Harry Thickett

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Henry (Harry) Thickett (born 1872, Hexthorpe, Doncaster) was a professional footballer who won the 1902 FA Cup final with Sheffield United and made two appearances for England in 1899. He was also in the United team which suffered arguably the biggest F A cup upset of the nineteenth century when losing to Burslem Port Vale in 1898.^[1] He also achieved some success as a football manager with Bristol City.

He played for Bristol City in the 1904-05 season when the club was managed by Sam Hollis. Thickett took over as manager in the summer of 1905 and steered the club to English football’s top flight at the first attempt. The most crucial decision he made was probably the re-signing of Billy Wedlock, who had left the club in 1901. In securing promotion from the English second division as champions in 1906, Bristol City won 14 league matches in a row (equalling a record set by Manchester United the previous year and only matched since by Preston North End and Arsenal).

Bristol City continued to progress under Thickett’s direction. The club ended the 1906-1907 season as runners-up in the first division and Thickett led them to their one and only FA Cup Final appearance against Manchester United in 1909 (a game won 1-0 by Manchester United.)

City then started to slide and Thickett’s tenure as manager came to an end following a 1-0 defeat away to Notts County in October 1910. Thickett’s last game in charge was halted temporarily by the appearance of an aeroplane which caused much excitement amongst the fans. Reverend J W Marsh, the referee, was so distracted by the appearance of the plane (flown by pioneer aviator Paul de Lesseps) that he held-up play for a while and then ended up recalling the players to the field of play (after he had blown the final whistle) because he had forgotten to add the four minutes or so lost because of the hold-up.

Relegated at the end of the 1910-11 season, City didn’t play top-flight football again until 1976.

It is also reported that when Thickett played for Sheffield United in the 1899 FA Cup Final (in which United beat Derby County 4-1), he wore 50 yards of bandages to protect two broken ribs.

[edit] Honours

Sheffield United

• Football League Division One
  • Championship: 1897-98
  • Runner-up: 1896-97 and 1899-00

• FA Cup
  • Winner: 1899, 1902
  • Finalist: 1901

[edit] References

• Harry Thickett management career stats at Soccerbase
• Harry Thickett England profile at Englandstats

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