[1] Keen not to lose Gooney to another club United employed him as an office assistance but allowed him to train with the first team.
Gooney also played as an amateur for local side Norton Woodseats until he was seventeen, at which point he officially re-joined United.
[1] Despite showing early promise as a youngster, Gooney struggled to maintain that into his adult career, and having been hampered by three successive bouts of pneumonia, he did not make his league debut until September 1930 only a month from his twentieth birthday.
[1] United finally agreed to Gooney's transfer request at the end of the 1934–35 season, and he was sold to Plymouth Argyle for £300 in June 1935.
[1] After retiring from football Gooney spent a long period unemployed before eventually finding employment with the Sheffield Electricity Department where he worked for 33 years.