It could potentially be a player from 1904 or 1926 finals, as well as those in the 30s and 50s, and it's going to be difficult to track down, especially as we're not certain he played in a cup final or indeed was even a City player. I think we've all heard stories of people claiming to be City players. Indeed in 2002-05 there was a homeless person in London claiming to be Joe Hayes (who had already died) and irate people contacted me, Bernard Halford, and others connected with City saying this ex FAC goalscorer had conned them out of £100+. His scam involved a claim that City had finally sorted out his pension and he'd pay them back when he receives it. He was very convincing!
Anyway, back to Northmoor Rd. I know that building and road well. It is a key centre for MCFC history and if we ever manage to get blue plaques erected recognising City's history then several houses in that area would qualify. The St Mark's rectory was on North Road (as it used to be called) and the Connells lived there; the original Longsight Cricket ground was a few yards away from the rectory and was the site of promotional activity for football and other sports; Lawrence Furniss - ex Gorton player, manager, chairman and first life president, lived a few streets away for a while and his house was used as our official address for a while; members of our 1904 team lived in the area... Etc.
In terms of all footballers from 1904 to 56 it's possible any of them had a spell running a business, even Ken Barnes, who we all talk about as going straight into coaching etc was based at an Insurance company for a while and served at the front desk. Roy Clarke had a grocers before the sports shop and so on. Jack Dyson,incidentally, worked for John Willie Lees brewery.
It's difficult to know which player it could've been, but there will be land registry records or rent books or electoral records. It'd be worth going down those avenues but could be a fruitless task as he may well have been telling lies, though my gut feel is that he was a City player, but probably from 1926 as it's more likely he was based in Gorton/Longsight. Actually, if I had to guess at a player without evidence I'd go for Tommy Johnson - he stayed in the area and was well known to locals.
