Early career Farrell was born in
Tunstall, Staffordshire and started his football career at
Dresden United before joining
Stoke in October 1894 for a fee of £40. In his first season in the Football League, he made 16 league appearances, scoring six goals as Stoke finished
the season in 14th place and had to play-off against
Newton Heath to retain their
First Division status. Stoke easily overcame their Second Division opponents with Farrell scoring one of the three goals (the others came from
Joe Schofield). In the spring of 1895,
Charles Robson, the newly appointed secretary/manager of
Southampton St. Mary's, and
Alfred McMinn, one of the club committee, visited "
the Potteries" in search of new players to strengthen the team ready for their
second season in the
Southern League. McMinn was a native of Staffordshire and was "
most persuasive on his home turf". On this trip, Robson and McMinn signed six players: Farrell,
Samuel Meston and
Willie Naughton from
Stoke,
Watty Keay from
Derby County,
Joe Turner from
Dresden United and
Alf Wood from
Burslem Port Vale, as well as recruiting Stoke's long-serving trainer, Bill Dawson. The Saints committee were anxious to secure their services and signed them before
the Football League season was over. Port Vale and Stoke lodged a complaint with
the Football Association (FA) about "
poaching", and an emergency FA meeting was held at
Sheffield, resulting in the Saints being severely censured for negligence. St Mary's were ordered to pay their own costs, plus £4 6s 3d to Stoke and £1 13s to Port Vale. McMinn was suspended for a year and Dawson for a month. Wood's registration with St Mary's was cancelled (shortly afterwards he moved to Stoke).
Southampton At the time of his arrival at the
Antelope Ground, the local press described Farrell as "fast, tricky and reliable" Farrell was again top-scorer in
1896–97 as his 13 goals from 20 appearances (ever-present) helped the Saints claim the Southern League title for the first time, going the whole
league season without defeat. By now team captain, Farrell was injured in the first semi-final match, a 1–1 draw with
Nottingham Forest, and took no part in the replay when Southampton were eliminated in a controversial 2–0 defeat in a blizzard. After a scoreless first half (in which
Joe Turner missed a penalty for Southampton), in the second half Saints were on top when, with ten minutes left to play, referee
John Lewis stopped the match for a time and the players left the pitch. No sooner had the game restarted than the weather worsened but the referee decided that the match should continue. The Saints' goalkeeper,
George Clawley, had his eyes "
choked with snow" and conceded two goals in the final minutes of the game. Despite Southampton's protests
the Football Association (FA) decided that the result should stand – this was perhaps not surprising as Lewis was an eminent member of the FA board. As a result of the injury sustained in the FA Cup semi-final, Farrell missed most of the last six weeks of the League season, with
David Steven coming into the side at
inside-right to replace
Robert Buchanan who took Farrell's place at
centre-forward, to guide the Saints to the Southern League title for the
second successive season.
Return to Stoke In the 1898
close season, Farrell returned to
Stoke together with George Clawley and
Joe Turner. Farrell was unable to reproduce his goal-scoring form at the
Victoria Ground, scoring just four goals from 22 appearances in the
Football League First Division, with Stoke finishing
the season in 12th place.
Return to Southampton Farrell returned to Southampton, now playing at
The Dell, in May 1899 to replace
Abe Hartley who had moved on to
Woolwich Arsenal. Both he and the club started the League season well with twelve wins from the first fifteen games, in which Farrell scored eleven goals, until an injury in February put Farrell out for several weeks, allowing
Roddy McLeod to stake a claim for the
centre-forward position. Although Farrell returned to the side in mid-March after a run of three league defeats, he was unable to find the form of the early part of the season and was in and out of the side, scoring only once from his last six appearances. Southampton finished the season in a disappointing third place having lost five of their last seven games. It was clear that Farrell had fallen out of favour and had upset Southampton's football journalists after physically threatening one of them after he had published criticism of Farrell, whereas McLeod had deputised successfully for him and had made himself popular with both the fans and the press. Whilst Farrell had the better skill when fully fit he tended to be temperamental and many of the team preferred McLeod for his more selfless contribution to the side. He then returned to the
Southern League with
Northampton Town for the
1901–02 season. On 29 December 1901, he returned to
The Dell with Northampton, but was on the wrong end of an 11–0 scoreline, with Farrell's eventual replacement
Albert Brown scoring seven of the goals. Farrell's football career ended with a season at
West Ham United where he played 20 Southern League matches, scoring three goals. His penultimate appearance was back at The Dell when he was once again on the losing side, as West Ham lost 6–0 to the Saints (with a hat-trick from
England international
Archie Turner) who thus claimed the Southern League title for the fifth time in seven years. ==Career after football==