Raymond Ernest Wood (11 June 1931 – 7 July 2002) was an English professional

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 ...

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 ...

. Representing Manchester United, he played in the 1956 and 1957 Football League championship-winning teams. Known for his pace and agility, Wood had the opportunity to be a professional sprinter, but opted instead to play football. He played 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 ...

at international level on three occasions between 1954 and 1956 and, after retiring from playing in 1968, managed football clubs in the US,

Cyprus Cyprus ; tr, Kıbrıs (), officially the Republic of Cyprus,, , lit: Republic of Cyprus is an island country located south of the Anatolian Peninsula in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Its continental position is disputed; while it is ge ...

Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders ...

Kenya ) , national_anthem = " Ee Mungu Nguvu Yetu"() , image_map = , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Nairobi , coordinates = , largest_city = Nairobi ...

and the

United Arab Emirates The United Arab Emirates (UAE; ar, اَلْإِمَارَات الْعَرَبِيَة الْمُتَحِدَة ), or simply the Emirates ( ar, الِْإمَارَات ), is a country in Western Asia ( The Middle East). It is located at t ...

Playing career

Wood started his career as an amateur with Newcastle United, though he failed to make a first team appearance and moved to Darlington in 1949. He only stayed for three months though before joining Manchester United, making his first team debut against Newcastle at Old Trafford in the league on 3 December 1949. Over the next few seasons he gradually displaced the ageing

Jack Crompton John Crompton (18 December 1921 – 4 July 2013) was an English professional footballer. Born in Hulme, Manchester, Lancashire, he was a goalkeeper for Manchester United between 1944 and 1956. He was part of the team that won the FA Cup in 1948 a ...

as United's first choice goalkeeper. During the 1957 FA Cup Final against Aston Villa, Wood was the victim of what was then a perfectly legal shoulder charge. In the sixth minute of the game Wood successfully claimed a cross; however, Villa outside-left

Peter McParland Peter James McParland MBE (born 25 April 1934) is a former professional footballer. Club career Dundalk McParland was born in Newry, County Down, Northern Ireland. He was spotted playing for Dundalk in the League of Ireland by Aston Villa ma ...

clattered into him, breaking Wood's

jaw The jaw is any opposable articulated structure at the entrance of the mouth, typically used for grasping and manipulating food. The term ''jaws'' is also broadly applied to the whole of the structures constituting the vault of the mouth and serv ...

due to him ducking to avoid the challenge. As this game was played in the era before substitutes

Jackie Blanchflower John Blanchflower (7 March 1933 – 2 September 1998) was a Northern Irish footballer. He graduated from Manchester United's youth system and played for the club on 117 occasions, winning two league titles, before his career was cut short due to ...

was forced to play in goal following the incident, Wood eventually came back on after treatment to play as a forward, United went on to lose the game 2–1. His compensation for this was a Football League First Division title medal to add to the first medal he had gained a year earlier. In 1954, when only 23 years old, he was selected to play for the England team. In December 1957, United signed

Harry Gregg Henry Gregg, (27 October 1932 – 16 February 2020), was a Northern Irish professional footballer and manager. A goalkeeper, he played for Manchester United during the reign of Sir Matt Busby, with a total of 247 appearances for the club. He ...

from

Doncaster Rovers Doncaster Rovers Football Club is a professional association football club based in Doncaster, South Yorkshire, England. The team compete in League Two, the fourth tier of the English football league system. The club play their home games at ...

for £23,500 – the world record fee for a goalkeeper at the time – and Wood found his first-team opportunities limited. Wood was among the survivors of the Munich air disaster on 6 February 1958, suffering minor injuries, but played just one first-team game afterwards and was later sold to

Huddersfield Town Huddersfield Town Association Football Club is a professional football club based in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, England, which compete in the . The team have played home games at the Kirklees Stadium since moving from Leeds Road in 1994. Th ...

within a year. He spent seven seasons at Huddersfield, playing more than 250 first-team games, although he was unable to help them win promotion to the First Division. In 1965, he played in the

Eastern Canada Professional Soccer League The Eastern Canada Professional Soccer League was a soccer league in Canada. The league operated for six seasons from 1961 to 1966 across four cities in two Canadian provinces and one American state. In the 1960s, the Eastern Canada Professional ...

with Toronto Inter-Roma. He then played one season at

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. ...

, before finishing his career with two seasons at Barnsley. Several years after leaving Manchester United, Matt Busby unsuccessfully tried to re-sign him for Manchester United when

was injured.

Managerial career

He continued as a manager in several countries including United States, Ireland,

Zambia Zambia (), officially the Republic of Zambia, is a landlocked country at the crossroads of Central, Southern and East Africa, although it is typically referred to as being in Southern Africa at its most central point. Its neighbours are t ...

, Canada,

Kenya ) , national_anthem = " Ee Mungu Nguvu Yetu"() , image_map = , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Nairobi , coordinates = , largest_city = Nairobi ...

Kuwait Kuwait (; ar, الكويت ', or ), officially the State of Kuwait ( ar, دولة الكويت '), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated in the northern edge of Eastern Arabia at the tip of the Persian Gulf, bordering Iraq to the nort ...

and

. He coached

and

Kenya national football team The Kenya national football team represents Kenya in international football. It is controlled by the Football Kenya Federation, the governing body football in Kenya, and competes as a member of the Confederation of African Football (CAF) and ...

s. He also coached the NASL team Los Angeles Wolves and the

Cypriot Cypriot (in older sources often "Cypriote") refers to someone or something of, from, or related to the country of Cyprus. * Cypriot people, or of Cypriot descent; this includes: **Armenian Cypriots **Greek Cypriots **Maronite Cypriots **Turkish C ...

team

APOEL APOEL FC ( el, ΑΠΟΕΛ; short for Αθλητικός Ποδοσφαιρικός Όμιλος Ελλήνων Λευκωσίας, ''Athletikos Podosferikos Omilos Ellinon Lefkosias'', literally "Athletic Football Club of Greeks of Nicosia") ...

in 1971–72.

Personal life

Wood married his wife Elizabeth in 1954. They had two daughters, but the couple divorced during the 1970s. He died in July 2002 aged 71 in Bexhill-on-Sea, having returned to England after the end of his coaching career overseas. His death was the result of a heart attack.

Honours

Manchester United * Football League First Division: 1951–52, 1955–56, 1956–57 * FA Charity Shield:

1952 Events January–February * January 26 – Black Saturday in Egypt: Rioters burn Cairo's central business district, targeting British and upper-class Egyptian businesses. * February 6 ** Princess Elizabeth, Duchess of Edinburgh, becomes m ...

1956 Events January * January 1 – The Anglo-Egyptian Condominium ends in Sudan. * January 8 – Operation Auca: Five U.S. evangelical Christian missionaries, Nate Saint, Roger Youderian, Ed McCully, Jim Elliot and Pete Fleming, ar ...

1957 1957 ( MCMLVII) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar, the 1957th year of the Common Era (CE) and ''Anno Domini'' (AD) designations, the 957th year of the 2nd millennium, the 57th year of the 20th century, and the 8th year ...

References

External links

Obituary, The Independent
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wood, Ray 1931 births 2002 deaths Sportspeople from Hebburn Footballers from Tyne and Wear Men's association football goalkeepers English men's footballers England men's international footballers England men's under-23 international footballers Newcastle United F.C. players Darlington F.C. players Manchester United F.C. players Huddersfield Town A.F.C. players Toronto Roma players Bradford City A.F.C. players Barnsley F.C. players English Football League players Eastern Canada Professional Soccer League players English football managers Cyprus national football team managers Survivors of aviation accidents or incidents Expatriate football managers in Kenya Kenya national football team managers North American Soccer League (1968–1984) coaches English expatriate football managers Expatriate football managers in Cyprus APOEL FC managers English Football League representative players Trikala F.C. managers