In many ways it was a typical Sergio Aguero goal. After a quick break from Manchester City away at Napoli, the Argentine striker latched onto a loose ball, running towards goal with his lightning pace. His finish was deadly, striking the ball from distance into the corner of the opposition net, but there was one thing that set this goal apart from the others.
With it he had become the club’s all-time leading goalscorer, breaking a 78-year-old record set by Eric Brook. The former record-holder died back in 1965, but his daughter Betty Cougill was there alongside Mike Summerbee to present the man who broke her father’s long-standing record with his award at the next home match versus Arsenal.
"It is an honour and privilege to have scored so many goals for the club and to have made a contribution to the fantastic success we have achieved over the past years,” said Aguero to the Manchester Evening News after the presentation.“I will treasure the trophy and the beautiful gifts I have been given.
"I am thrilled to have been honoured in this way by the former and current players of the club’s teams, the family of Eric Brook, my team-mates, and most importantly, the wonderful fans of this fantastic club. I would like to say thank you to everyone who has helped me along the way since I signed for City in 2011.”
The new record prompted a flurry of articles lauding Aguero’s ability, but what of the man whose mark he had finally surpassed? Just who was Eric Brook? Of course he played in very different times to his modern counterpart, having joined City in 1928 from Barnsley alongside Fred Tilson. The pair would go on to be England team-mates, and Tilson himself is also on the list of the club’s all-time top goalscorers with 132.
One of their finest moments would come at the end of the 1933/34 season when City won the FA Cup after having been defeated in the final the year before by an Everton side that contained Dixie Dean. Portsmouth were the opponents in 1934, and Brook would set up his friend and team-mate Tilson to help their side to a 2-1 victory.
The squad – that included legendary goalkeeper Frank Swift, Matt Busby, and my great-grandad Peter Percival – had trained together on Southport beach prior to that match, but the season was not yet over. Thomas Cook had organised a post-season tour taking in Paris, Florence, Nice and Marseilles playing matches against Racing Club de Paris, Fiorentina, AC Milan, Admira Vienna and Marseilles.
Brook and Tilson broke off from that tour to travel to Hungary, joining up with the England squad for matches with the Hungarians and Czechoslovakia. That allowed my great-grandad – usually a reserve – to play in Florence against Fiorentina, a game where he scored a goal with the Italian World Cup squad watching on the sidelines.
His team-mate Brook would go on to play in another six seasons with City, scoring a career-high of 20 league goals in 1936/37 as his side won the league that year. Only five players have registered more appearances than Brook’s 450, making him a true hero in the history of the Manchester club.
That figure might have been more if he hadn’t suffered a terrible accident in 1940, when he was just 33 years old. Whilst travelling to an England wartime international with Scotland, Brook and team-mate Sam Barkas were involved in a car crash, leaving the former with a fractured skull. The injury sustained meant that the Manchester City legend opted to retire from football, a sad end to a sparkling career in blue.
Unlike Aguero, Brook was not earning the kind of money that would allow a player the luxury of not having to work after his career had ended. My great-grandad’s contracts show that he was earning £5 per week during his time with City, with an extra £1 added if he was selected for the first team, and only £2.50 during the summer break.
Brook worked as a coach driver, crane operator and a barman during his post-football years, whilst Peter Percival continued his life in his hometown of Stockport as a bricklayer. Conditions in the electricity power station where he worked no doubt contributed to the death of an otherwise physically fit man at the age of 49 in 1960.
You could see the pride through the tears of Betty Cougill as she presented the award to Aguero after he had broken her father’s record. But those men who had played back in the 1930’s were of an entirely different era than those who play in the modern game, heroes with a legacy that this writer can confirm their families will never forget.
