George Jacob Tweedy (8 January 1913 – 23 April 1987) was an English

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

who played as a

goalkeeper In many team sports which involve scoring goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or intercepting o ...

. He was a one club player for

Grimsby Town Grimsby Town Football Club is a professional football club based in Cleethorpes, North East Lincolnshire, England, that in the 2022–23 season will compete in , the fourth tier of the English football league system, following the victory in ...

and earned one

cap A cap is a flat headgear, usually with a visor. Caps have crowns that fit very close to the head. They made their first appearance as early as 3200 BC. Caps typically have a visor, or no brim at all. They are popular in casual and informal se ...

for

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 ...

. He played 347 league games in a

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

interrupted career spanning 20 years. He is considered to be Grimsby's "best ever goalkeeper".

Club career

Born in the rural mining town of Willington,

County Durham County Durham ( ), officially simply Durham,UK General Acts 1997 c. 23Lieutenancies Act 1997 Schedule 1(3). From legislation.gov.uk, retrieved 6 April 2022. is a ceremonial county in North East England.North East Assembly �About North East E ...

, Tweedy first played for Durham Schools and then his hometown club Willington F. C. He made his debut for Grimsby against

Bradford City Bradford City Association Football Club is an English professional football club in Bradford, West Yorkshire. The team competes in League Two, the fourth tier of the English football league system and are currently managed by Mark Hughes. Th ...

on 19 November 1932 upon replacement of

Read Read Read may refer to: * Reading, human cognitive process of decoding symbols in order to construct or derive meaning * Read (automobile), an American car manufactured from 1913 to 1915 * Read (biology), an inferred sequence of base pairs of ...

, the regular goalkeeper, who had a broken finger. At the time of his debut, Grimsby had just been relegated from the First Division, they rejoined the top division in Tweedy's second season with the club by winning the

Second Division In sport, the Second Division, also called Division 2 or Division II is usually the second highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Following the rise of Premier League style compet ...

championship. This led to six consecutive seasons in the top division, two

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 ...

semi finals, the club's highest ever league ranking as fifth and Tweedy winning his only England cap. He went on to miss the second FA Cup semi-final to an injury and was replaced by Moulson, who also injured himself during that semi-final match.

World War hiatus

During the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, players played in teams close to where they were stationed and this gave Tweedy the chance to play with Grimsby Town until 1942. However, most of the team including keeper Tweedy were eventually sent off to battle and this left the remaining team with a mixture of untried young players and guests. Tweedy's replacement in goal was, once again,

George Moulson George Bernard Moulson (6 August 1914 – 11 November 1994) was an Irish professional footballer. He played three times for the Republic of Ireland national football team and also played at club level for Lincoln City, Grimsby Town

who left for Lincoln County upon Tweedy's return in 1946. Tweedy played as a guest for both

Arsenal An arsenal is a place where arms and ammunition are made, maintained and repaired, stored, or issued, in any combination, whether privately or publicly owned. Arsenal and armoury (British English) or armory (American English) are mostly ...

and Hibernian in the intervening years. After World War 2, Grimsby managed only two more seasons in the First Division and have never regained such a status since. Keeper Tweedy is also the second of three Grimsby players to be capped by England whilst playing for the club. He retired as a player in 1950 to become

assistant 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 o ...

with Grimsby, and from July 1950 to January 1951, stayed with the team as caretaker manager. He returned as a player for a small time period in late 1951, before finally retiring on 3 April 1953.

International career

George played his only game for England on 2 December 1936 at

Highbury Highbury is a district in North London and part of the London Borough of Islington in Greater London that was owned by Ranulf brother of Ilger and included all the areas north and east of Canonbury and Holloway Roads. The manor house was situ ...

against

Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia a ...

. England won 6–2 in front of a crowd of around 36,000 people.Match Report
at EnglandFanzine.co.uk, England vs Hungary, 1936. He was prevented from acquiring more caps by being in competition with fellow goalkeepers Woodley (19 caps) of

Chelsea Chelsea or Chelsey may refer to: Places Australia * Chelsea, Victoria Canada * Chelsea, Nova Scotia * Chelsea, Quebec United Kingdom * Chelsea, London, an area of London, bounded to the south by the River Thames ** Chelsea (UK Parliament consti ...

and Hibbs (25 caps) of

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...

Career statistics

Honours

Grimsby Town *

: 1934 *

Third Division North The Third Division North 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 South with clubs elected to the League or relegated from a higher division allocated to ...

runners-up: 1952

References

External links

George Tweedy
at EnglandStats.com
George Tweedy
at EnglandFanzine.co.uk {{DEFAULTSORT:Tweedy, George 1913 births 1987 deaths Grimsby Town F.C. players Grimsby Town F.C. managers English men's footballers England men's international footballers Men's association football goalkeepers Arsenal F.C. wartime guest players Hibernian F.C. wartime guest players Willington A.F.C. players English football managers People from Willington, County Durham Footballers from County Durham