sport.wikisort.org - Athlete

Joseph Powell Mercer (21 July 1889 – 1927) was an English professional footballer who made 150 appearances in the Football League for Nottingham Forest as a centre half.[1][3] He was the father of footballer and manager Joe Mercer.[2]

Joe Mercer

Personal information
Full name	Joseph Powell Mercer[1]
Date of birth	(1889-07-21)21 July 1889[2]
Place of birth	Higher Bebington, England[2]
Date of death	1927 (aged 36–37)[2]
Height	6 ft 2 in (1.88 m)[2]
Position(s)	Centre half
Youth career
1908–1909	Burnell's Ironworks
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
1909–1910	Ellesmere Port
1910–	Nottingham Forest	150	(6)
0000–1921	Ellesmere Port
1921–1922	Tranmere Rovers	15	(1)
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Personal life

Mercer worked as a bricklayer before and during his professional football career.[2] He married Ethel Breeze in June 1913 and had four children, the oldest being future footballer and manager Joe Mercer.[2] On 16 December 1914, four months since the outbreak of the First World War, Mercer enlisted in the Football Battalion of the Middlesex Regiment on the day the battalion was established.[4] He and was posted to the front on 17 October 1915.[2] At the front, Mercer was promoted to sergeant,[5] sustained wounds to the head, leg and shoulder and was captured by the Germans in Oppy on 28 April 1917.[2][6] He was held in camps at Douai, Bad Langensalza, Giessen and Meschede and returned home in January 1919.[2] In the post-war years, Mercer attempted to resume his football career and continued working as a bricklayer before dying in 1927 of health problems caused by gas inhalation in the trenches a decade earlier.[2][7]

Career statistics

Appearances and goals by club, season and competition

Club	Season	League			FA Cup		Total
		Division	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals
Nottingham Forest	1910–11[8]	First Division	13	0	1	0	14	0
	1911–12[8]	Second Division	36	3	1	0	37	3
	1912–13[8]		37	0	2	0	39	0
	1913–14[8]		35	2	2	0	37	2
	1914–15[8]		29	1	2	0	31	1
Career total			150	6	8	0	158	6

References

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