Where Are They Now – Fred Craig

Former Argyle keeper Fred Craig is under the spotlight in this edition of the Where Are They Now series.

FRED CRAIG – Born 16th January 1893 Larkhall, Scotland.

Fred, or to use his full name Frederick Glover Craig, I assume Glover was his mother’s maiden name, was a goalkeeper who began his career as a youngster with Glenview before moving up to Larkhall United.
In 1910 he joined Ross Rovers, while with them he won a county cap playing against Ayrshire Juniors.

In 1912 he was signed by Larkhall Thistle. At a time when goalies tended to be shorter and a bit stouter Fred was six feet tall and leaner than the average keeper.
Like a lot of Argyle players of that era Fred was spotted by manager Bob Jack on one of his many scouting missions to Scotland and joined the club in 1912. He was initially signed as an understudy to Argyle goalie William ‘Tich’ Horne. He got his first taste of first team football on 9th November 1912 when he made his debut in a 0-0 draw at home to Crystal Palace.
Fred made another three appearances that season including the final game which saw Argyle crowned as Southern League champions.

Fred made another ten appearances during the 1913-14 season including a run of nine successive games starting on the 1st November after Tich Horne had picked up an injury in a 1-0 win at home to Reading. Despite keeping four clean sheets in his nine games when Tich was fit again Fred returned to reserve team football. He did make one other appearance in a 1-1 draw at Carrow Road Norwich, it was Argyle’s sixth successive drawn game.

1914-15 saw Fred play in only one of the first fourteen games and then on 5th December take over as the club’s first choice goalie, playing in the remaining 25 games of the season.
Unfortunately for him the First World War had already started and football was suspended for the next four years. Fred was lucky to be based in the UK throughout the war, initially driving lorries from London to the ports for equipment to be ferried across to France.
He was later moved to Scotland where he was able to play football with Hamilton Academicals.

1919-20 saw football return, although hundreds of former players throughout the country sadly never came back with many more unable to play football again due to their injuries.
11,595 turned up to watch the first game of the season, a 3-0 win at home to Swindon with Will Dixon scoring twice and Tommy Gallogley getting the other to give Fred his first clean sheet of the season, with a further twenty to follow throughout the season as Fred established himself as the first choice goalkeeper, a position he would hold for the next ten seasons.

Fred was an ever present throughout the 1920-21 season, appearing in all 42 league games and five FA Cup appearances, after beating Rochdale 2-0 in the first round at Home Park they went to Swansea and won 2-1 to set up a third round tie at home to Division 1 (Premiership) team Chelsea, as Argyle were still a Southern League team their chances of progressing must have been rated at slim to say the least. A crowd of 27,749 saw Fred keep a clean sheet in a 0-0 draw to earn the club a replay at Stamford Bridge five days later. Despite being roared on by a 59,871 crowd the Argyle defence managed to keep the Chelsea forwards out in another 0-0 draw to set up a second replay on a neutral ground, despite a goal from William Toms Argyle were finally beaten 2-1.

Fred missed only six games during the 1921-22 season due to injury with Walter Cook taking over in goal in his absence as Argyle finished as runners up to Southampton, both teams had 61 points with the Saints having a slightly better goal difference to deny the Greens their first Division 3 South title.
After missing the first game of the 1922-23 season he then played in every game for the rest of that season and the next three after that, playing in a total of 181 consecutive games.
In those four seasons, Argyle finished as runners up in each one of them, in the first to Bristol City, in 1923-24 to Portsmouth, the following season the were pipped by one point by Swansea, and in1925-26 despite Argyle scoring a club record 107 goals Reading managed to finish one point in front of them.

As in the five previous seasons Argyle ended the 1926-27 seasons as runners up, this time to Bristol City, there was a change as far as Fred was concerned, despite being the team’s goalie he managed to get on the scoresheet, not once, but three times, all from the penalty spot. His first goal came on 15th January when he scored the third in a 4-1 win at home to Newport with Fred Forbes, Jack Cock and Sammy Black also scoring. He scored two more in April, he scored the winner in a 2-1 win at home to Brentford after Jimmy Logan had got the first. In the next game on Good Friday Fred scored the opening goal in a 3-1 win at home to Charlton with Jack Leslie getting the other two.

1927-28 saw Fred miss most of the season due to an injury, after playing in the first five games he didn’t play in the first team again until 31st March with George Stanbury deputising for him. Fred did manage to add to his goal tally though when he scored the second goal in a 2-0 win at Crystal Palace in the final game of the season after Frank Sloan had scored the first. Fred’s value to the team was shown as Argyle finished outside of the first two for the first time in seven seasons.

A fit again Fred saw him miss only two games throughout the 1928-29 season when Harry Cann took over in goal in mid-September, although Argyle finished in fourth, two points behind champions Charlton they conceded less goals, 51, than any other team in the division.
1929-30 was to be arguably Argyle’s greatest ever. Winning the league by seven points, conceding only 38 goals all season, six less than runners up Brentford and thirty less than QPR who were in third place.
In the second game of the season Fred scored his fifth goal for the club when he scored the first goal in a 4-3 victory at neighbours Torquay. Fred had been made captain and led his team on a 21 game unbeaten run, their first defeat came on Christmas Day in a 1-0 defeat at Coventry, although Argyle had their revenge the following day winning the return fixture 3-0 at Home Park with Norman Mackay, Jack Leslie and Sammy Black all scoring in front of a crowd of 27,975.

When the season was over Fred realised that after playing in 467 games, although that would probably have been nearer 600 if he hadn’t missed four years of football due to the war, he is still fourth placed in the number of appearances for Argyle, and he’s still the only goalie to have scored for the club, that the younger Harry Cann would be first choice goalie for the next season and he left to join Barrow who were managed by an old friend Tom Miller despite several Scottish teams offering him a contract.
Fred later coached a works team in Corby before returning to retire to his hometown of Larkhall where he lived for the remainder of his life.

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