Adrian Capes

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English footballer

title: "Adrian Capes" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["1873-births", "1955-deaths", "footballers-from-burton-upon-trent", "english-men's-footballers", "men's-association-football-forwards", "burton-wanderers-f.c.-players", "nottingham-forest-f.c.-players", "burton-swifts-f.c.-players", "port-vale-f.c.-players", "stoke-city-f.c.-players", "english-football-league-players", "english-cricketers", "staffordshire-cricketers", "english-football-coaches", "port-vale-f.c.-non-playing-staff", "19th-century-english-sportsmen", "20th-century-english-sportsmen"] description: "English footballer" topic_path: "technology/web" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adrian_Capes" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary English footballer ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox football biography"]

Field	Value
name	Adrian Capes
image	Adrian Capes.JPG
caption	Capes in Port Vale colours.
fullname	Adrian Capes
birth_date
birth_place	Burton upon Trent, England
death_date
death_place	Smallthorne, Stoke-on-Trent, England
position	Forward
youthyears1
years1	1894–1896
years2	1896–1898
years3	1898–1900
years4	1900–1905
years5	1905–1907
years6	1908–1911
totalcaps	312
::

Adrian Capes (18 April 1873 – 29 September 1955), was an English footballer. A forward, he scored a total of 135 goals in 340 league and FA Cup games in a 17-year career with Nottingham Forest, Burton Wanderers, Burton Swifts, Burslem Port Vale, and Stoke. He also played cricket for Staffordshire in the 1900 Minor Counties Cricket Championship. After retiring in 1911, he worked behind the scenes at Port Vale from 1911 to 1934. His brother, Arthur, was also a professional footballer.

Career

Capes was born in Burton upon Trent and began his career at Second Division club Burton Wanderers, along with his brother Arthur. He and his brother formed a formidable partnership in two seasons with Burton, scoring 66 goals between them. Their efforts helped to bring the club to within four points of champions Liverpool in 1895–96.

This brought the attention of bigger clubs, and they both signed for First Division side Nottingham Forest in August 1896. Only Arthur made any impact at the club, whilst Adrian fell out of the first-team picture. He scored seven goals in 29 top-flight games in 1896–97 before returning to his hometown the next season with Burton Swifts, back in the Second Division. He made little impact for the Swifts and featured once in the 1898–99 season.

Capes signed with Burslem Port Vale in November 1900. He scored 11 goals in 25 matches in the 1900–01 season, ending as the club's top-scorer. He played every league game in the 1901–02 campaign, claiming 14 league and three FA Cup goals. He missed just the one league game in the 1902–03 season, claiming 18 goals throughout the campaign. He bagged two hat-tricks in a 4–0 win over Stockport County at Edgeley Park on 13 December, and in a 5–1 win over Lincoln City at the Athletic Ground on 24 January. Capes scored 17 goals in the 1903–04 campaign to finish as the club's top-scorer for the fourth season in a row. However, he found the net just four times in his 30 league games in the 1904–05 season, as the Vale struggled in front of goal. He opened the 1905–06 season with just two goals (both against Chesterfield) in 12 league games and was transferred to nearby Stoke in November 1905, after receiving a recommendation from his brother who had a good two-year spell at the Victoria Ground.

Capes played six First Division matches for Stoke without scoring in the 1905–06 season. He played 13 matches in the 1906–07 campaign and claimed goals against Everton and Notts County, but left in February 1907 with Stoke heading towards relegation.

After almost two years out of the game, he rejoined phoenix club Port Vale, who were competing in the North Staffordshire & District League, in December 1908. He suffered a knee injury in March 1910 and never fully recovered, retiring in the summer of 1911. He had scored 15 goals in 33 league games in his second spell at the club and won the Staffordshire Junior Cup in 1910. Upon his retirement from playing, Capes served Port Vale as a trainer from 1911 to 1919 and remained in the Vale back-room team until his full retirement in May 1934.

Family

His younger brother, Arthur, won the FA Cup in 1898 with Nottingham Forest, and also played for Stoke, as well as playing once for England in 1903.

Career statistics

::data[format=table title="Appearances and goals by club, season and competition{{ENFA}}"]

Club	Season	League	FA Cup	Total	Division	Apps	Goals	Apps
Burton Wanderers	1894–95	Second Division	30	16	5	3	35	19
1895–96	Second Division	24	16	0	0	24	16
Nottingham Forest	1896–97	First Division	29	7	4	0	33	7
1897–98	First Division	1	0	0	0	1	0
Burton Swifts	1897–98	Second Division	13	7	0	0	13	7
1898–99	Second Division	1	0	0	0	1	0
Burslem Port Vale	1900–01	North Staffs League	24	10	1	1	25	11
1901–02	Second Division	34	14	5	3	39	17
1902–03	Second Division	33	16	2	2	35	18
1903–04	Second Division	31	14	7	3	38	17
1904–05	Second Division	30	4	2	0	32	4
1905–06	Second Division	12	2	0	0	12	2
Stoke	1905–06	First Division	6	0	0	0	6	0
1906–07	First Division	11	2	2	0	13	2
Port Vale	1908–09	North Staffs League	13	4	0	0	13	4
1909–10	North Staffs League	18	11	0	0	18	11
1910–11	North Staffs League	2	0	0	0	2	0
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Honours

Port Vale

Staffordshire Junior Cup: 1910

References

"Player profile: Adrian Capes". CricketArchive.
Matthews, Tony. (1994). "The Encyclopaedia of Stoke City". Lion Press.
Kent, Jeff. (1996). "Port Vale Personalities". Witan Books.
Betts, Graham. (2006). "England: Player by player". Green Umbrella Publishing.
{{ENFA

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