He was though a product of West Riding schools football and joined Huddersfield Town from Ravensthorpe BC as an amateur in June 1940.
After service as a wireless operator in the RAF he signed as a professional in December 1945 and was a regular in the first team until leaving for Hull City in June 1958.
He was a natural left-footed player and his position at outside left was essentially unchallenged during his twelve years of post-war football at Huddersfield, nine seasons in the First Division and three in the Second.
In 1952–53 Huddersfield set a league record in that the entire defence (Wheeler; Staniforth, Kelly; McGarry, McEvoy, Quested) played unchanged throughout the season.
Representative honours for other wingers were hard to come by in the days of Stanley Matthews and Tom Finney, but Metcalfe won two caps for England against Portugal and against Argentina, both in May 1951; in both matches his club colleague Harold Hassall played at inside-left.