Harry Woods

Who is Harry Woods?

Harry Woods was an English footballer.

Born in St Helens, Woods started out with his hometown club, non-league St Helens Town, before joining Norwich City in 1912. World War I broke out just as Woods' career started to take off; after serving in the Tank Corps in France, he returned to England to join Second Division side South Shields in 1919. Woods' performances for them, as a prolific centre-forward, brought the attention of nearby giants Newcastle United, and he joined the Magpies in January 1922 for the enormous sum of £2,600.

However, Woods failed to make the grade at Newcastle, playing only sixteen times in eighteen months, and was eventually sold to Arsenal for the much lower fee of £750 in July 1923. Woods made his debut against his old club Newcastle on August 25, 1923 and soon became a regular, if not totally prolific goalscorer for Arsenal. He finished as the club's top goalscorer in his first season with ten, and then managing another twelve goals in 1924-25, although by now he was being eclipsed by the newly signed Jimmy Brain. After Herbert Chapman took over that summer, Woods found himself out of the first team, and after a fruitless 1925-26 he left the club in August 1926 for Luton Town. In all he played 75 games for Arsenal, scoring 22 goals.