Playing career

Powell most likely joined Burslem Port Vale

Port Vale F.C.

Port Vale Football Club is an English football club currently playing in Football League Two. They are based in Burslem, Staffordshire — one of six towns that make up the city of Stoke-on-Trent. The club's traditional rivals in the city are Stoke City, and games between the two clubs are known as...

 in the autumn

Autumn

Autumn is one of the four temperate seasons. Autumn marks the transition from summer into winter usually in September or March when the arrival of night becomes noticeably earlier....

 of 1884. His first recorded game was in a 6–1 thumping at Blackburn Olympic

Blackburn Olympic F.C.

Blackburn Olympic F.C. was an English association football club based in Blackburn, Lancashire in the late 19th century. Although the club was only in existence for just over a decade, it is significant in the history of football in England as the first club from the north of the country and the...

 on 1 November 1884 in a friendly

Exhibition game

An exhibition game is a sporting event in which there is no competitive value of any significant kind to any competitor regardless of the outcome of the competition...

. The next year he was a member of the sides that won the Burslem Challenge and shared the North Staffs Charity Challenge cups in 1885. He was rather callously

Callus (disambiguation)

Callus means a hardening of a certain object or substance. It can refer to:*Callus, an area of toughened skin*Fibrocartilage callus, the temporary new bony tissue that forms at the ends of a fractured bone...

 given the nickname

Nickname

A nickname is "a usually familiar or humorous but sometimes pointed or cruel name given to a person or place, as a supposedly appropriate replacement for or addition to the proper name.", or a name similar in origin and pronunciation from the original name....

 "Pull-it" after badly disjointing a knee

Knee

The knee joint joins the thigh with the leg and consists of two articulations: one between the fibula and tibia, and one between the femur and patella. It is the largest joint in the human body and is very complicated. The knee is a mobile trocho-ginglymus , which permits flexion and extension as...

 in a 4–1 defeat at Crewe Alexandra

Crewe Alexandra F.C.

Crewe Alexandra Football Club is an English professional football club based in Crewe, Cheshire. Nicknamed The Railwaymen due to the town's links with the rail industry, they currently play in Football League Two, the fourth tier of English football, and are based at the Alexandra Stadium.The club...

 in a Football Combination match on 20 October 1888, the injury was so severe a doctor

Physician

A physician is a health care provider who practices the profession of medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring human health through the study, diagnosis, and treatment of disease, injury and other physical and mental impairments...

 had to be brought onto the pitch before Powell was carried off. Once had recovered he was mainly used as a reserve player and was released at the end of the 1892–93 season

1892–93 Burslem Port Vale F.C. season

The 1892–93 season was Burslem Port Vale's first season of football in the Football League. The club were founding members of the Football League Second Division, the First Division having been in operation for four seasons prior to 1892–93...

. He had played 142 games for the Vale; 102 of these were friendlies, 31 were cup games, 6 were in the Football Combination and 3 were Football League

The Football League

The Football League, also known as the npower Football League for sponsorship reasons, is a league competition featuring professional association football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888, it is the oldest such competition in world football...

games.

Honours

with Port Vale

• Burslem Challenge Cup winner: 1885
• North Staffordshire Charity Challenge Cup winner: 1885 (shared)