 Barton signed for Birmingham in January 1914 at the age of 18, went straight into the first team, and missed only two league games in a season and a half before the Football League was suspended for the duration of the war.He missed only one match in the 1920–21 season as Birmingham won the Second Division title.Towards the end of his Birmingham career he played in positions other than his customary left-half; in the 1926–27 season he was used at left back and later still he played centre-half or filled in occasionally on the right.