Seasiders and Whites

Player Profile – Albert Butterworth

Albert Butterworth was born in Ashton-under-Lyne on 20 March 1912; the winger started his career with Manchester United but didn’t make a league appearance for the club.

For the 1932/33 season Butterworth joined First Division Blackpool and made his Blackpool debut in a 2-1 home defeat to Arsenal. His first goals came on his sixth appearance with a brace in a 4-1 home win over Liverpool on 26 November. Butterworth scored in his next match with the only goal in a win at Huddersfield. Butterworth made 13 league appearances during the season which saw Blackpool relegated to Division Two.

The following season he made 9 league appearances with 2 goals, both coming in a 4-home victory over Fulham on 4 September.  His last appearance for Blackpool came in a 2-2 draw at home to Millwall on 10 February; Butterworth had netted 5 goals in 22 matches for the Seassiders.

Butterworth joined First Division Preston and made his Lilywhite debut in a 3-1 home win over Blackburn on 10 November 1934 but had to wait until 4 May 1935 for his next appearance in a 0-0 draw at West Brom.

His first goal for PNE came in his second appearance of the 1935/36 campaign with a 5-1 defeat at Aston Villa on 14 September. A week later came his second goal with a 2-0 home win over Wolves. Butterworth’s scored on his final match for Preston in a 4-2 defeat at Brentford on 26 December to take his total to 4 goals in 14 League appearances for PNE.

For the 1936/37 season Butterworth joined Third Division side Bristol Rovers and made his debut on 14 November with a 2-0 defeat at Luton. A week later he scored on his home debut with a 5-1 victory against Cardiff.  This was his most productive in front of goal in his career with 6 goals from 28 appearances.  The 1937/38 season he made the same number of appearances as the previous season but with 2 goals.

The 1938/39 season saw him make his most appearances in his career with 39, scoring a further 4 goals and to take his Rovers league tally to 13 goals in 95 matches. Butterworth made appearances in the 1939/40 season which was abandoned due to the outbreak of WWII.

For his next appearance for Bristol Rovers he had to wait until 1945/46 with 4 FA Cup matches. The second match of that campaign saw him score a brace in a 4-1 win over non-league Swindon on 24 November to give Rovers a 4-2 aggregate win in Round One. His next match saw him score a further brace but lost 4-2 at non-league Bristol City His final match a week later was the second leg Round Two a week later with a 2-0 defeat against Bristol City.

Albert Butterworth died in 1991.