Len Goodson Appeal

Len Goodson was a Doncaster Rovers star in the early 1900s. When the team joined the Football League in the 1901-02 season, Len scored their first ever goals in that league. His sale to Middlesborough for a substantial sum helped to pay for a new stand at the team’s Intake Ground.

Outside of football, Len worked as a labourer. Len did not marry and died aged only 41 in 1922.

Since his death, he has laid in an unmarked family grave in Hyde Park Cemetery, Doncaster. We want to mark his grave and we need to raise £4000 to make this a reality. Can you help?

Image by kind permission of Doncaster Local Studies Library

How To Donate

Online Via Paypal

Please select ‘Goodson Appeal’ from the drop down menu.

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Bank Transfer

Send us an e-mail at info@fohpc.org.uk or click the button below. 

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Cheque By Post

Made payable to Friends of Hyde Park Cemetery, marked ‘Goodson Project’ and sent to

Friends of Hyde Park Cemetery

c/o 36 Furnival Road

Balby

Doncaster

DN4 0PJ

More About Len..

Leonard George “Len” Goodson was an English-born footballer who played inside left and left wing in the early 1900s. He is remembered as the man who scored Rovers’ first Football League goals.

Born in Doncaster in 1880, Goodson played for the Marshgate Institute club before moving to Doncaster Rovers in March 1900. He was seen as having the makings of an exceptional player and his first goals were a hat-trick in a 1−8 victory in a Midland League game at Rushden on 31st March 1900.

In the 1900-1901 season, Doncaster scored 20 goals in 26 league games, including two hat−tricks. His team were runners−up in the Midland League and were subsequently elected to the Football League for the 1901-1902 season. Goodson scored the first two goals in a 3−3 draw in their first Football League fixture, at home to Burslem Port Vale.

Goodson was sold to First Division Middlesborough in late 1902 and the money was used to finance a new stand built at Doncaster’s Intake Ground at a cost of £200.

He returned to Doncaster for the 1905-1906 season after they failed to be re-elected to the Football League following a terrible season and from there he moved back to Marshgate.

He was called back to Doncaster in February 1909, scoring twice in that month. This coincided with an upturn in their season’s fortunes, with only one loss in their last 13 games. In his total time at Doncaster, in all three periods, he scored 39 goals in the Midland and Football Leagues, and 4 in the FA Cup.

Len, who worked outside football as a labourer, did not marry and died aged only 41 in 1922.