Willie Haines

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Willie Haines
Personal information
Full name Wyndham William Pretoria Haines
Date of birth (1900-07-14)14 July 1900
Place of birth Warminster, England
Date of death 5 November 1974(1974-11-05) (aged 74)
Place of death Frome, Somerset, England
Height 5 ft 7 in (1.70 m)[1]
Position(s)
Centre-forward
Youth career
Warminster Town
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1920-1922 Frome Town 62 (76[2])
1922–1928 Portsmouth 164 (119)
1928–1932 Southampton 70 (47)
1932–1937 Weymouth 166 (225)
1937 Frome Town 4 (3[2])
Total 466 (470)
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Wyndham William Pretoria Haines (14 July 1900 – 5 November 1974)

centre-forward for south coast rivals, Portsmouth and then Southampton
in the 1920s and 1930s.

Club career

Haines was born at Warminster Common in Wiltshire and went to the local school at Sambourne where he was a member of the school football team. As a youth he played for Warminster Town before joining Frome Town in the Western League, from where he joined Portsmouth (then playing in the Football League Third Division South) in December 1922.[1]

Portsmouth

In

Alf Strange and became the first-choice centre-forward, scoring 28 goals from 30 league appearances, making him the division's top scorer as they won the Football League Third Division South championship.[3]

Haines was nicknamed "Farmers Boy"[4] and became something of a legend at Fratton Park, where the Pompey fans would often voice their approval of his forward play with a rendition of the popular refrain "To be a farmer's boy".[5] As a centre-forward he had a style of his own and, rather than dashing around the field, he preferred to play at a more leisurely pace. He seldom tried to strike the ball hard, but preferred to place it with "tantalising precision".[5]

In Portsmouth's first season in

goal average, by a margin of just 0.006. Haines's goal tally included a hat-trick scored in a 9–1 victory over Notts County on 9 April 1927 – this remains Portsmouth's record margin of victory.[6] Going into the final match of the season, Portsmouth and Manchester City were on the same number of points with near identical goal averages. The match between Manchester City and Bradford City had started before Portsmouth's match against Preston North End and finished 8–0. At this time, Portsmouth were also winning 4–1 but needed to score one more goal to take the runners-up spot. Haines managed to score the vital goal in the final minutes of the game, thus sending Portsmouth up by the narrowest of margins.[4]

For Portsmouth's first season in the top flight, Haines shared the goal-scoring with newly recruited

Jack Smith, both scoring 11 goals, with fellow forwards David Watson and Welsh international Fred Cook both contributing ten, as they narrowly avoided relegation, finishing in 20th place in the table. By the end of the season, Haines was out of favour with new manager Jack Tinn who was building a team for the future with Jack Weddle taking over the position of centre-forward.[4]

In May 1928, Haines moved up the

Solent to join local rivals Southampton. In his six seasons at Fratton Park, Haines scored 129 goals from 179 appearances in all competitions.[7]

Southampton

At Southampton, Haines joined a club which had been struggling financially and on the pitch. He linked up with his former Portsmouth colleague,

the Football League in 1920. Haines' 16 goals were a major factor in the Saints finishing fourth in the Second Division table.[8]

Haines was a "well-built country boy" who soon became as popular at The Dell as he had been at Fratton Park. Despite his build and power, he would often take penalties without a run-up.[9]

In the following season, Haines was injured in September and lost his place at centre-forward to Dick Rowley before returning to the side in February 1930. He marked his return by scoring five goals in the first three matches back and ended the season with 15 goals from 19 appearances. By now, manager Arthur Chadwick was forced to sell players to improve the club's finances, and Rowley had been sold to Tottenham Hotspur in February. At the time of his departure, Rowley had scored 25 goals from 25 league appearances and with him went Saints' last hopes of promotion, and they finished seventh in the table.[10]

Haines missed the first half of the

top scorer for the club with 15 goals from 21 appearances.[11]

In his final season at The Dell, Haines was plagued by injuries and was only able to make three appearances, with various players including Arthur Haddleton and Johnny McIlwaine unsuccessfully trying to replace him at centre-forward before the emergence of Ted Drake from the reserves.[12]

Haines retired in the summer of 1932, having scored a creditable 47 goals from 71 first-team appearances for the Saints.[7]

Weymouth

In September 1932, he returned to the Western League with Weymouth, for whom he scored 275 goals in 205 appearances.[5] On 16 October 1934, Haines scored his 100th and 101st goals for Weymouth as they beat Newport 2–1, in a replayed FA Cup Tie.[13]

Life after football

In 1935, Haines had become the landlord of the Vine Inn, Frome, Somerset which he ran until 1949. He later moved into the dry cleaning business.[5]

In 1960, he became the president of the Portsmouth Supporters Club.[7]

Career statistics

Appearances and goals by club, season, and competition. Only official games are included in this table.[2][14][15][16][17]
Club Season League FA Cup Other Total
Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals
Frome 1919–20 13+ 14+ 0 0 0 0 13+ 14+
1920–21 30+ 29+ 2 1 0 0 32+ 30+
1921–22 6+ 8+ 0 0 1 0 7+ 8+
1922–23 13+ 25+ 0 0 0 0 13+ 25+
Total 62+ 76+ 2 1 1 0 65+ 77+
Portsmouth 1922–23 6 3 0 0 0 0 6 3
1923–24 30 28 4 4 0 0 34 32
1924–25 33 17 4 2 0 0 37 19
1925-26 27 20 3 1 0 0 30 21
1926–27 42 40 3 3 0 0 45 43
1927–28 26 11 1 0 0 0 27 11
Total 164 119 15 10 0 0 179 129
Southampton 1928–29 27 16 1 0 0 0 28 16
1929–30 19 15 0 0 0 0 19 15
1930–31 21 15 0 0 0 0 21 15
1931–32 3 1 0 0 0 0 3 1
Total 70 47 1 0 0 0 71 47
Weymouth 1932–33 34 38 1 1 3 1 38 40
1933–34 34 39 2 3 2 1 38 43
1934–35 29 41 6 5 4 4 39 50
1935–36 35 53 2 1 6 7 43 61
1936–37 34 54 1 0 5 7 40 61
Total 166 225 12 9 20 20 198 254
Frome 1937–38 4 3 0 0 0 0 4 3
Total 466 470 37 20 21 20 524 510

Honours

Portsmouth

References

  1. ^
    ISBN 978-0-9926-8640-6
    .
  2. ^ a b c Somerset Standard
  3. Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation
    . Retrieved 31 October 2010.
  4. ^ a b c "Portsmouth F.C.'s history – From The Beginning to 1970". portsmouthfchistory. Retrieved 11 January 2009.
  5. ^
    ISBN 0-9514862-3-3
    .
  6. ^ "Pompey v Notts County, 1927". portsmouth.co.uk. 30 March 2006. Retrieved 11 January 2009.
  7. ^
    ISBN 0-9534474-5-6
    .
  8. ISBN 0-907969-22-4
    .
  9. ^ Saints – A complete record. p. 279.
  10. ^ Saints – A complete record. pp. 82–83.
  11. ^ Saints – A complete record. pp. 84–85.
  12. ^ Saints – A complete record. pp. 86–87.
  13. ^ "Western Gazette 19 Oct 1934, page 4". Newspapers.com.
  14. ^ The Wells Journal
  15. ^ Western Gazette
  16. ^ Central Somerset Gazette
  17. ^ "Willie Haines".
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