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Goals

By Neil Dowson

A goal is scored by place kicking a ball over a crossbar and between goal posts. A goal can be scored from penalty, ie a place kick after a foul or by a conversion ie goal scored by place kick after a try and in each case is worth two points.  The value of a penalty goal was reduced from three points to the current two from the beginning of the 1897/8 season.

The first successful place kick by a Warrington player following the formation of the Northern Union in 1895 was by Charlie Burton.  Burton converted J.Foden’s try in the opening match of the Northern Union, a 5-4 win home win against Hunslet on 7 September 1895.  He also kicked the first penalty goal in a 3-0 home victory over Widnes on 4 January 1996.  Burton finished that first season as leading goal kicker with 3 conversions and one penalty.

J.Mason was the first player to kick a goal at Wilderspool Stadium.  He kicked 3 in a 12-0 win over Morecambe in the fourth match at the new ground.

Legendary winger Jackie Fish kicked 7 goals in a 44-0 win over Goole in a second round Challenge Cup tie at Wilderspool in 1900.  For good measure he also scored 5 tries.  Fish ended the season as leading kicker with 14 goals.  By the end of the 1902/3 season Fish had become the first Warrington player to kick a career 100 goals.  He went on to kick 257 goals for Warrington.

The number of players per team was reduced from fifteen to thirteen before the 1906/7 season in an attempt to make the game more entertaining.  This was to help Warrington who had a speedy threequarter line at the time.  Early in that season Fish extended his goals in a match record to 9 in a league match with Huddersfield.  Warrington won 50-3 at Wilderspool, Fish also scored 4 tries of his sides 10 tries. 

Welshman George Thomas equalled Fish’s record of 9 goals on 12 April 1909.  He kicked his goals in a 78-6 thrashing of St Helens at Wilderspool.  Warrington scored 20 tries and so would have reached a century of points had they kicked all their goals.  Thomas also set a Warrington points in a match record of 33 points through his 9 goals and 5 tries.

Full-back Ben Jolley started the 1921/22 season in magnificent form, kicking goals in the first eighteen matches.  However injury caused him to miss all but one of the next 12 matches.  Jolley ended the season as the first Warrington player to kick 50 goals in a season.

Cumbrian full-back Billy Holding joined the club in 1928 and soon established himself as one of the top goal kickers in the rugby league.  In his first full season he kicked 84 goals and in his second became the first Warrington player to kick 100 goals in a season.  This was a feat he achieved twice more with 125 goals in 1932/3 being his best.  That season he also became the first Warrington player to kick a goal at Wembley.  Holding kicked 830 goals for Warrington.

Harold Palin kicked a record 146 goals in the 1948/9 season.  Palin broke the goals in a match record with 14 against Liverpool Stanley in 1950.  Ten days later he kicked 12 goals against York.   Harry Bath took over as goalkicker and kicked over 100 goals in four successive seasons, his best return of 162 was in 1952/3, still the most place goals in a season for Wrrington.  Bath lies fourth on the all-time list with 812 goals.

Eric Fraser and Len Gilfedder shared the goal kicking role after the departure of Bath and both are in the top 10 of Warrington goal kickers, as is their successor Jeff Bootle.  In Warrington’s successful 1973/4 season Lance Todd winner Derek Whitehead kicked 155 goals.  Derek kicked 713 goals for Warrington.  Top of the list of goal kickers is Steve Hesford with 1,112 goals, together with his 46 tries and 47 drop goals make him the club’s top points scorer with 2,416.  For eight successive seasons Hesford kicked over 100 goals.  His best return was 157 goals in the 1978/9 season, when he scored in all but one of Warrington’s 42 matches.

John Woods kicked over 100 goals in both of his season’s at Wilderspool.  Whilst Jonathan Davies kicked 99 and 104 goals in his two full season’s with Warrington.

In 2000 Lee Briers equalled Palin’s record of 14 goals in a match in a Challenge Cup win over York at Wilderspool.  Lee kicked 14 out of 14 in atrocious conditions.  This season Briers moved to second on the all time Warrington goals list and has kicked 839 goals.  Lee also scored Warrington’s first goal at The Halliwell Jones Stadium, whilst Graham Appo had scored the last one at Wilderspool.

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