A war-time guest player for Spurs, winger Eric Jones graced clubs in England, on the continent and beyond in a varied career.
Born in a village just outside Telford, Eric was brought up in Aston in Birmingham. Began playing football for Kidderminster Harriers, but moved through some clubs without playing many games before War broke out, including Wolverhampton Wanderers, Portsmouth, Stoke city and West Bromwich Albion.
Spurs met West Bromwich Albion on 2nd September 1939 and Johnny Morrison completed his treble to give Spurs a 4-2 lead, which was pegged back to 4-3 as Jones scored a hat trick the day before WWII broke out and later went on to play for Spurs as a war-time guest. During the Second World War, Eric guested for a number of other clubs including Portsmouth, Chelsea, Exeter City, Arsenal, Crystal Palace, Northampton Town, Watford, Cardiff City, Queens Park Rangers, Southend United and Fulham.
Made his Spurs debut v Charlton Athletic in September 1943 and hit a total of seven goals in 16 matches over the following four months. But Eric played for a whole host of clubs in the South of England during the war and after peace broke out, he signed for Brentford in December 1945. In 1947, Jones moved to Crewe Alexandra and played for a year at Gresty Road before going back to Aggborough to return to play for Kidderminster, before he went into the coaching side of the game starting with Young Boys Bern in Switzerland, Belgian club Beerschot and then in Holland for the 1961-62 season with De Grafshaap. Eric also had a spell coaching with the Egyptian National team.
When he returned to England, he worked as a coach at the FA centre at Lilleshall, then Bromsgrove Rovers, but went back into club coaching with Port Vale in June 1962. However, his intensive training techniques and a strict disciplinary code did not go down well with the board at Vale Park and he resigned four months later because of domestic problems.
Eric Jones on 2nd October
1985 in Lincoln.