Gordon Hodgson – the lesser-known player on Liverpool’s top goalscorers list

With Mo Salah seemingly about to surpass Gordon Hodgson‘s Liverpool goal tally, we took a look back at the career of this lesser-known legend who is soon to be the Reds’ fourth-highest goalscorer of all time.

Despite playing for over 10 years in the first division for Liverpool and scoring nearly 250 goals, Hodgson’s name is sometimes forgotten among the long list of great past attackers.

However, with a games-per-goal ratio (1.56:1) better than any of the 100 players who have scored over 30 goals for Liverpool, the pre-World War Two striker deserves to be remembered alongside his striking successors.

 

Who was Gordon Hodgson?

Images: The Bromilow family

Born in the Gauteng province of South Africa, Hodgson travelled to the UK and Ireland in 1924 as an amateur, part of a South Africa team that toured for three months.

While on his trip, he impressed enough in a 5-2 win over Liverpool that the club signed the 20-year-old and brought him back to Merseyside to make his debut against Man City in February, 1926.

In his early days, Hodgson played in a brilliant front three that also included Harry Chambers and Dick Forshaw, who themselves scored 151 and 124 goals respectively.

They soon left, though, and by 1929 Hodgson was the main man. The Reds’ best players were at either end of the pitch, Elisha Scott in goal and Hodgson up front.

Scott had won two league titles in the years before Hodgson’s arrival. However, after the forward joined, Liverpool went on a trophy-less run of 24 years, though this did include the Second World War years.

Liverpool’s lack of silverware meant that for all of Hodgson’s goals, he never actually won a trophy with the Reds. He did, however, claim success of sorts with England, the international team he adopted.

Hodgson played all three matches in the 1930-31 British Home Championship, which was shared by England and Scotland who both earned four points.

Sadly, Hodgson died of cancer in 1951 at just 47 years old.

 

How good was Gordon Hodgson?

• READ HERE: The fascinating story of Liverpool’s legendary South African hat-trick king

It is difficult to compare players who competed before the Second World War to the athletes of today.

What we do know, though, is that he was one of the best attackers around in his day and his records speak for themselves.

Hodgson finished as Liverpool’s top scorer in seven of his nine seasons on Merseyside.

Among his 241 goals were an incredible 17 hat-tricks in 10 years, even more than Ian Rush (16) managed. Hodgson also scored four times on two occasions.

Long-term Liverpool journalist John Keith told LFC TV: “In the 1920s, I would say he was one of the best strikers in the business and again, his name will always be up there with the best scorers of all time in Liverpool history.”

Hodgson scored his first hat-trick in his 17th game for Liverpool in 1926 and impressed the Liverpool Echo enough for the newspaper’s report to read: “Based on this performance, I would suggest it will not be the last we see from this very talented South African.

“With the addition of the South African, Hodgson (Inside Right), I fail to see how any opposition will keep a clean sheet when all three play in the same side.

“A good striker is a necessity in the game. A brace of good strikers is very rare indeed. The Liverpool side now contains triplets of awesome power, that’s just downright greed. God help the first division when Liverpool come to town.”

 

Gordon Hodgson was more than a footballer

While Hodgson made his name playing top-flight football for Liverpool, he was also a talented cricketer.

A pacy right-arm bowler and batter in the lower order, he played 45 first-class matches for Lancashire from 1928 to 1933, taking 148 wickets with an average of 27.75 – not bad stats!

In fact, his hand-eye coordination was such that he even played for the Everton baseball team, too.

Even after his wife died in 1938, he maintained a love for sport. Hodgson became manager of Port Vale after his playing career ended and was interviewed for the Liverpool job in the early months of 1951.

Sadly, before the summer was out, he too had passed away.