| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | John Wright[1] | ||
| Date of birth | 4 February 1873 | ||
| Place of birth | Hamilton, Scotland | ||
| Date of death | 1946 (aged 72–73) | ||
| Place of death | Southend-on-Sea, England | ||
| Position(s) | Inside forward | ||
| Senior career* | |||
| Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) |
| 1892–1893 | Hamilton Academical | ||
| 1893–1894 | Motherwell | 7 | (1) |
| 1894 | Hamilton Academical | ||
| 1894–1895 | Clyde | 18 | (4) |
| 1895–1898 | Bolton Wanderers | 85 | (14) |
| 1898–1902 | The Wednesday | 103 | (42) |
| 1902 | Hamilton Academical | 3 | (1) |
| 1902–1904 | Bolton Wanderers | 34 | (5) |
| 1904–1907 | Plymouth Argyle | 107 | (17) |
| 1907–1908 | Watford | 27 | (0) |
| 1908–1910 | Southend United | 56 | (10) |
| Total | 440 | (94) | |
| *Club domestic league appearances and goals | |||
John Wright (4 February 1873 – 1946) was a Scottish footballer who played in the Football League for Bolton Wanderers and The Wednesday, and the Southern League for Plymouth Argyle, Watford and Southend United.[2][3] He was an inside forward.[1]
Wright was born in Hamilton.[1][3] He began his career with Hamilton Academical[4] and played for Motherwell during their first Scottish Football League campaign[5] before returning to Hamilton (who had yet to join the SFL).[3] He then moved to Clyde, where he made 18 league appearances and scored four goals.[3][6]
Wright switched to English football when he joined Bolton Wanderers in June 1895, and played regularly in his first three seasons with the club.[3] He was transferred to The Wednesday in November 1898 having scored 14 league goals in 85 games for Bolton.[2][3] In his second season with Wednesday (1899–1900), Wright was the club's leading goalscorer and received a Football League Second Division winner's medal.[3] He scored 42 goals in 103 league appearances for Wednesday[1][2] (and 110 and 43 including FA Cup ties).[7]
He returned to Hamilton in September 1902[4] and then re-signed with Bolton the following month.[3] In two more seasons with the club, Wright played in 34 league games and scored five times.[1] Wright left the club in May 1904 and joined Plymouth Argyle,[2][8] where he won the Western League First Division title in his second season.[2] A club handbook states that Wright was "always clever, frequently brilliant and has never been known to play a bad game."[2] He made 110 appearances for Argyle in all competitions and scored 17 goals before moving to Watford in May 1907.[2][3] Wright played in 27 league games without scoring and then joined Southend United in May 1908.[3]
In two seasons with Southend, he scored ten goals in 56 league appearances.[3] Wright became the club's reserve team trainer in 1913 and went on to coach in the local area.[3] Wright died in Southend-on-Sea in 1946.[3]
He had two sons who were also footballers: Billy Wright played for Bolton and for Reading;[9] Doug Wright played mainly for Newcastle United and Lincoln City, and was capped by England in 1938.[4][10]