John Angus

John Alexander Angus (1867 – 8 August 1891) was a Scottish footballer who played in the Northern League for Sunderland Albion and the Football League for Everton.

Everton career

Everton's signing of 23-year-old Scottish goalkeeper John Angus from Sunderland Albion was announced in the Liverpool Mercury of 7 April 1890, as Angus joined his new teammates for a pre-season friendly versus Bootle. He lodged with the Williams family and fellow Everton player and Scot, Alex Lochhead, at 6 Skerries Road, adjacent to the Anfield ground where Everton were tenants, shortly before the fallout which forced their move to what would become Goodison Park in 1892.

Angus made his full debut for Everton alongside established stars including Johnny Holt, Fred Geary and Edgar Chadwick in the opening game of the 1890/91 season at Stoney Lane, as the Toffeemen overcame W.B.A. by four goals to one. In the coming weeks, Everton, with Angus between the sticks, stormed to the top of the Division 1 table, winning their next four games by an aggregate score of 19–1, before a 2–2 draw at Aston Villa slowed their progress. A 2–0 win at Bolton was followed by a 3–2 defeat in the return match at Anfield versus W.B.A. and a 1–3 loss at Notts County.

Angus was replaced in goal by Bob Smalley for a 2–1 reverse at Ewood Park versus Blackburn, but returned to keep a clean sheet in a 1–0 home win over Sunderland, a result which restored Everton's position at the top of the table. Angus's final league appearance for Everton came a week later, in a 2–0 defeat at Deepdale versus the mighty Preston side who had won the previous two Division 1 titles and would push Everton all the way in 1890/91. Angus received a kick to the knee in the Preston match, and fellow Scot David Jardine took his place for the following fixture at home to Blackburn. Jardine would keep goal for Everton in the remaining ten league fixtures, helping his side to claim their first league championship title in the process.

John Angus made his final appearance in Everton colours on 17 January 1891, in the club's sole F.A. Cup tie that season, a 1–0 defeat at Newcastle Road—where he played well and was not at fault for a superb winning goal, according to local news reports—fittingly, as fate would have it, versus his old rivals Sunderland.

Tragically, by the time Everton, the newly-crowned champions of England, kicked off their 1891/92 campaign, again at W.B.A, only this time ending up on the wrong end of a 4–0 hiding, Jack Angus would be dead. A short paragraph in the Liverpool Mercury, dated 10 August 1891, reads:

Not to be confused with John William Angus, his contemporary at Everton.