Cyril Done

Done was built more like a boxer than a football player. Liverpool-born, he developed in local football. Liverpool spotted him playing for Bootle Grammar School Old Boys and initially registered him as an amateur on 10 January 1938. Done’s emergence as a centre-forward came remarkably quickly. Reporting ahead of his first-team debut in September 1939, the Daily Mirror explained that he had first tried the position in Liverpool’s opening practice match that season. He scored a hat-trick against the first-team defence and, after only three games in his new role, was selected to lead the attack against Chelsea. Done's strength on the ball and powerful shooting with either foot prompted comparisons at Anfield with Gordon Hodgson, the prolific striker whose departure had left Liverpool searching for a reliable replacement. The eighteen-year-old justified that early confidence by scoring the only goal against Chelsea at Anfield on 2 September 1939. Britain declared war on Germany the following day, and the Football League subsequently abandoned the season and expunged its results. His debut appearance and goal therefore disappeared from his official career totals.

When League football resumed after the war, Done helped Liverpool win the 1946/47 First Division Championship despite making only seventeen League appearances. His first outing of the campaign came against Charlton Athletic at Anfield on 12 October 1946, when he scored in a 1–1 draw. A week later he struck a hat-trick in a 4–1 victory at Huddersfield Town, and he repeated the feat against Grimsby Town in a 5–0 home win on 12 February 1947. His ten League goals provided valuable support to the prolific Albert Stubbins and Jack Balmer, demonstrating the importance of Liverpool’s alternatives in attack during their championship season. 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 12 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.

The move across the Mersey to Tranmere Rovers gave Done a fresh opportunity in the Third Division North, and he responded with the most productive spell of his peacetime League career. He scored sixty-one goals in eighty-seven League appearances before joining Port Vale in December 1954. Moving back up to the Second Division did little to diminish his effectiveness: he scored thirty-four goals in fifty-two League games for Vale between 1954 and 1957. His most remarkable performance for Port Vale came at Liverpool’s expense. On 8 April 1955, the Reds led 3–1 at Vale Park, only for their former forward to inspire a dramatic recovery. Done scored all four of Vale’s goals in a 4–3 victory, completing the comeback with a penalty. Three days later, he scored another penalty in the return fixture at Anfield to secure a 1–1 draw. Five goals against Liverpool over the Easter weekend offered an emphatic reminder of the finishing ability that had once helped the club become champions.