Tommy Crawshaw

Tommy was born in Sheffield and was brought up in the Park Hill area of the town along with his brothers Percy and George. Both of his brothers played football with Percy appearing nine times for Wednesday while George played for Worksop Town for many years. Tommy Crawshaw's early football was played with local clubs Park Grange and Attercliffe, in 1893 he moved to play for Heywood Central in the newly formed Manchester Football League and his good form attracted the attention of Sheffield Wednesday. Crawshaw signed for Wednesday on 24 April 1894 as a replacement for the long serving Billy Betts.

Sheffield Wednesday

Crawshaw made his Wednesday debut on 1 September 1894, the opening day of the 1894–95 season, in a 1–3 away defeat at Everton. He made an immediate impact in the side missing only two matches that season and was called up for the England side before the season was out. In the following campaign Crawshaw was part of the Wednesday side which won the FA Cup, he played in all six ties, scoring in the 3–1 semi-final replay victory over Bolton Wanderers. However he did make an uncharacteristic mistake in the final against Wolves when an error allowed David Black to equalise before Wednesday went on to win 2–1 through two Fred Spiksley goals. The 1896 publication Famous Footballers described Crawshaw as "A thorough worker always …he plays a good game from first to last and is unselfish to a degree. A good tackler he uses his head cleverly as well." In the…