He scored the first hat-trick in the history of the FA Cup final, and he is considered an important pioneer of the game in Germany, leading Karlsruher FV and SpVgg Fürth to three German championships as a coach.

[2] On 15 September 1888, Townley, playing as a winger, made his league debut at Leamington Road, then home of Blackburn Rovers, against Accrington.

In the first of these title appearances against The Wednesday, the outside left made history by contributing three goals in a 6–1 victory, earning the distinction of becoming the first player to score a hat-trick in an FA Cup final.

At the end of his playing years, Townley took up coaching as a profession; as the opportunities were limited in England, he left for the continent, where football was beginning to develop a serious following.

In December 1913, Townley got the call from Bayern Munich, but on a loan arrangement he re-joined Fürth in April of the following year to guide them through the national championship rounds.

It is not clear, but he may then have returned to Munich, before the horrors of World War I overtook the continent, obscuring knowledge of Townley's activities during this period.

Afterward, Townley moved to SV Waldhof Mannheim, where he spent two months aiding in the club's preparations for the South German Championship.

It then appears that he may have coached in Sweden, before joining SC Victoria Hamburg where he and his son, playing as a striker, spent a couple of seasons.

In the semi-finals, the Netherlands lost a closely fought match to Uruguay – the dominant side of that era, who counted the legendary Andrade and Pedro Cea in their ranks – and had to settle for fourth place.

In 1930, Townley returned for a third time to Fürth, with the club winning the South German Championship, before being ousted from the national playoffs in the quarter-finals by the defending champions Hertha Berlin.

Arminia defeated Dresdner SC in a quarter-final match, but lost in the next round at home to eventual champions Fortuna Düsseldorf, starring the legendary Paul Janes.