Kerfoot: Eric

1949-1959 (Player Details)

Wing Half

Born: Ashton-under-Lyne: 31-07-1924

Debut: v Queens Park Rangers (a): 17-12-1949

5’9” 10st 6lb (1951)

#79 in 100 Greatest LUFC Players Ever

After starting playing football while in the Army, Kerfoot was a late starter to professional League football. He had played with Scottish team Stenhousemuir in the war years and when he returned to his native soil he joined Cheshire County League side Ashton United, who had just changed their name from Hurst, making his debut for them on 9th November 1946 at home to Congleton Town. He played at Inside Forward and scored once in three appearances before playing his last game for them on 17th September 1947 at Buxton. He moved on to fellow Cheshire County League side, Stalybridge Celtic, where he rapidly made a reputation for himself. He was twenty-five before Leeds United recognized him as one of the best wing-halves in Non-League football, and brought him to Elland Road in December 1949. Bradford City had already made a £2,000 offer to Stalybridge Celtic, and Leeds improved that bid with an offer of £3,000. Rarely has money been better spent. After just one Central League outing he showed that he could make the move from Non-League football to the Second Division, taking to it like a duck to water. Initially he was up against Irish International Jim McCabe and United Captain and stalwart, Tommy Burden for the two wing half spots, with the likes of Jim Bullions, Tommy Casey and David McAdam also in contention, but he still managed nine outings in his first few months at Leeds in the second half of the 1949-50 season. 1950-51 saw United kick-off with the half-back line of Kerfoot, Charles and Burden and he went on to make thirty-one appearances in that, his first full season. 1951-52 saw thirty-four League appearances as well as five in the FA Cup. His consistency shone through in the next six seasons when four times he was ever-present in all United’s League and Cup games, missing only six games in that period. He was ever-present in United’s promotion season and for their first two seasons in Division One. After Tommy Burden left early in the 1954-55 season Kerfoot was appointed Captain and his drive and enthusiasm rubbed off on those around him. He left for Chesterfield in July 1959, aged thirty-five, but was one of twenty-three professionals not retained by the Spireites after a poor season, in which he only made nine appearances for them. He went back to his roots with Stalybridge Celtic and later ran a pub closeby, the Listons on Cheetham Hill Road, Dukinfield. He died on 4th March 1980 in Dukinfield.