Once in a while a player comes along, who, with just a few appearances to his name, unexpectedly becomes something of a legend of the club. Roy Barry's early appearances after his transfer from Dunfermline in 1969 comes to mind as does Stuart Pearce's arrival in 1983. More recently Liam Walsh's midfield prowess had a major effect on City's League One title tilt in 2019-20. In the 1920s the emergence of a speedy right winger from non-league football had that same effect.
Ed Blackaby recently asked me for more information on Ernie Toseland, a Coventry City player of the 1920s who went on to have a dazzling career in the top flight with Manchester City winning a First Division championship medal and FA Cup winners and runners up medals. Despite making only 23 appearances for the club many contemporary reports describe him as Coventry City's most gifted player of the decade.
Born in Northampton in 1905, Toseland was playing for non-league Higham Ferrers Town when he came to City's attention in April 1928 playing against City's reserve team at Highfield Road. Higham lost 6-2 to City but Toseland, a right-winger, created a good impression with his speed and crossing and with a well taken penalty in the defeat. Two days later the Midland Daily Telegraph reported that City had signed the 22-year-old for £50 but he couldn't play for the first team that season because City were still under threat of re-election. He had been an amateur on the books of QPR as a teenager but released and played four seasons for Higham before his move – the archetypal late developer.
Ernie Toseland
He made his reserve team debut at Southampton the day after he had signed and it ended after thirty minutes when a collision resulted in a broken collar bone. He was fully recovered for the start of the 1928-29 season and after impressing in trial games he made a goalscoring debut in the first team at Watford early in the season standing in for Bill Henderson, a summer signing from Southampton. He kept his place for the following two games against Exeter ('a much improved display') and Southend ('Toseland was City's most prominent attacker') but was back in the reserves the following week when Henderson was fit. Several impressive reserve performances earned him a first team recall at home to Newport at the end of October when Henderson had the flu and Ernie responded with a stunning display of wing play. City were trailing 1-0 when Toseland, given the nickname 'Twinkle-feet' by the fans, scored twice in five minutes and set up a third for Jack Starsmore.
Ernie was developing an excellent relationship with ex-Villa and England inside forward Billy Kirton and a week later Toseland scored one and made another two goals in a 3-0 win at Crystal Palace. A third successive win was recorded over Swindon with Ernie netting in a 4-1 victory before another away win at Torquay lifted the team to fourth place in Division Three South – their highest position for several years. City's form dipped after the four wins, probably due to Kirton getting injured and missing most of the rest of the season, but Toseland continued to star with his wing play . More importantly he netted six goals in eleven games and after only 13 games was the club's leading scorer. Every week the match reports made him City's best forward and his performances soon had scouts from First Division clubs eyeing him up.
From the Midland Daily Telegraph 22 December 1928
On 1st March 1929 it was reported that City had accepted a substantial fee (believed to be £3,000, a club record) from Manchester City for the exciting winger who had netted 11 goals in 23 games for the club. The fee would be the equivalent of several million pounds today and City's financial position at the time would have made it virtually impossible for them to hold on to him.
He made his debut for the Maine Road club at Bury at the end of April and a week later scored his first goal in a 3-0 win over Aston Villa. By the start of the next season he was the first choice outside right and went on to make 411 appearances scoring 75 goals before joining Sheffield Wednesday in March 1939. Manchester City had a great FA Cup reputation in that era, reaching the semi final in 1931, beaten finalists to Everton in 1933 and lifting the trophy in 1934 by beating Portsmouth with Ernie netting four goals on the way to Wembley. In 1936-37 City won the First Division title, scoring 107 goals. One newspaper columnist of the era described Toseland thus: “As quick and dainty a footballer as there is in all of Britain. He can beat a man on a handkerchief and can slip by on either side.”
The war effectively ended Toseland's playing career although he did make the occasional appearance for Manchester City in unofficial war-time games and at the age of 40 he was playing for Mossley in Cheshire League football after the war.
He played alongside some giants of the game whilst at the club including Matt Busby, England left winger Eric Brook and England goalkeeper Frank Swift. Sadly he was never picked for England but a certain Stanley Matthews dominated the England number 7 shirt in the pre-war era.
Ernie died in Stockport in 1987.
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