Fred Pickering
| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Frederick Pickering | ||
| Date of birth | 19 January 1941 | ||
| Place of birth | Blackburn, England | ||
| Playing position | Forward (retired) | ||
| Senior career* | |||
| Years | Team | Apps† | (Gls)† |
| 1959–1963 | Blackburn Rovers | 123 | (59) |
| 1963–1967 | Everton | 97 | (56) |
| 1967–1969 | Birmingham | 74 | (27) |
| 1969–1971 | Blackpool | 49 | (24) |
| 1971–1972 | Blackburn Rovers | 11 | (2) |
| 1972 | Brighton & Hove Albion | 0 | (0) |
| Total | 354 | (168) | |
| National team | |||
| 1964 | England | 3 | (5) |
|
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. | |||
Frederick "Fred" Pickering (born 19 January 1941 in Blackburn, Lancashire) is an English former professional footballer. He played as a forward.
Career
Domestic career
Pickering began his career with his hometown club, Blackburn Rovers, in 1959, signing professional forms on his 17th birthday.[1] In four years at Ewood Park, he made 123 league appearances and scored 59 goals. Three of these were in a match at Everton in November 1963.
In March 1964, Pickering signed for Everton. He went on to make 97 league appearances and score 56 goals in his four years on Merseyside though was surprisingly left out of the 1966 FA Cup Final side in favour of little-known Cornishman Mike Trebilcock, who vindicated his selection by scoring twice in Everton's 3-2 win over Sheffield Wednesday.
In 1967, Pickering joined Birmingham City. He spent two years in the Midlands, making 74 league appearances and netting 27 goals.
In June 1969, Blackpool, then in Division Two and under the managership of Les Shannon, came in for Pickering's services. He made his debut for the Seasiders in the opening game of the 1969–70 league campaign, a 2–1 victory over Portsmouth at Bloomfield Road on 9 August 1969. He partnered Alan Suddick in the forward line, as he did for the majority of the season. He scored his first goal for the club in the next game, a 3–1 league defeat at Norwich City on 16 August.
On 13 April 1970, in the penultimate league game of the season, Pickering scored a hat-trick in a 3–0 victory at arch-rivals Preston North End in the West Lancashire derby. The result sealed Blackpool's promotion to Division One while also putting another nail in Preston's coffin: the Lilywhites were relegated to Division Three for the first time in their history shortly thereafter.
In all, Pickering scored eighteen goals in his first season with Blackpool and finished as the club's top scorer.
The following season, 1970–71, Pickering scored seven goals in fourteen starts for Blackpool, but it wasn't enough to save the club from relegation back to Division Two at the end of the season. Pickering played his final game for the club on 20 February 1971, a single-goal defeat at Derby County. New manager Bob Stokoe, who succeeded Les Shannon around Christmastime, allowed Pickering to return to Blackburn Rovers; however, after a disagreement with Rovers manager Ken Furphy, he left for Brighton, where he finished his career.
International career
Pickering won three caps and scored five goals for England in 1964 during his Everton career. He made his international debut on 27 May 1964, against the USA, and scored a hat-trick in a 10–0 victory for Alf Ramsey's team.[2]
References
- Specific
- General
- Pickering's profile at Neil Brown's statistics site
- Profile at EnglandStats.com
- Calley, Roy (1992). Blackpool: A Complete Record 1887-1992. Breedon Books Sport. ISBN 1-873626-07-X.