Beare George Image 1 Blackpool 1908

Description

Shirley Warren, Southampton born outside or inside right George Beare began his football career with local junior side Shirley Warren from where he signed for hometown Southern League club Southampton in 1906. He made his Southern League debut, and only appearance for The Saints, in the final match of the 1906-07 season, replacing George Harris in a 2-1 victory over Bristol Rovers. After a further season of reserve team football he signed for Second Division club Blackpool in the 1908 close season, making his Football League debut against Barnsley that September.

He clearly impressed during his two seasons at Bloomfield Road, recording 18 goals in 76 appearances before being signed by First Division aristocrats Everton in November 1910.

He made his debut for Everton replacing England international Bert Freeman in a 3-1 defeat at Bradford City on 12th November 1910. Despite joining Everton part way through the season, his eight goals from 26 matches made him the club’s joint top-scorer in the League (with Bill Lacey and Alex Young) for the 1910-11 season, as Everton finished fourth in the table.

The following season, 1911-12, he was part of the Everton team that finished runners-up in the League Championship, finishing three points behind champions Blackburn Rovers, despite a team total of only 46 goals (three from Beare), the fifth-worst total in the League. In 1912-13, it soon became clear that Everton were struggling to build on the runners-up position from the previous season, and they finished mid-table. The lack of goals remained a problem, and despite Tommy Browell and Frank Bradshaw both getting double figures, the team as whole could only manage 48 in total, with Beare contributing seven.

Whilst the 1912-13 season had been disappointing, 1913-14 was even worse for both Everton and Beare, as the club finished fifteenth in the table, winning only twelve games and avoiding relegation by just five points, with Beare failing to score. At the end of the season, Beare returned to the Southern League to join Cardiff City after 18 goals in 104 matches for The Toffees.

The Bluebirds ended the 1914-15 season third in the Southern League table, before League football was suspended due to the onset of the First World War. On the cessation of hostilities, Cardiff spent one final season in the Southern League, finishing fourth, before in 1920 being invited to join the Second Division of The Football League as the strongest team in Wales, with the remaining Southern League clubs forming the new Third Division.

In their inaugural season in the Football League, Cardiff finished runners-up in the Second Division table equal on points with champions Birmingham but with a far inferior goal average, but this was sufficient to gain promotion to the top flight. They also had a great run in the FA Cup reaching the semi-final stage, where they went out to Wolverhampton Wanderers after a replay. Beare played in all seven FA Cup matches, and scored the solitary goal in the first round victory over Sunderland.

After 18 goals in 98 matches for Cardiff City, Beare returned to Second Division football with Bristol City in November 1921, but after Bristol City were relegated at the end of the 1921-22 season, he returned to Cardiff City in September 1922, having scored twice in 14 games for The Robins. However he made no further appearances for Cardiff before playing out his career with Oswestry Town in the Shropshire League from 1923.