While stationed near Cardiff he played football for Welsh League side Aberaman Athletic, where he was noticed by bigger clubs.
Unable to establish himself as a regular first-team player at Huddersfield, he moved to fellow First Division club Birmingham in March 1935.
At Birmingham he was used in his preferred position on the left wing, but still took another eighteen months to supplant Billy Guest as first choice in that spot.
He was the club's top scorer in 1936–37, with 15 league goals (16 in all competitions), but this was the only year in which injury and international duty allowed him to play anything approaching a full season.
During the Second World War he serviced aircraft at Elmdon aerodrome and made occasional appearances for Birmingham, playing his last game for the club in April 1945.