George Henry Allen (23 January 1932 – 13 July 2016) 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 lea ...

who played more than 250 games in the

Football League The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional association football, football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, it is the oldest football league in Association football around the world, the w ...

Playing career

Allen was born in

Small Heath, Birmingham Small Heath is an inner-city area in south-east Birmingham, West Midlands (county), West Midlands, England situated on and around the Coventry Road about from the city centre. History Small Heath, which has been settled and used since Roman t ...

. A strong-tackling left-back, he joined

Coventry City Coventry City Football Club is an English professional football club based in Coventry, West Midlands. The club plays in the EFL Championship, the second tier of English football. The club is nicknamed The Sky Blues after the sky blue colou ...

as an amateur while in the army but made no first-team appearances. In November 1952, he joined

Birmingham City Birmingham City Football Club is a professional football club based in Birmingham, England. Formed in 1875 as Small Heath Alliance, it was renamed Small Heath in 1888, Birmingham in 1905, and Birmingham City in 1943. The team compete in the ...

on a free transfer, and made his league debut the following season on 19 April 1954 in a

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 ...

game against

Nottingham Forest Nottingham Forest Football Club is a professional association football club based in West Bridgford, Nottinghamshire, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football league system, English football. Founde ...

at St Andrew's which ended 2–2. The form of established full-back pairing Ken Green and Jeff Hall meant Allen was unable to establish himself as a regular in the side, making only 30 appearances in his first seven years at the club. When Green sustained the injury which eventually forced his retirement, Allen took his place and kept it until suffering a fractured skull in 1961. On his recovery, he could not regain his place, mainly due to the form of Graham Sissons. After almost ten years at the club, and 166 games in all competitions, he joined

Torquay United Torquay United Football Club is a professional association football club based in Torquay, Devon, England. The team currently compete in the National League South, the sixth level of the English football league system. They have played their ho ...

in January 1962, following in the footsteps of Birmingham teammate Gordon Astall who had made the same move six months earlier. He made his Torquay debut in a 4–2 home win over

Hull City Hull City Association Football Club is a professional association football club based in Kingston upon Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire, England. They compete in the , the second level of the English football league system. They play their home ...

on 20 January 1962 and was ever-present for the remainder of the season. The following season, he missed just one game as Torquay finished sixth in Division Four. He began the 1963–64 season out of the side, Frank Austin beginning the season at left-back in his place. However, after three games, Allen regained his place and Austin switched to right-back in place of

Colin Bettany Colin David Bettany (born 15 June 1932) is an English former professional footballer who played in the Football League for Crewe Alexandra and Torquay United. Bettany, a Leicester-born full back, was an amateur with his local side Leicester ...

. Allen went to play in 40 league games that season, as well as all three of Torquay's cup ties. He began the 1964–65 season as a regular, but lost his place to Tony Hellin late in the season. In 1965 he moved to north

Devon Devon ( ; historically also known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by the Bristol Channel to the north, Somerset and Dorset to the east, the English Channel to the south, and Cornwall to the west ...

club

Bideford Bideford ( ) is a historic port town on the estuary of the River Torridge in north Devon, South West England. It is the main town of the Torridge District, Torridge Districts of England, local government district. Toponymy In ancient records Bi ...

, who played in the Western League. He had played 134 league games for Torquay, and failed to score for either of his league clubs. He died on 13 July 2016.

Club statistics

:Source:

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Allen, George 1932 births 2016 deaths Footballers from Birmingham, West Midlands English men's footballers Men's association football fullbacks Coventry City F.C. players Birmingham City F.C. players Torquay United F.C. players Bideford A.F.C. players English Football League players People from Small Heath, Birmingham 20th-century English sportsmen