Chadwick: Wilfred (Wilf)

1925-1926 (Player Details)

Inside Forward

Born: Bury: 07-11-1900

Debut v Sheffield United (a): 21-11-1925

5’10” 11st 7lb (1926)

He was initially rejected by Bury and drifted into Non-League football with Nelson in November 1920. He then went on to Rossendale before Everton signed him for £350 and forced his way into the first team after averaging almost two goals per game with the reserve team. He carried on this reputation when he made his debut on 4th March 1922 and he scored both goals in a 2-0 win over Bradford City. The Monday's ECHO carried the headline: "Chadwick's Usual" with the following words: "Two goals, one with head and one with foot, helped Everton's cause and added to Bradford's discomforture. Chadwick was the scorer in each instance. Thus the ex-Rossendale player's record of two goals per match is unimpaired." The report added later: "Everton have found another good centre forward in Chadwick, who can justly be called an opportunist, but he does not finish at that, for his passes to the wings were always accurate and well conceived, while he placed himself well when there was a likelihood of a centre coming his way." Opinions were divided on Chadwick's contribution, though. The ECHO's sister paper, The Daily Post, wasn't quite so complimentary "Chadwick showed promise in the centre position though he is distinctly on the slow side," wrote their correspondent. "He scored twice but otherwise did little of note." That seemed an overly harsh assessment of a player who scored again the following week to finish his first season in senior football with three goals in four appearances. The following season confirmed his promise as an opportunistic goalgetter. He added a further thirteen goals in twenty-seven appearances, but usually found himself overshadowed in a forward line which contained the brilliant Bobby Irvine, the flamboyant Jack Cock and the dazzling wing twins Sam Chedgzoy and Alec Troup. Unfazed, Chadwick continued to amass a healthy total of goals and in 1923-24, when Everton outscored eventual champions Huddersfield and collected more League points than any other campaign previously, he was the division's top scorer. He registered twenty-eight League goals, and another couple in the FA Cup, as Everton finished a respectable seventh. But it was the calm before the storm. In 1924-25, despite pre-season preparations which included games in Barcelona (one won 2-1, one lost 2-1), Everton slumped to the bottom of table and narrowly escaped relegation. Chadwick was injured for much of the second half of the campaign and scored only six goals. It was a dramatic fall from grace after his previous season's achievements, and 1925-26 was even worse. Chadwick played alongside a young, emerging centre forward called Dixie Dean just once at the end of 1924-25. Dean scored, Chadwick didn't, and Wilf made just two more appearances the following campaign. Dean scored four in those two games and the writing was on the wall. He then lost form and his first team place. He scored fifty goals in one hundred and two League appearances with the Toffees and fifty-five in one hundred and nine appearances in all games. Leeds decided to take a gamble on him. Wilf Chadwick had been English football's top scorer in 1923-24, but his name rarely figures even in Everton record books. In 1924 he was selected as the second best player in the world, after Pedro Petrone, with Heinrich Schönfeld third. The reasons were two-fold. Wilf suffered unfairly and unfavourably from comparisons with another Chadwick who had graced Goodison some twenty years earlier, the legendary Edgar Chadwick, and the man he made way for at Goodison Park became the greatest of all time, William Ralph Dean. But Wilf Chadwick's contribution to Everton's inter-war record was significant. Great things were expected of him when he joined United on 17th October1925, but he failed to recapture the scoring touch he had shown at Everton. He deputized for Russell Wainscoat and Percy Whipp but did not fit the bill. He had a dazzling display for the Reserves against Wolverhampton Wanderers, which prompted the Midlanders to sign him in September 1926. He made his debut for them immediately, on 25th September 1926, scoring in a 1-2 home defeat by Middlesbrough. He found life in the Second Division a little easier than the top flight and he soon got amongst the goals, scoring his first hat-trick on 6th November 1926 in a 9-1 thrashing of Barnsley at Molineux. He certainly produced the goods for them, scoring twelve in his first season. He was their top scorer with nineteen League goals in the 1927-28 season and then added another thirteen in the next season. He finished up netting forty-four League goals in ninety-seven appearances for them, and made four F.A. Cup appearances without scoring, before joining Stoke City for £250 in the 1929 close season. He scored twice in seven games before he left them in October 1930 and moved to Halifax Town for £100, where he ended his League career in May 1932, playing five games without scoring. He died in Bury on 14th February 1973.