Looking Back At: John Worsdale

John Worsdale

Date of birth: 29.10.48, Born: Stoke-on-Trent, Height: 5ft 7in

Position: Right-wing, City appearances: League: 55(12), 9 goals, FA Cup: (1), League Cup: 2(1), Total: 57(14), 9 goals

Michael John Worsdale, usually known by his middle name, captained both the Stoke and Staffordshire Schools sides and was a member of a Stoke Boys side that beat Bristol over two legs to win the English Schools Trophy. He had a trial for England Schools before joining his local First Division club Stoke City as an apprentice. Turning professional just after his 17th birthday he was noted as a dynamic player in Stoke’s reserve side. Playing alongside Worsdale in the reserves at that time, later England full-back Mike Pejic recalled that his teammates called him Billy Whizz after a character in the Beano comic due to his sprints and running up hills in training.

Pejic described Worsdale as a gifted winger who could run and cross with pace, but he was unable to break into Stoke’s first team until September 1968, just before his 20th birthday, making his debut in a 1-0 defeat at Arsenal. With Irish international Terry Conroy holding down the right-wing position John Worsdale featured in just three more games for Stoke, all in the remainder of the 1968/69 season, before being given a free transfer two years later.

Former Manchester United and Scotland star David Herd had been appointed manager of Lincoln City at the beginning of March in 1971 after having wound down his Football League career with Stoke the previous summer. He now snapped up Worsdale almost immediately after the end of the season with City having been without a right-winger since the departure of veteran Gordon Hughes three months earlier.

Worsdale went straight into the side for the first game of the 1971/72 season which saw a 2-0 home win against Colchester United. He retained his place for a League Cup win at Scunthorpe the following midweek but then suffered an injury which kept him out of action until the end of September. Only able to manage a handful of games in the reserves he was finally fit to return to first-team action, coming off the bench in a 2-0 home defeat to Bury in the first round of the FA Cup. He then started the next game in place of the unfit Allan Gilliver in a 3-3 draw at Darlington and retained his place for a further four games up the end of the year. Herd then indulged in a bit of transfer wheeling and dealing to make changes to the squad which enabled a reversion to the successful 4-3-3 formation employed earlier in the season with three out-and-out strikers. The 20-year-old John Ward then emerged as a genuine contender for one of the front three places with two goals against visiting Brentford. However, after one further game Ward’s place had to be taken by Worsdale playing as a striker alongside Percy Freeman and Dixie McNeil as he embarked on what was to be his longest ever run in the side. He notched his first goal for the club in the first of these games, a 2-0 win over Doncaster at Sincil Bank and was on the mark again two games later in an eventful 4-4 draw at Peterborough.

Probably Worsdale’s best ever game for City came in the next away match at Northampton when he not only gave the Imps an early lead but scored a last-minute winner, earning himself a minor place in City’s history as the only player to score more than one goal at Northampton’s old County Ground.

The win at Northampton had moved City up to third place in the league table and they stayed there after a 2-1 home win over Southport, Worsdale scoring again to make it four goals in four games for him.

A 1-0 home win over promotion rivals Scunthorpe put City into second place but a 2-1 defeat at Chester was the second away defeat in a row and things started to slip. Worsdale was left out for the next game as Herd deployed a more defensive formation which was successful with a 1-0 at Reading, but he was back for the next three games which produced home and away goalless draws and another away defeat as City slipped out of the promotion places. Worsdale then found himself on the subs’ bench for the visit of Barrow as Ward returned and scored in a 3-2 win. He came off the bench to no avail in the next match as a 1-0 home defeat to Darlington effectively put paid to City’s promotion hopes and was then out of the side altogether for the remaining four games of the season.

John Worsdale appeared in 21 league games during the season including once as substitute, scoring five goals. He also started one League Cup game and came off the bench in City’s solitary FA Cup game.

As the highest scoring side in the division not to have won promotion the Imps qualified to take part in the Watney Cup competition prior to the start of the 1972/73 league season and Worsdale took his place alongside Percy Freeman and Dixie McNeil as one of the front three that had seen most success the previous season. Although losing 1-0 to Burnley at Sincil Bank the trio were retained for the opening league game, but optimism for the new season was dashed straight away in a lacklustre performance that saw a 2-1 home defeat by Hartlepool. An immediate League Cup exit by 3-1 away to Mansfield then saw Worsdale lose his place to close-season signing Brendan Bradley. He came off the bench in another disappointing home defeat to Aldershot before the Imps’ form began to take an upturn following the signing of Terry Cooper initially to add some strength in midfield. Worsdale, however, then became confined to the subs’ bench, coming off it to make another appearance in a 1-1 draw at Crewe. He was then out of the first team picture for a time although his presence in the squad did allow John Ward to go on loan to Workington.

Worsdale returned to the bench as an unused substitute for a 1-0 home win over Gillingham which turned out to be the last win achieved under the management of David Herd as results started to deteriorate again. It seems that the player was then close to joining Colchester United but the move was vetoed by the directors. He then suffered a groin injury in a reserve match at the beginning of November and by the time of his return Herd had been replaced as manager by player-coach Graham Taylor. His return to fitness came just in time with Percy Freeman having suffered an injury. Worsdale took the ‘big fella’s place at Doncaster on Boxing Day, marking his return with City’s equaliser in a 1-1 draw. He retained his place for three further drawn games, two of them at home, followed by a defeat at Hereford before he joined City’s lengthening injury list causing him to miss another draw at Northampton as Graham Taylor still searched for his first win as manager. Fit to return and make an appearance off the bench in yet another home draw with Bury, Worsdale then returned to the starting line-up for a run of eight games as City finally achieved a win for Taylor, and as the young manager began to put his own side together slowly began to climb the table. Injury then kept the winger out of the side for a couple of games before he returned with an appearance off the bench in a 2-1 win over Bradford City. Not in the squad for the next game he then started in the last four of the season, scoring City’s last goal of the season, and his second, in the 1-1 draw with Workington which wound up the season.

In a slight increase on his first season Worsdale appeared in 22 league games including four times as substitute, scoring two goals. He also started in one League Cup game

Graham Taylor continued his rebuilding of the playing squad during the summer of 1973 but retained the services of John Worsdale as the only right winger on the books. He came off the bench in the season-opener, a 1-0 win over Scunthorpe at Sincil Bank, and again the following midweek when the Imps exited the League Cup at Rotherham. Worsdale then came into the starting line-up as a replacement for injured striker Dixie McNeil for the next game at Torquay. Although impressing in a 2-1 defeat he was then kept out of the squad through injury himself for several games, returning in early October to come off the bench in place of injured new signing Peter Graham to play an hour in a 3-2 home win over Brentford. Left out for a goalless draw at Reading he then returned to the side on the right wing for a 2-1 win over Darlington at Sincil Bank as Taylor employed the 4-4-2 formation that was to serve him so well in the coming years. Away defeats and wins were followed by a 3-0 home win over Newport which put City into fifth place but after a 3-0 defeat at Swansea in the next match Worsdale lost his place to the fit-again Graham.

Out of the squad for the next five games it was something of a surprise that when Dave Smith had to miss the visit of Chester through injury it was youngster Ian Musson who came into the side. However, Worsdale was at least back in the 12 and appeared off the bench in a 2-2 draw. With Alan Harding then returning from injury to take Smith’s place in the Boxing Day visit to Mansfield Worsdale again made another appearance off the bench in a 4-3 defeat. He repeated this for a third time in a 2-2 draw at Stockport replacing John Ward in attack for the second game in a row. He now came into the starting line-up in place of the out-of-form Ward and scored the opening goal in City’s 3-0 New Year’s Day win over Torquay United. He retained his place for the next game which saw a 4-1 defeat at championship-chasing Colchester, but it was an ankle injury sustained in training which kept him out of the game after that. However, he was back for a 1-1 draw at Scunthorpe which put City up to fourth and retained his place for another three games, starring in a Sunday game at Sincil Bank against Gillingham which however brought a 3-2 defeat and started City’s slide out of the promotion places.

It was around this time that John Worsdale was featured in a series of brief articles in the Lincolnshire Chronicle about the life of City’s players away from football. It was revealed that he was a keen watcher of tennis and liked gardening at the home he shared with his wife Angela on the Daleview Estate at North Hykeham just four doors away from Dixie McNeil.

 

Back on the field, the final game in his run of appearances came in a 4-0 defeat at Bradford City and he was then out of the side with the return to fitness of Peter Graham after an absence of five games. Out of favour for the next four games which produced three defeats and a draw for City, Worsdale then replaced Graham in the side for a 3-0 win at Darlington with the expensive striker having recently drawn criticism from supporters for his lack of goals. After two further games injury struck again but youngster Ian Musson was then preferred for the 4-3 home win over Bury before Worsdale returned to make an appearance off the bench in a 1-0 win at Exeter. He was named as substitute again for the next two matches, appearing against Doncaster before starting in City’s last home match of the season against Northampton. With having nothing to play for, City gave fringe players some game time in the last few matches of the season and after Musson had replaced Worsdale for an away defeat at Gillingham both were in the side at Crewe as City ended the season in mid-table with a 2-1 defeat.

Worsdale’s total of 24 league appearances was actually the most he made in a season for City but seven of these came as a substitute. He also made one substitute appearance in the League Cup. The second of the two goals he scored came in the last day defeat at Crewe and meant he had the minor distinction of scoring City’s last goal of the season for two years in a row.

It was fairly clear that during the season just ended John Worsdale had not really been more than a useful squad player and in fact had rarely been a first choice in any of his three seasons with the club. It was no real surprise then that he was released during the summer to be replaced in his position by an undeniable upgrade in former Welsh international Dick Krzywicki. Along with the long-serving John Kennedy and George Peden he became one of three players to join Midland League runners-up Worksop Town who had just been elected to the Northern Premier League, which in those days was one step below the Football League.

After leaving full-time football John Worsdale worked at North Kesteven Sports Centre, then as a sales representative as he completed two mid-table seasons with Worksop. This was followed with a season playing for Gainsborough Trinity also in the Northern Premier League before he moved on for a final season with Skegness Town in the Midland League. Retiring from football in 1978 at the age of 29 he returned to his native Potteries area to run a Post Office and then a newsagents in Newcastle-under-Lyme, and would often go and watch his first club Stoke City play. He died after a short battle with cancer in September 2017 at the age of just 68.

John Worsdale’s Football League record totalled 71 appearances with 9 goals scored.

 Thanks to Gary Parle for providing some of the information used in this article