Iggleden: Horatio (Ray)

1948-1954 (Player Details)

Inside Forward

Born: Hull: 17-03-1925

Debut: v Luton Town (a): 01-01-1949

6’0” 11st 10lb (1951)

Horatio Iggleden, always known as Ray, was a player of considerable class. Born in Hull, the former dock-worker, played for Constable Street Old Boys in that City but it was Leicester City who signed him during the war, when he once guested for Grimsby Town in the 1941-42 season and also served in the Royal Marines. Leicester took him as an amateur in July 1941 and as a professional in March 1942. He is still the fifth youngest ever to have played for Leicester City and was only sixteen and two hundred and one days old when he made his debut in October 1941 in the Wartime League. He made three appearances in that season of 1941-42 and made a further three appearances during the 1945-46 season. He made his Football League debut for Leicester on the recommencement of fixtures after the Second World War when he played in a 2-1 win over Luton Town at Kenilworth Road on 5th October 1946, going on to make three appearances that season and scored twice and had added a further eight to his first team appearances in the 1947-48 season, when, having learned his trade at Leicester, with only limited exposure to League football, scoring just twice in eleven games, an exchange deal involving a footballing pilot, Ken Chisholm, saw Iggleden move from Leicester City to Leeds United in December 1948. He was an excellent acquisition, capable of playing either inside position, but he proved particularly effective on the left in tandem with Welsh International winger Harold Williams. In his first season he established himself as the club’s main inside forward leaving Eddie McMorran and Jack Moss to fight over the other spot. With the additionof Frank Dudley at the start of the 1949-50, he was battling with McMorran and Moss for the other berth. It was more than co-incidence that his return to the team in December 1949 saw a miraculous turn of fortune for the team that had started the season with only one win in eleven matches. He and Frank Dudley became the club’s first choice inside forwards as United took off on a long unbeaten run in both the League and FA Cup, culminating with an epic Sixth Round tie at Highbury, against the eventual winners, and fifth position in the League, just five points short of second place and promotion. He played regularly in 1950-51 but without scoring heavily, but that changed in the following season when Iggleden was easily United’s top scorer in 1951-52 scoring nineteen times in the League while missing only one game. 1952-53 again saw Iggleden in a leading role scoring twelve times and missing only four League games. John Charles had moved up into the forwards four months into the season and was leading scorer with twenty-six goals. 1953-54 again saw Iggleden miss just eleven games but he managed just seven goals, which included an hat-trick against his old club, Leicester City, who received a 7-1 thrashing on 2nd January 1954, as Albert Nightingale took on the mantle of main supporting goal-scorer to John Charles. The arrival of Harold Brook saw him paired with Albert Nightingale and John Charles reverting back to centre-half to plug a leaking defence. Strong in the air and the possessor of a powerful shot, he finished with exactly fifty goals in all games for Leeds. With the emergence of Bob Forrest, Iggleden saw himself on the outer and in July 1955 he moved to Exeter City, where he scored eight goals in twenty-seven appearances. He returned to Yorkshire the following summer to play for GooleTown. He died in Hull on 17th December 2003.