Clubs: Grimsby Town, Crystal Palace, Boston United

Having seen Freddie Kurz 'guest' successfully for Palace during the War seasons of 1944/45 and 1945/46, including a hat-trick on his debut, supporters of the period petitioned the board to secure the free-scoring centre forward on a permanent basis. When Palac were drawn to face Queens park Rangers in the Third Round of the FA Cup in January 1946 no guests were allowed to play and the club hurried the petitioned move through, at what was then a club record fee of £5,000.

Freddie did not manage to keep Palace in the Cup against a powerful QPR outfit but he steadily repaid the fee several times over during the next five post-war seasons. Not only has his tally of 48 league goals only been exceeded by a handful of players but his goals were scored in a struggling Palace side which only finished once in the top half of the table.

Statistics