Moss: Amos

WW2 Guest: 1942-1943 (Leeds United War-time Guest Player Details)

Wing Half

Born: Aston, Birmingham: 28-08-1921

Debut: v Doncaster Rovers (a): 17-10-1942

Height & Weight: Unknown

Educated at Burlington Street school in Aston, Moss and his Brother Frank signed for First Division Aston Villa in May 1939 from Birmingham Boys’ Club, after being on their books as an amateur from 1937 and never played a game before World War Two. He was on active service on the battlefields of Europe during the Second World War and was rarely available to play football. However, Moss did play with Villa during World War Two and made eight appearances in the 1940-41 season. He also guested for Leeds United, Wrexham, one game in 1944-45, and Clapton Orient, one game in 1945-46, during the War period. He played with Leeds United in the 1942-43 Football League Northern Section and made his debut at Left Half on 17th October 1942 in a 2-2 away draw and went on to play three games at Left Half and one at Right Half in the First Championship. He also played four games in the Second Championship campaign with three games at Right Half and one at Centre Half. After the War he made his debut for Villa in the 1946-47 season, on Christmas Day in a 2-2 draw at Villa Park with Huddersfield Town in a Division One clash. He scored his first goal also against Town, on 19th September 1951, in a 1-3 defeat at Leeds Road. He went on to make eight appearances that season but while never really establishing himself as a Villa regular he played often enough to make one hundred and two League appearances in which he scored five goals and played seven F.A. Cup ties. He left Villa in June 1956 to join Non-League Kettering Town, then Managed by Tommy Lawton. He signed for the Poppies alongside Kettering-born Geoff Toseland, goalkeeper Jack Wheeler, full-back John Storey and another wing-half, Harry Johnson, as Lawton set about the task of carrying over the much-improved performances from the latter stages of the previous season. By the time former Leicester City centre-half Norman Plummer had established his role at the centre of Kettering’s defence in late September, the Poppies were already perched at the top of the table and well on their way to a remarkable season. They finished the season as top of the Southern League, eight points clear of second club Bedford Town, having played forty-two, won Twenty-eight, drawn ten and lost just four, with a goal count of one hundred and six against forty-seven and sixty-six points from eighty-four. Moss scored three goals and played forty-five games for them. He later played with other Non-League clubs Wisbech Town, in another successful team of seasoned professional, such as Jesse Pye, Bobby Langton, Johnnie Downie, Johnny Crossland and Tot Leverton, who finished Runners-up in the Midland League, Kidderminster Harriers and Rugby Town. He was Manager of Kidderminster Harriers for a short while in the early sixties. He then became a salesman, a job he continued to do until he retired aged 70. However, he continued to work at a newsagents owned by friend and former West Bromwich Albion player, Bobby Hope, until the end of 2003. He suffered in comparison to his more illustrious Father, Frank “Snowy” Moss (Senior), who played five times for England and played almost three hundred games for Villa in fifteen years and despite losing the first World War Years, and his elder brother Frank, Junior, who had over three hundred games with Villa in a similar period to Amos. He died in Birmingham on 8th April 2004.