He played football for the Unity Gas Depot works team before joining Small Heath in 1887.
[2] In Small Heath's first season in the Football Alliance, Short scored four goals in 13 appearances playing as a winger,[3] but later he became most comfortable at full back.
[2] This meant a lengthy spell in the reserve team, because first-choice defenders Tom Bayley and Fred Speller missed only two games between them in the next two seasons.
Short returned to the first team for the club's first season in the Football League in 1892–93, contributing to their winning the inaugural Second Division championship.
This biographical article related to association football in England, about a defender born in the 1860s, is a stub.