Cyril Alfred Thompson
Centre-forward (1951-1953)
Cyril Thompson’s tally of 25 Football League and FA Cup goals in 1951/52 was Watford’s peacetime best for 17 years. A powerfully-built centre-forward (and also an excellent club cricketer), he scored 90 League goals in 201 appearances after making his début at the age of 27 following the Second World War, in which he spent five years as a prisoner of war. In the the first post-war Football League season under peacetime conditions he scored 13 times for Southend United in a sequence of eight mid-season League and FA Cup fixtures, and five years later there was another purple patch at Brighton & Hove Albion, for whom he scored in each of eight successive League games. After leaving Vicarage Road he scored over a hundred goals for Folkestone Town, whom he helped to achieve the Kent Senior Cup and Shield double in 1956/57.
West Herts / Watford Career
Football League Career
| Season | Club | Apps | Subs | Goals | League Status and Final Position |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1946/1947 | Southend United | 37 | 22 | Football League Division 3 (South) - 8th of 22 | |
| 1947/1948 | Southend United | 29 | 14 | Football League Division 3 (South) - 9th of 22 | |
| 1948/1949 | Derby County | 14 | 3 | Football League Division 1 - 3rd of 22 | |
| 1949/1950 | Derby County | 2 | Football League Division 1 - 11th of 22 | ||
| 1949/1950 | Brighton & Hove Albion | 10 | 4 | Football League Division 3 (South) - 8th of 22 | |
| 1950/1951 | Brighton & Hove Albion | 31 | 11 | Football League Division 3 (South) - 13th of 24 | |
| 1950/1951 | WATFORD | 12 | 5 | Football League Division 3 (South) - 23rd of 24 | |
| 1951/1952 | WATFORD | 41 | 22 | Football League Division 3 (South) - 21st of 24 | |
| 1952/1953 | WATFORD | 25 | 9 | Football League Division 3 (South) - 10th of 24 |