Fred Laidman

Laidman was born in Durham in 1913.[2] He played football in the North-Eastern League for Crook Town, then, after a two-match trial, turned professional with Burnley, then a Second Division club, in December 1934. He played for the club's 'A' team,[3] and for the reserves in the Central League,[4] but was released on a free transfer at the end of the season without having appeared in the first team.[5] He played for Cheshire League club Wigan Athletic, and signed for Everton of the First Division in December 1936 for a £500 fee.[6] Laidman was retained for the 1937–38 season,[7] but by December, he was available for transfer. Amid interest from Stockport County and Chester, Everton's secretary was instructed to accept offers of £500 or better,[8] but none were forthcoming. At the end of the season, he was transfer-listed at £350.[9] He submitted a written request to be allowed a free transfer,[10] but in June 1938, joined Third Division South club Bristol City for a £250 fee.[11] He never played first-team football for Everton.

Laidman made his debut in the Football League on the opening day of the 1938–39 season in a 2–2 draw away to Watford. The Western Daily Press reported that he "showed up well towards the end".[12] By mid-September, we read that his "passing lacked precision and accuracy",[13] and an unnamed Bristolian in the Cheltenham Chronicle expressed his disappointment with the lack of understanding between the left-wing pairing of Laidman and George Willshaw, suggesting that Laidman needed to play higher up the field and nearer to his partner.[14] He scored in a 2–2 draw at Northampton Town,[15] but lost his place, finished the season with ten League appearances and that one goal,[2] and was listed as available for transfer.[16]

During the Second World War, Laidman served in the Durham Light Infantry. He played for their football team alongside such players as England internationals Walter Boyes and Bill Nicholson.[17] By October 1942, he had been promoted from private to corporal, was playing at right half rather than inside forward,[18] and had signed professional forms with Sunderland.[19] In December, the Sunderland Echo's "Argus" wrote "what a grand little right half he is – full of grit and enthusiasm, capable of running for the proverbial week, and capable of using the ball to the advantage of those in front of him",[20] but sometimes his enthusiasm was to get the better of him. A year of so into his Sunderland career, the same correspondent described him as "sometimes in a hurry to use the ball before he had it under control",[21] and feeding Johnny Spuhler with passes that were well-conceived but so overhit that "some of them Spuhler could not reach if he had a flying start on a Spitfire".[22]

Laidman scored 16 goals from 67 games in three seasons of wartime football for Sunderland,[23] and made one guest appearance for Queens Park Rangers in November 1944,[24] before signing professionally for North Eastern League club Stockton in 1945. He also played as a guest for Leeds United in the Football League North in 1945–46,[25] but the Football Association's ruling that clubs could only field their own registered players in the first postwar FA Cup made him ineligible to guest for Sunderland in that competition.[26] Laidman was a member of the Stockton team that reached the second round proper of the 1947–48 FA Cup, losing only after a replay to Notts County, who fielded Tommy Lawton in both matches.[27] He continued with Stockton until the summer of 1948, when he made a brief return to League football with Darlington.[25] He played just twice in the Third Division North before retiring from the game.[28]

Laidman went on to work on the railways, and died in Durham in 1987, on his 74th birthday.[25]