The footballer Nat Lofthouse, who has died aged 85, won 33 England caps during a career spent entirely with one club, Bolton Wanderers. His most memorable performance, which won him the nickname the "Lion of Vienna", was for England against Austria in May 1952. Friendly internationals then held an importance that has now all but vanished, and Lofthouse's winning goal, in a 3-2 victory against a powerful team, was lauded to the skies.
Six years later, he scored both goals for Bolton Wanderers when they beat Manchester United 2-0 in the 1958 FA Cup final at Wembley. The second goal, when he crashed into United's goalkeeper Harry Gregg in mid-air as he caught a high cross, was probably illegal – as Lofthouse himself would later admit. But it still counted. A few months later, he was back at Wembley to terrorise the Russian goalkeeper with his robust challenges, helping England to win 5-0. The superb left-footed shot on the turn which scored England's fifth and last goal was his 30th for England, equalling what was then Tom Finney's record.
This made it the more bitterly ironic that Lofthouse, inexplicably, had been left out of the England World Cup team which, the previous summer, had been knocked out of the tournament by the Russians. The international career of this powerfully built centre-forward never quite matched his fame, though it began as early as 1950, when he was capped at Highbury against Yugoslavia. He did figure in the 1954 World Cup in Switzerland, playing in the opening game against Belgium and in the quarter-finals when England lost 4-2 to Uruguay, Lofthouse scoring a goal. Perhaps his style was a little too traditional for the England selectors and the team manager, Walter Winterbottom.
Born in Bolton, Lancashire, the son of a coal-bagger for the Co-op, Lofthouse began playing football at a young age, in those all-or-nothing games on wasteground then common in the north of England. Going to watch his brother play for their school, Castle Hill, Lofthouse at the age of 11 found himself put in goal. He was wearing a new pair of shoes, but he did not dissent. He then asked for a regular game and, being big for his age, was installed at centre-forward. He would in fact succeed a still more illustrious Bolton-born centre-forward, Tommy Lawton, in the Castle Hill school team.
Meanwhile, he had become a devoted supporter of Bolton Wanderers; though not to the extent of paying to see their home games. Instead, he would shin up one of the drainpipes at Burnden Park, and get in for nothing. Bolton Wanderers took him on when he was only 14. He signed for the club on the day after the second world war broke out. Lofthouse went to work in Walkers' tannery, began playing in the makeshift Bolton team at the age of 15 – already weighing over 12 stone – and was subsequently called up as a Bevin Boy, working in the mines for four years. After that, professional football seemed like an extended holiday.
A natural header of the ball, climbing high above taller defenders – he stood at 5ft 9in – he initially preferred to attack the ball in the air. He honed his technique by spending hours heading a tennis ball against the wall of his house. But he developed a powerful shot, as well. His expenses, at first, were half a crown a week, rising to three shillings and sixpence, then to seven and six. Turning professional, he was paid £1 10s.
As sometimes happens to a local player, he went through a difficult period, when things went awry on the field and the supporters got on his back. But suddenly, something seemed to click, and by the end of the war he was a local hero. He had profited by playing alongside "guest" footballers – a wartime concession – of the calibre of Finney and Bill Shankly, of Preston North End. "They were very patient," Lofthouse later reflected, on the spectators of that time. "When I think about it now, I was very limited."
When the penny dropped, his form improved and goals began to flow. No one was more surprised than Lofthouse himself, he said. But flow they did. In all, he would score no fewer than 255 League goals for Bolton, then a regular First Division club, in 452 matches. The title of his 1954 autobiography was Goals Galore. His debut for England was highly successful, since he scored both his side's goals in their 2-2 draw with the Yugoslavs in November 1950. Nevertheless, Lofthouse had to wait almost a year before he became for a time England's first choice centre-forward. Between October 1951 and November 1953 – the year when he was voted Footballer of the Year – he did not miss an international.
He gained his Lion of Vienna nickname for his gallant display against Austria. Collecting the ball near the halfway line, Lofthouse set off on a remarkable run, harried and hacked by the Austrian defence, until he shot into the net; to be left prone and battered on the ground. In 1953 he played for Bolton in the "Matthews Final" at Wembley. In all the eulogies of Stanley Matthews, who inspired Blackpool to a 4-3 victory over Bolton, it tends to be forgotten that Bolton played most of the Cup final with 10 fit men, their left-half, Eric Bell, being obliged to hobble on the wing, though it did not stop him scoring. Lofthouse had to wait another five years before he took home a cupwinners' medal.
Thus Lofthouse, so depressed by adverse criticism that he had almost stopped playing in 1943, entered the pantheon of Bolton's heroes. It was long enough ago, before the era of mammoth salaries, for him to feel endlessly grateful to be a professional footballer. He was of the era when the close links with working-class life had yet to be severed. "I got easy money," he once said. "I know; I've worked down the pit, and I've played football."
Retiring in 1960 after an injury, he took over a pub for a time, regaling the clientele with his footballing stories, then became manager of Bolton in 1970, but found that a less rewarding occupation than scoring goals. His connection with Bolton continued beyond that awkward spell, however, and in 1986 he became its president. He was made OBE in 1994, and in 1997 Bolton named the east stand after him at their new Reebok Stadium.
Lofthouse married Alma Foster in 1947; she died in 1985. He is survived by a son and a daughter.