Watford
He married Sarah Rawcliffe from Lancashire in Glossop and, when his playing career came to an end, moved with his wife to Hertfordshire in 1903 where he took up a position as the first player/manager of Watford of the Southern League for 3/10s/0d a week and stayed in position until May 1910, when he became the groundsman.
An Observer reporter visited Goodall in May 1903, as he prepared for the new season and, in part, wrote this:
| “ | Asked as to the prospects in Watford, the new manager saw no reason why Watford, with its good central position and great railway facilities, should not be able to turn out a team to occupy a respectable position on the Southern League ladder.
The moment we got away from the subject of Watford you could hear the rumbling of curling stones, the swish of cricket balls, the rippling of waters "willow-wooed," and the swipes of drivers in the royal and ancient game of "gowf". Of Goodall's fishing one need say no more than that he is an angler. But John's achievements in the roaring game cannot be passed over. While at Preston he was the champion curler, and once when playing against the best of Scotia's curlers in the championship of Great Britain at Southport, he ran out second. With reference to the game of golf, Goodall knows all about long drives and good approaches, bunkers, and other hazards; the secret of keeping your eye on the ball is his, and the language thereof! Pigeon shooting also claimed his attention. The gentler game of bowling has attracted him of a summer's evening and he can put a bowl to lie dead on the jack when required. In the cricket field he has kept wicket for Derby County against Yorkshire and Warwickshire. In the new manager, Watford have a man who can be relied upon at all times to give a good account of himself in any position, particularly in the van. |
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His impact of his reign at Watford was immediate. The club broke various records in winning Division Two of the Southern League in 1903–04. They went through the campaign undefeated, recording the highest FA Cup victory in the club’s history (6–0 versus Redhill 31 October 1903) and having both the highest season (Bertie Banks) (21 goals) and single game goal scorer in the club’s history (Harry Barton (6 goals v. Wycombe Wanderers 26 September 1903).
Goodall played his last football game for Watford on 14 September 1907 at the age of 44 years, 87 days in a Southern League game against Bradford Park Avenue, becoming the oldest person ever to have played for Watford. He came back to football in 1910 with RC Roubaix and retired in 1913 as player-manager of Mardy. Thereafter, lived out a rather impecunious existence, tending to an allotment to provide vegetables for his family and forlornly walking one of his pet foxes around the town.
Goodall was the most notable of the few ‘southerners’ able to break into the new ‘professional’ game and was, in some ways, responsible for aiding the development of the game in the South of England. He was a curling player of some repute, and while at Watford he played five cricket matches for Hertfordshire County Cricket Club in 1905 and 1906. In addition, he always maintained a rather strange penchant for domesticated foxes, walking them on the pitch during the interval at Deepdale.
He died in Watford in May 1942 and is buried at Watford North Cemetery in an unmarked grave.
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