Whitworth George Image 2 Crystal Palace 1924

Description

Northampton born centre forward George Whitworth started his football career with junior clubs Grafton Excelsior in 1911 and Rushden Windmill in 1912 before joining Southern League hometown club Northampton Town in 1914, but his career was then interrupted by World War One. He played for Crystal Palace as a guest in wartime football competitions, but returned to Northampton thereafter on the resumption of peacetime football. When they became a Football League club he led the line in their inaugural League fixture at Grimsby Town in August 1920, and finished the season as the club’s top scorer with 31 goals which included a 4 goal burst against Brentford. It was not until after Palace were promoted to the Second Division in 1921 that Whitworth joined the club on a full-time basis, signing for them in March 1922 for what was quoted to be a “large fee”, scoring on his debut at Bury, and he played in six games before the end of the season, scoring twice. For Northampton he had scored 46 goals in 74 games.

Over the next three seasons Whitworth made a further 112 appearances scoring 48 goals but in 1925 Palace were relegated and in May, he moved to Sheffield Wednesday. However Whitworth could not break into the first team and in November 1925 moved on to Hull City, where he made 72 appearances in three seasons scoring 32 goals, before (after a spell at South Shields where again he couldn’t break into their first eleven) finishing his career with Peterborough & Fletton United, whom he joined in the 1929 close season, and Blyth Spartans, whom he joined in 1930.