Cyril Done
Birthdate: 21 October 1920
Birthplace: Liverpool, England
Other clubs: Tranmere Rovers (1952-54), Port Vale (1954-57), Winsford United (1957-59), Skelmersdale United
Bought from: Local
Signed for LFC: January 1938
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Liverpool debut: 12.10.1946
Last appearance: 23.02.1952
Debut goal: 12.10.1946
Last goal: 16.02.1952
Contract expiry: May 1952
Win ratio: 43.64% W: 48 D: 30 L: 32
Games/goals ratio: 2.97
Total games/goals opposite LFC: 4 / 5
Wartime games/goals: 137 / 147
LFC league games/goals: 95 / 32
Total LFC games/goals: 110 / 37
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Player profile
A strong centre-forward, who was feared by opposing defences and was maybe built more like a boxer than a football player. Daily Mirror focused on his rise through the ranks at Liverpool prior to his debut at Anfield when Chelsea were the visitors on 2 September 1939. "Three games at centre-forward… then right into First Division football. This is the strange experience of Cyril Done, eighteen-year-old Liverpool player who to-day leads their forwards against Chelsea. Not until the opening practice game this season had Done had any experience of centre-forward play. He scored a hat-trick in that match against the first team defence. Done is referred to at Anfield as “Gordon Hodgson the second.” The two are similar in style, exceptionally strong on the ball and possessing a terrific shot in either foot. Liverpool have every reason to be well pleased with young Done, for he did not cost them a penny piece. They found him playing in his native Bootle with Bootle Grammar School Old Boys, and he was signed on amateur forms. So impressive was he that they made him a professional as soon as he reached the age of seventeen. For years Liverpool have been trying to solve their centre-forward problem. They have made enough experiments, goodness only knows, but Done stands out as the best proposition of them all." Done netted the only goal of the game against Chelsea, but the outbreak of World War II meant that this was the final competitive fixture for several years. Done's goal no longer belonged to his career total as the three League games played in the 1939/40 season were expunged from Football League records. Done was very prolific in wartime games with Liverpool and scored 147 goals in 137 games which was no mean feat!
When League football resumed after the war ended, Done made an important contribution by scoring ten times from 17 appearances, including hat-tricks against Huddersfield and Grimsby, as the Reds marched on to the First Division Championship. Done hardly featured the following season but 13 goals in his first eight reserve games of the 1948/49 season were hard to ignore and he continued his excellent form with the first team and got into double figures again with 13 goals from 28 appearances. Done wasn't as prolific for the last three seasons of his Liverpool career and he wasn't always a regular even missing out completely on the FA Cup run which took the club to its first Wembley final in 1950. Done moved to Tranmere Rovers in Third Division North in 1952 and scored 61 goals in 87 League games for them and 34 goals in 52 for second division Port Vale between 1954-1957. Done came back to haunt Liverpool on 8 April 1955 when Port Vale beat the Reds 4-3 at Vale Park. Done scored all four for Vale!