Dennis Wilshaw
| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Dennis James Wilshaw | ||
| Date of birth | 11 March 1926 | ||
| Place of birth | Stoke-on-Trent, England | ||
| Date of death | 10 May 2004 (aged 78) | ||
| Place of death | Stoke-on-Trent, England | ||
| Height | 5 ft 10 in | ||
| Playing position | Forward | ||
| Youth career | |||
| Packmoor Boys' Club | |||
| Senior career* | |||
| Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) |
| 1944–1957 | Wolverhampton Wanderers | 211 | (105) |
| 1946–1948 | → Walsall (loan) | 74 | (27) |
| 1957–1961 | Stoke City | 95 | (41) |
| Total | 380 | (173) | |
| National team | |||
| 1949 | England B | 1 | (2) |
| 1953–1956 | England | 12 | (10) |
| * Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. |
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Dennis James Wilshaw (11 March 1926 – 10 May 2004) was an English international footballer. A forward, he scored 173 goals in 380 appearances in the Football League, and also scored ten goals in twelve appearances for the England national team (including one goal in the 1954 FIFA World Cup and four goals against Scotland at Wembley). He spent 13 years with Wolverhampton Wanderers from 1944 to 1957, where he won the First Division title in 1953–54. He spent 1946 to 1948 on loan at Walsall, and ended his career after playing for Stoke City between 1957 and 1961.
Brian Glanville described him as: "Slim but strong, at 5 ft 10 in and 10 st 7 lb, Wilshaw was quick and direct, with a powerful shot... Essentially left-footed but effortlessly versatile, Wilshaw could play with equal success at outside-left, inside-left, or even centre-forward."
Another journalist, Ivan Ponting, wrote that: "Wilshaw was strong, resilient and direct, an awkward customer for any opponent to control, and thus was perfectly suited to Stan Cullis's formidable all-action Wolves side... He was capable of sudden bursts of searing acceleration which equipped him ideally to exploit gaps in opposition defences. His shooting was explosively powerful, especially with his left foot, and he was combative in the air."
Wilshaw joined Wolverhampton Wanderers in March 1944 after being spotted playing for Packmoor Boys' Club in his youth where he scored 10 goals in a 16–0 win. The war made guesting a common occurrence and so he played a game for Port Vale on 5 May 1945, a 6–0 Potteries derby thumping at the Victoria Ground. He began guesting at Harry Hibbs's Walsall and had an extended loan spell at the Third Division South side, making 82 appearances, scoring 31 goals, before returning to top flight Wolves in September 1948. He built an effective partnership with Doug Lishman. During this time he also continued his education to become a qualified teacher. He finished as the "Saddlers" top-scorer in 1946–47 with 21 goals in 39 games. He hit nine goals in 40 appearances in 1947–48, and also appeared at Fellows Park in the first few games of the 1948–49 campaign.
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