George Sage (born c. December 1872) 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 ...

who played as an outside or

inside forward Forwards (also known as attackers) are outfield positions in an association football team who play the furthest up the pitch and are therefore most responsible for scoring goals as well as assisting them. As with any attacking player, the role ...

. He was amongst the first players of Thames Ironworks, the club that would later be reformed as

West Ham United West Ham United Football Club is an English professional football club that plays its home matches in Stratford, East London. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football. The club plays at the London Stadium, hav ...

. Sage was born in

Woolwich Woolwich () is a district in southeast London, England, within the Royal Borough of Greenwich. The district's location on the River Thames led to its status as an important naval, military and industrial area; a role that was maintained thr ...

, London and lived in East Ham. He was employed as a

boilermaker A boilermaker is a tradesperson who fabricates steel, iron, or copper into boilers and other large containers intended to hold hot gas or liquid, as well as maintains and repairs boilers and boiler systems.Bureau of Labor Statistics, US De ...

for

Thames Ironworks and Shipbuilding Company The Thames Ironworks and Shipbuilding Company, Limited was a shipyard and iron works straddling the mouth of Bow Creek at its confluence with the River Thames, at Leamouth Wharf (often referred to as Blackwall) on the west side and at Cann ...

and was well known on the local football scene. His first club, in the 1892–93 season, was Old St Luke's. Sage then played for

Old Castle Swifts Old Castle Swifts Football Club, the first professional football club in Essex, was formed by Scottish shipowner Donald Currie in September 1892 as Castle Swifts Football Club. The club's first home ground, located in West Ham, was named Duno ...

, which had merged with Old St. Lukes for the 1894–95 season and taken over their ground in

Hermit Road Hermit Road was a stadium located in Canning Town in London, England. It was the first home ground of football club Thames Ironworks, the works team of the Thames Ironworks and Shipbuilding Company. The club would later be reformed as West Ha ...

, Canning Town. Swifts themselves collapsed as an entity in 1895 and Sage's contract was picked up by Thames Ironworks. Sage could play in any forward position. He is likely to have played in Thames Ironworks' first ever game, against

Royal Ordnance Royal Ordnance plc was formed on 2 January 1985 as a public corporation, owning the majority of what until then were the remaining United Kingdom government-owned Royal Ordnance Factories (abbreviated ROFs) which manufactured explosives, ammuniti ...

, and was a regular during the first half of the 1895–96 season. He played at least 20 games for the Irons that season and featured in five of the 'floodlit friendly' games that experimented with artificial lighting at Hermit Road, including the December clash against Old St Stephans. He was also part of the Thames Ironworks team that lost their first ever competitive fixture, a 5–0 defeat against Chatham Town in the

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 ...

on 12 October 1895. Sage won the

West Ham Charity Cup The West Ham Charity Cup was an annual amateur football tournament which was contested by teams from West Ham and the surrounding area, an area of Essex that is now part of London. Only players that lived locally were eligible to compete. The comp ...

with the club in 1896, with Ironworks beating

Barking Barking may refer to: Places * Barking, London, a town in East London, England ** London Borough of Barking and Dagenham, a local government district covering the town of Barking ** Municipal Borough of Barking, a historical local government dist ...

1–0 in the final played in

Beckton Beckton is a suburb in east London, England, located east of Charing Cross and part of the London Borough of Newham. Adjacent to the River Thames, the area consisted of unpopulated marshland known as the East Ham Levels in the parishes of Barki ...

. The 1896–97 season saw Sage's appearances limited to just six games. Two of these were friendlies and a game each in the London League, the London Senior Cup, the

Essex Senior Cup The Essex Senior Cup is a knock-out system football competition that has been running since 1884, and is the most prestigious cup competition in the county of Essex. The competition is run mainly for non-League clubs in the region, although lea ...

and the

South Essex League The South Essex League was a football league that was held in Essex and East London. History The league was formed for the 1892–93 season. Only four clubs in the league managed to fulfill all their fixtures, with Barking Excelsior winning th ...

. Sage's London League appearance, on 22 October 1896, had seen him score Ironworks only goal in a 4–1 defeat by 3rd Grenadier Guards.

References

English footballers Thames Ironworks F.C. players 1870s births Year of death missing Association football forwards Southern Football League players Footballers from Woolwich British boilermakers Old Castle Swifts F.C. players {{England-footy-forward-1870s-stub