Arthur’s revenge was a strike in a snowstorm
ARTHUR Rowley might have been hard pushed to say which of his 434 league goals was the best.
When it came to the one which gave him most satisfaction he may have had less trouble – it was surely at the Hawthorns, Saturday, March 5, 1949.
In a match played in a snowstorm and on a snowcovered pitch Wolverhampton-born Arthur scored the winning goal for Fulham in the last minute of a game between sides vying for promotion.
It was a dramatic winner as he ploughed through the snow and beat Albion defenders Jack Vernon and Len Millard, helped by the ball halting in the snow at one point, before he faced goalkeeper Jim Sanders.
Sanders stopped
Arthur’s shot but could not hang on to the icy ball and Arthur made no mistake with his second chance. A goal down at half-time, Fulham had won 2-1
Forward line
The back story to the goal was what gave Arthur such satisfaction. When the sides met at Craven Cottage earlier in the season and Albion won 2-1, Arthur was in the Baggies forward line. That was in October and in early December Arthur was told he was being transferred to Fulham
Albion were in search of a left-winger having used six that season by the time they made a move for Ernie Shepherd from Fulham in return for
Arthur – no fee, a straight swap. Jack Smith, a former Wolves coach and Albion’s first official manager, obviously thought Arthur was surplus to requirements at the Hawthorns.
So Arthur’s game at Craven Cottage was his last for the Baggies first team – he was deputising for Dave Walsh – and the win put Albion second to Second Division leaders Tottenham on goal average, both with 16 points from 12 games. Fulham were then 16th on 11 points.
It was a different story when it came to that return game in March. Billy Elliott had given Albion a fortunate tenthminute lead when his shot slipped through goalkeeper Doug Flack’s hands. Half-back Len Quested shot through a ruck of players to equalise on 61 minutes.
Then came Arthur’s winner and the two points lifted the Londoners above the Baggies into second place behind Southampton, who were then five points clear. Teams:
Albion: Sanders; Pemberton, Millard; Barlow, Vernon, Hood; Elliott, Williams, Walsh, Haines, Kinsell.
Fulham: Flack; Freeman, Bacuzzi; Quested, Taylor, Beasley; Stevens, Thomas, Rowley, Jezzard, Mcdonald.
When it came to the swap deal, Fulham definitely got the better of the bargain. Shepherd played only four games for Albion before being sold to Hull while Arthur had a crucial role in making Fulham Second Division champions.
Snapped up
In 22 games for the Londoners that season Arthur hit 19 goals, including eight in the last seven games when six wins and a draw saw Fulham home. Albion also staged a big finish and clinched promotion ahead of Southampton, who had faded dramatically.
Arthur’s more famous brother Jack had been on Wolves’ books but manager Major Frank Buckley sold him to Bournemouth. Manchester United then snapped him up and in time he would play for England as well as being in the United side who won the FA cup in 1948 and the First Division title in 1952.
Brother
Arthur, a former pupil of St Peter’s Collegiate School in Wolverhampton, joined his brother at United as an amateur. He became the youngest player in a United first team game when he played against Liverpool in the wartime North Regional League at Anfield in April, 1941. He was 15 years and five days old.
Arthur played outsideleft that day and Jack centre-forward. Liverpool, who won 2-1, had Bob Paisley on the left wing.
Jack scored United’s goal.
Arthur also had a handful of wartime appearances for Wolves, scoring three goals in successive games against Crewe in February 1943, one in a 3-0 away win and two in a 6-1 win at Molineux a week later.
Wolves did not sign Arthur as a pro. Instead he signed for Albion in March 1944 when the Birmingham Gazette described him as a “17-year-old well-built left-winger”. He scored 10 wartime and four league goals for Albion and 27 at Fulham who sold him to
Leicester City in 1950. Eight seasons with Leicester brought 281 league goals and he set a club record of 38 in 1951-2 and then 39 the following season.
Feats
His goalscoring feats did not bring him a cap but he played for England B in a 4-1 win over Switzerland B at Southampton in 1956. He was a scorer that night while Manchester U nited legend Tommy Taylor grabbed a hattrick. In the same year he played for the Football
League in a 3-2 win over the Irish League at Newcastle.
After Leicester came Shrewsbury by which time Arthur was in his early thirties. As player-manager he took the Salopians from the Fourth Division to the Third and scored another 152 goals, including a club record 38 in 1958-9.
All of which helped make Arthur the highest league goalscorer in the history of English football – so many goals but none sweeter than that epic strike in the Hawthorns snow.