George Summers (born 30 July 1941) is a Scottish retired professional football forward,

manager Management (or managing) is the administration of an organization, whether it is a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government body. It is the art and science of managing resources of the business. Management includes the activities ...

and

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who played in the Football League for Brentford. He later moved to

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the Atlantic Ocean, South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the ...

Playing career

Brentford

Summers began his career in

Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...

at junior club Shawfield Juniors and moved to

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

to sign for

Third Division South The Third Division South of The Football League was a tier in the English football league system from 1921 to 1958. It ran in parallel with the Third Division North with clubs elected to the League or relegated from Division Two allocated to ...

club Brentford in January 1959, who were at the time managed by

Scot The Scots ( sco, Scots Fowk; gd, Albannaich) are an ethnic group and nation native to Scotland. Historically, they emerged in the early Middle Ages from an amalgamation of two Celtic-speaking peoples, the Picts and Gaels, who founded t ...

Malky McDonald. With George Francis and

Jim Towers Edwin James Towers (15 April 1933 – 16 September 2010) was an English professional footballer, best remembered for his time as a centre forward in the Football League with Brentford. He is the club's all-time leading goalscorer and in 2013 wa ...

ahead of him in the pecking order up front, Summers initially played for the

reserve team In sports, a reserve team is a team composed of players under contract to a club but who do not normally play in matches for the first team. Reserve teams often include back-up players from the first team, young players who need playing time to i ...

. He failed to make a first team appearance during the remainder of the 1958–59 season and failed to receive a call at all during the 1959–60 season. Summers finally made his professional debut, nearly two years after signing, in a 4–3

League Cup In several sports, most prominently association football, a league cup or secondary cup generally signifies a cup competition for which entry is restricted only to teams in a particular league. The first national association football tournament t ...

second round victory over Sunderland at Griffin Park on 25 October 1960. He made something of a breakthrough into the first team during what remained of the 1960–61 season and made a total of 16 appearances, scoring six goals. The departures of Towers and Francis during the 1961 off-season (though Francis would soon return) saw a space open up in the Bees'

forward line In the sport of Australian rules football, each of the eighteen players in a team is assigned to a particular named position on the field of play. These positions describe both the player's main role and by implication their location on the gro ...

alongside new signing Johnny Brooks and Summers got his chance. He made 35 appearances and scored eight goals during the 1961–62 season, at the end of which the club suffered relegation to the Fourth Division. The acquisition of new forwards Billy McAdams and John Dick pushed Summers back into the reserves for the 1962–63 season, but he still managed six goals in 15 league games and claimed the first silverware of his career, when Brentford returned to the Third Division as Fourth Division champions. Summers was mostly confined to the reserves during the 1963–64 and 1964–65 and made just 12 first team appearances, though he did enjoy some success with the reserves, by winning the

London Challenge Cup The London Challenge Cup was a football tournament formerly organised by the London FA. It was first contested in 1908, and other than during the World Wars, was contested every season until 1974, when the tournament was disbanded. After a 16- ...

in 1965 and scoring in the final versus

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. Not in favour with new manager

Tommy Cavanagh Thomas Henry Cavanagh (29 June 1928 – 14 March 2007) was an English football player and coach. As a player, he was an inside-forward at six professional clubs, most notably Huddersfield Town, Doncaster Rovers and was player manager at Chelten ...

, Summers was released towards the end of the 1964–65 season. Despite never breaking into the first team, Summers scored 27 goals in 79 appearances in his six years at Griffin Park, an average of one goal every three games.

Port Elizabeth City

Summers moved to

to link up with former Brentford teammates Matt Crowe and George McLeod at

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ...

club Port Elizabeth City in 1965. He remained with the club for three years and was a part of its most successful period, finishing as National Football League runners-up in 1966 and winning the title in 1967.

Johannesburg Corinthians

Summers joined fellow National Football League club Johannesburg Corinthians in 1968 and stayed with the club for one season.

Managerial and coaching career

Summers managed South African club Hume Park in the early 1980s and coached the Eastern Province representative team under managers Colin Trader and Daan van der Mescht, helping the club to win the football edition of the

Currie Cup The Currie Cup is South Africa's premier domestic rugby union competition, played each winter and spring (June to October), featuring teams representing either entire provinces or substantial regions within provinces. Although it is the premier ...

in 1981 and 1982.

Honours

Brentford * Football League Fourth Division: 1962–63 *

: 1964–65 Port Elizabeth City *

: 1967

Career statistics

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Summers, George 1941 births Footballers from Glasgow Scottish men's footballers Brentford F.C. players National Football League (South Africa) players English Football League players Scottish football managers Men's association football forwards Scottish expatriate men's footballers Scottish expatriate football managers Scottish expatriate sportspeople in South Africa Expatriate men's soccer players in South Africa Living people Scottish Junior Football Association players Shawfield F.C. players Scottish emigrants to South Africa Corinthians F.C. (Johannesburg) players