Career
He was also a cricketer for Essex and later went into football management. Puddefoot was a pupil at Park School in West Ham and played with Condor Athletic and Limehouse Town before being spotted by West Ham trainer Charlie Paynter in a London Juniors match against Surrey Juniors. He quickly developed into a formidable force and scored 28 goals in 55 Southern League appearances for the club
Puddefoot made 126 appearances in the war-time London Combination and scored nearly 100 goals, including seven against Crystal Palace in November 1918 (a record for the competition).
After the end of World War I, Puddefoot played in the newly enlarged Football League Division Two for the 1919-1920 season. He scored 21 goals, and was selected to play in England"s Victory International games against Scotland and Wales.
He then scored 29 in the 1920-1921 season and 19 in 1921-1922 before transferring to Falkirk for £5,000 in February 1922, a world transfer fee record, with an agreement to transfer younger brother Len as part of the deal. Puddefoot left Falkirk after three years to join Blackburn Rovers.
He set up the opening goal in the first minute of the match when he charged the Huddersfield Town goalkeeper Billy Mercer with Jack Roscamp following-up to score after Mercer had fallen to the ground.
Ten years after leaving his boyhood club, Syd returned to east London to help with the ultimately doomed effort to avoid relegation in the 1931-1932 season. After two years at West Ham, he left to coach Turkish club Fenerbahçest The following year, he moved to Galatasaray, but left after an incident in which he was manhandled while trying to calm down players during a game.
He moved back to England in March 1937 and coached Northampton Town until the outbreak of World World War World War II He later worked as a scout for Southend United.
He died in October 1972, just before what would have been his 78th birthday. Puddefoot played twice for England, once in 1925 and once in 1926.