GOLDEN BOOT 1925 - FRANK ROBERTS OF MANCHESTER CITY

 

ROBERTS, FRANK (MANCHESTER CITY)

Season: 1924/25

Goals scored: 31 (out of 76); 19 home, 12 away

Percentage: 41 per cent

Runner-up: David Jack (Bolton Wanderers), 26 goals

Manchester City finished tenth

When Frank Roberts insisted on becoming a pub landlord in October 1922, he was placed on

the transfer list by Bolton Wanderers for breaking club rules. It was Manchester City who

acted quickly to secure his services, paying a fee of £3,400 for a player who had notched 80

goals in 168 Trotters appearances either side of the First World War, in which he served in

the North Lancashire Regiment.

Roberts opened his City account at Hyde Road in his fifth match, as his former colleagues

were beaten 2-0. Not that Bolton lost out too much on his departure, as come the season’s

end they’d picked up the FA Cup after beating West Ham in the first Wembley final. Initially

Roberts failed to hit the net with the same regularity as before, and he started the 1924/25

season with just twenty-four League goals in seventy-three matches for a City side now

resident at Maine Road.

Two opening day goals in a 2-0 win at Bury were quickly followed by further goals

in the matches against Nottingham Forest and Liverpool respectively. At Anfield, the

home side, two up early on, were pegged back when Roberts scored two in 5 minutes,

knocking home a Spud Murphy cross for the first before dribbling around two Liverpool

defenders to beat Elisha Scott in a game the Merseysiders won with two goals in the

final 3 minutes.

In the sixth game, it was again a double as Newcastle United were beaten 3-1 at Maine

Road. Roberts made it ten goals in seven games in the following weekend’s game at Sheffield

United, which was won 5-0. On 46 minutes he headed home Murphy’s cross to make it

2-0, and it was the same combination ten minutes later that produced the away side’s third,

Roberts beating Robinson easily. Six minutes later, after Robinson fumbled a simple cross, he

had the third hat-trick of his career after previously scoring two for Bolton.

Continuing his fine form, Roberts again scored a double the following weekend in a

3-1 home win against West Ham. Playing at inside forward, he might have even have had

the fourth hat-trick of his career, only to find, like the other City forwards, the West Ham

‘keeper Tommy Hampson in brilliant form.

In early November, he rescued a point for his side in the home match against Everton,

showing the instincts of a typical goal-poacher by being the first to react when Hunter Hart

slipped and leaving debutant ‘keeper Bob Jones with no chance after 84 minutes.

It was, though, the home match in January 1925 against the Toffees’ neighbours Liverpool

that saw Roberts at his peak. Moved to centre forward, with Tommy Johnson switched to

inside right, he scored four times. Max Woosnam at centre half had opened the scoring

before Roberts headed home a George Hicks cross for the second and made it 3-0 before

half time with a low shot. His hat-trick saw him sweep beyond the Liverpool backs to beat

Scott to the great cheers of the crowd, which had hardly died down before he made it 5-0 by

heading home another George Hicks cross.

It was the culmination of a marvellous few weeks for the Sandbach man, who’d started

his professional career at his local club, Crewe Alexandra. Only weeks earlier he’d made his

England debut, aged almost thirty-two, in a 4-0 defeat of Belgium. Although he failed to

score, that wasn’t the case when he got his second chance. Playing against Wales in the Home

Championships, he scored twice in a 2-1 victory at Swansea. Roberts was to make a further

two final appearances for his country before the end of the season, suffering a 2-0 defeat in

Scotland and enjoying a 3-2 success in Paris.

Arguably Roberts’s finest effort of a very fine season came in a 1-1 draw at Leeds Road

against the reigning champions, Huddersfield Town. Picking up the ball just inside the

Terriers’ half, Roberts made his way round Roy Goodall and George Shaw before sending a

low, 20-yard drive beyond Billy Mercer into the far corner of the net.

Two days later, Roberts smashed home two more goals in a 2-1 home success against

Sheffield United. Then, he scored another double as Notts County were beaten 2-1 at Maine

Road. He now had thirty League goals and there were still nine League matches to play. In

fact, Roberts was to manage just one more goal and in a disappointing end to the season,

failed to score in the last six games. Yet with thirty-one goals, no one threatened his place

at the top of the scorers’ charts with former teammate David Jack back in second place with

five goals fewer.

Jack had a measure of revenge the following season when City and Wanderers clashed

at Wembley in the cup final, scoring the only goal. En route to the final, City had crushed

Crystal Palace 11-4, with Roberts hitting five goals. Roberts’s haul was part of nine he

scored in the Cup that season, and although he also scored twenty-one League goals, and

City eighty-nine in all, it was not enough to stop his side finishing twenty-first and being

relegated.

He continued to score goals in Division Two, hitting thirty-four in the next two seasons

as City returned to the top flight as champions at the end of the 1927/28 season. Now aged

thirty-five, he made just fourteen appearances in the following campaign, hitting his final

goal for City in a 5-1 thrashing at Villa Park in November. Without a contract at the end of

the season, he moved to play for Manchester Central.

He left having scored 130 goals for Manchester City in 237 senior games, of which 116

came in 215 League appearances. He died in May 1961.