Tommy Lucas

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Thomas 'Tommy' Lucas (born 20th September 1895 died 11th December 1953) was an England international who played for Liverpool in the 20th Century between World War I and World War ll.

[edit] Life and playing career

Born in St Helens, Merseyside, England, Tommy played for Sherdley Villa, Sutton Commercial, Heywood United, Peasley Cross and Ecess Borough before joining Liverpool in 1916. Due to the Great War Lucas was unable to make his League debut until 13th September 1919, it came at Anfield in a 2-1 Division 1 victory over Aston Villa, his first goal for the club didn't come for another 2 years, it was a 60th minute penalty in the 4-0 home win over Preston.

Lucas was selected 16 times and used in both full-back berth's during the 1919/20, however, competition was very strong for both full-back slots but Lucas held one of the spots during the first of the back-to-back championship seasons as he managed 27 appearances. The following season was a different story, Lucas struggled to keep his place in the side and was only selected once, obviously, not enough to earn him a second medal.

A lot of players would have not been able to cope with such a disappointment but such was Tommy's character he didn't let it get him down and he went on to play on a regular basis over the next 5 campaign's notching up over 200 starts.

1928/29 was much like 1922/23 with Lucas making only an handful of appearances, Lucas once again showed that strong character and regained his place the following season, not only that he was an ever present as well. Age was now catching up with Tommy and in 1932 aged 37 he played his final game in the Red of Liverpool, it came at Anfield in a 3-2 defeat to Arsenal.

Lucas left for Clapton United in July 1933 after appearing 341 times for the Reds and scoring 3 goals.

Tommy was selected to play for England 3 times the first coming in a British Championship match against Ireland at Windsor Park, Belfast, the game finished 1-1.

Tommy died on the 11th December 1953 aged just 58.