in Chesterfield in 1949.