As part of our celebration of the club’s 140th birthday, club historian Ian Rigby looks back to the 140th player to play for the club, the brilliantly named Bert Tickle!
Bert Tickle, not too common a name in football circles, was yet another good juvenile player to be enticed out of Scotland to try his luck south of the border with Preston North End.
Having suffered relegation at the conclusion of the 1900/01 season, the North End had a good clear out of players, 15 players moving on, whilst Tickle was to be just one of 13 players to make their Lilywhites debut during the 1901/02 season.
The promising left half, a Scottish junior international, was signed in July 1901 from the Glasgow-based team, Parkhead Football Club.
However, once at Deepdale, he found more experienced players ahead of him in the pecking order and, unfortunately, he only made six league appearances during his three seasons with the Lilywhites.
Once released, he moved across Lancashire to Southport, but by 1906 he was back in Scotland going on to play for Royal Albert, Ayr Parkhouse and Ayr United. At the ripe old football age of 32 he was still turning out for St Johnstone.
Ian Rigby