Was going to say the same as Paul closed with, in those days players often played out of their "normal" position.
I believe in one of the early England internationals the goalkeeper normally played outfield rather than in goal.

========================================
Message Received: Aug 02 2009, 05:38 PM
From: "Paul Crankshaw"
To: soccerdatauk@yahoogroups.com
Cc:
Subject: Re: [soccerdatauk] question Thomas Harold Bestwick

 

"Bestwick" is clearly a surname which is relatively common in and around
Long Eaton.

I am currently looking at the archive of the Derby Mercury newspaper

The first reference I can find to the goalkeeper is

15 Oct 1884 "Bestwick" is in goal for LER against "Aston Villa (an
Eleven)". The umpire is "Mr B Bestwick"

In the following week (v Ockbridge & Borrowash) the keeper is named as
"T H Bestwick" and the umpire remains "Mr B Bestwick"

In the team selected for Derbyshire v Cheshire (Nov 28 1885) the
goalkeeper is given as "J Bestwick, Long Eaton Rangers". However, on
that same day H Bestwick plays for Derby County v Blackburn Rovers and
another keeper plays for Derbyshire. In the previous week "Luntley" was
Derby County's keeper and he had been a regular so it would seem Nov 28
1885 was T H Bestwick's debut. However Luntley is in goal through
December and most of January before Bestwick makes another appearance.
The impression from the reports is that Luntley is Derby's first choice
goalkeeper with Bestwick just making occasional appearances whilst also
making appearances for LER..

Bestwick appears to be Derby's regular keeper in 1886-87. Thereafter,
unfortunately, the Mercury goes into less detail in its reports.
However, Derby's regular keeper becomes Marshall.

Still - going back to your question it's almost certainly the same
player. If a team were a man short it would be normal to recruit
someone, sometimes from the crowd, and stick them out on the wing.
Perhaps Bestwick was around when someone failed to turn up.

Stefaan Degryse wrote:
> Hello all,
>
> I have a question regarding Thomas Harold Bestwick the goalkeeper who played one League game for Derby County in the first ever season of the Football League.
>
> Bestwick came from Long Eaton Rangers and according to the excellent site of Mike Joyce (since1888.co.uk) he suppossedly also returned to Long Eaton Rangers after he left Derby County.
>
> In the new book about the Football Alliance (thanks Mick, Keith, Tony and all others who worked on this) Long Eaton Rangers had a player TH Bestwick fielded in the game at Birmingham St Georges on November 2th 1889. He played as outside right during that game.
>
>
> So now the obvious question is, is this the same person who played in goal for Derby County?
>
>
> Thanks in advance for any help on this.
>
>
> Ciao
> Stef,
>
>
>