In preparation for the 1929–30 season, Womack made "extensive changes", which included the signing of Corbett, described by the Daily Express as a "young and promising back".
[11] By the following week, he was "shaping as though he might establish himself in the right full-back position",[12] but despite remaining at City for six years, he made only 15 first-team appearances,[3] and was transfer-listed at the end of the 1935–36 season.
[1] He scored 51 goals from 120 appearances in all senior competitions in five years with Lincoln,[1] When Corbett left Manchester City, the club paid him £200 in lieu of the benefit which he might have received as a long-serving employee.
The Players' Union funded a test case in 1939 in the names of Corbett and former City teammate Bill Dale to challenge the Inland Revenue's opinion that benefit payments were taxable; some 130 footballers would be affected by the decision.
He ruled that such payments were not "a purely exceptional gift", as contended on the recipients' behalf, but were "made in respect of and as remuneration for employment" and thus taxable.