Thursday, November 16, 2006

Salute Willie Hall

On 18th November, 1938 Spurs' inside forward, Willie Hall scored five goals for England against Northern Ireland in Manchester, including a hat-trick in three and a half minutes. He became only the fourth England player to score as many as five goals in an international.

Hall signed for Spurs from Notts County in December, 1932 to replace George Greenfield who had broken his leg. He made his Spurs debut against his old club, a game Spurs lost 0-3. However, in spite of that set-back Spurs went on to win promotion to the 1st Division. Withinh a year of joiningSpurs he had won his first England cap and Spurs had to pay a further £500 to Notts County as part of the transfer settlement. However, it was another four years before he won his next England cap.

in those four years he had been troubled by injury and Spurs' relegation to the 2nd Division. Hall was a clever dribbler and an accurate passer of the ball. He made a further eight appearances for England and in total played 375 games for Spurs, scoring 45 goals.

Sadly, a serious leg injury forced him to retire in 1944 and he later had the lower part of both legs amputated.

For a time he was coach and then manager of Clapham Orient but found his disabilities too much and resigned.

He ran a pub in east London for many years.

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