Tommy "Topper" Thompson was born in
Fencehouses,
Houghton-le-Spring,
County Durham in 1928. He made his league debut in the
1947-48 promotion season at
Coventry City and scored twice in his four
second division appearances. Over the next two seasons he played only 16 games, scoring 4 goals. When manager
George Martin left Tyneside in 1950, Thompson soon followed Martin to
Aston Villa for £12,500. He made his debut against
Blackpool in September of that year, the first of 149 league games for Villa, in which he scored 67 goals. He reached double figures in all but one of his five seasons, managing only 9 in the
1952-53 season. He also won his second England cap, six years after his first, as England beat
Scotland 2–1 at
Wembley on 6 April 1957. He joined
Stoke City in August 1961 and scored on his debut against
Rotherham United, as he top scored for the Potters with 16 league goals. He played five more times for Stoke, scoring once more the following season, before leaving to join
Barrow, who played in the
fourth division. Over the next two seasons at Barrow, he scored 16 goals in 44 league appearances. 187 of those goals were scored in the
first division, which ranks Tommy Thompson at 37 of the
all-time top scorers in the top flight of English football. He died at the age of 86 on 15 September 2015. ==International career==