George Kirby (20 December 1933 – 24 March 2000) was an English footballer and manager.

Playing career

Kirby was born in

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a populat ...

. He was a centre forward who played for Everton,

Sheffield Wednesday Sheffield Wednesday Football Club is a professional association football club based in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. The team competes in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. Formed in 1867 as an offshoot ...

, Plymouth Argyle,

Southampton Southampton () is a port city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. It is located approximately south-west of London and west of Portsmouth. The city forms part of the South Hampshire built-up area, which also covers Po ...

Walsall Walsall (, or ; locally ) is a market town and administrative centre in the West Midlands County, England. Historically part of Staffordshire, it is located north-west of Birmingham, east of Wolverhampton and from Lichfield. Walsall is th ...

, Swansea City,

Coventry City Coventry City Football Club is a professional association football club based in Coventry, West Midlands, England. The team currently compete in the Championship, the second tier of the English football league system. The club is nicknamed t ...

New York Generals The New York Generals were an American professional soccer team based in New York City that competed in the National Professional Soccer League (NPSL) in 1967 and the North American Soccer League (NASL) in 1968. Founded as charter members ...

and Brentford. His career lasted from 1952 to 1969 during which he made 309 Football League appearances and scored 119 goals.

Management career

His first post in management was at

Halifax Town FC Halifax Town is a professional association football club based in Halifax, West Yorkshire, England. They currently compete in and play at the Shay. They replaced Halifax Town A.F.C., which went into administration in the 2007–08 season. ...

, initially as coach to

Alan Ball Senior James Alan Ball (26 September 1924 – 2 January 1982) was an English football player and manager. Playing career Born in Farnworth, Lancashire, Ball played as an inside forward for Bolton Boys Federation, Southport (in two spells), Birmingham ...

and then in 1970 as first team manager. He spent only one full season in charge, giving the club their most successful ever campaign just missing out on promotion to the old second division. He started the 1971–72 season by leading Halifax to a 2–1

Watney Cup The Watney Mann Invitation Cup (normally referred to as simply the Watney Cup) was a short-lived English football tournament held in the early 1970s. It was held before the start of the season, and was contested by the teams that had scored th ...

victory over a full strength Manchester United side, which included

George Best George Best (22 May 1946 – 25 November 2005) was a Northern Irish professional footballer who played as a winger, spending most of his club career at Manchester United. A highly skilful dribbler, Best is regarded as one of the greatest p ...

, Denis Law and

Bobby Charlton Sir Robert Charlton (born 11 October 1937) is an English former footballer who played either as a midfielder or a forward. Considered one of the greatest players of all time, he was a member of the England team that won the 1966 FIFA World ...

. Just a week later Kirby left Halifax to take charge at

Watford Watford () is a town and borough in Hertfordshire, England, 15 miles northwest of Central London, on the River Colne. Initially a small market town, the Grand Junction Canal encouraged the construction of paper-making mills, print works, and ...

where he remained until May 1973. At Watford, injuries, boardroom unrest, and a shortage of luck and money, conspired to produce two terrible winters consisting of one humiliation and very nearly a second. He later moved to Iceland where he managed one of the country's leading clubs;

Íþróttabandalag Akraness Íþróttabandalag Akraness (abbreviated ÍA), is an Icelandic sports club founded in 1946 and based in the town of Akranes, west Iceland. Among the main sports its members can practice are basketball, football, golf, horsemanship, gymnastics, ...

(ÍA)Þjálfarar ÍA 1951 - 2007 - Íþróttabandalag Akraness
In 1978, he left Akranes and returned to Halifax. Kirby inspired the team to another famous victory over Mancunian rivals; this time it was the turn of Malcolm Allison's Manchester City, who fell to a single Paul Hendrie goal in an

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual knockout football competition in men's domestic English football. First played during the 1871–72 season, it is the oldest national football competi ...

3rd round tie in January 1980. His second spell with the Yorkshire club ended in June 1981 after a string of poor results saw his team finish second bottom of the old 4th division.

References

* *The Watford Football Club Illustrated Who's Who by Trefor Jones {{DEFAULTSORT:Kirby, George 1933 births 2000 deaths Footballers from Liverpool English footballers Association football forwards Everton F.C. players Sheffield Wednesday F.C. players Plymouth Argyle F.C. players Southampton F.C. players Coventry City F.C. players Swansea City A.F.C. players Walsall F.C. players New York Generals (NPSL) players New York Generals players Brentford F.C. players Worcester City F.C. players English Football League players National Professional Soccer League (1967) players North American Soccer League (1968–1984) players English football managers Halifax Town A.F.C. managers Watford F.C. managers Íþróttabandalag Akraness managers English Football League managers English expatriates in Iceland English expatriate sportspeople in the United States Expatriate soccer players in the United States English expatriate footballers