Tweedy George Image 2 Grimsby Town 1936

Description

Born in the rural mining town of Willington, County Durham, goalkeeper George Tweedy first played for Durham Schools as a centre forward before turning to goalkeeping, playing for his hometown club Willington F. C. in 1930. From there he joined First Division Grimsby Town in August 1931 and made his Football League debut for Grimsby against Bradford City on 19th November 1932 as replacement of Tommy Read, the regular goalkeeper, who had a broken finger. At the time of his debut, Grimsby had just been relegated from the First Division, they rejoined the top division in Tweedy’s second season with the club by winning the Second Division Championship, with Tweedy making a dozen appearances as Read’s understudy. From the start of 1934-35 he was the undisputed number one at the club, missing only 8 games through to the suspension of peacetime football due to the outbreak of the Second World War..

Grimsby Town enjoyed six consecutive seasons in the top division, two FA Cup semi finals, the club’s highest ever League ranking of fifth in 1934-35 and Tweedy won his only England cap when he played in a 6-2 victory over Hungary at Highbury in December 1936 (being perhaps unlucky to have Harry Hibbs and Vic Woodley dominate the England goalkeeper’s gloves throughout the 1930’s). The first FA Cup semi final in 1936 saw Grimsby lose 1-0 to eventual winners Arsenal at Leeds Road, Huddersfield. Tweedy went on to miss the second FA Cup semi final to an injury and was replaced by George Moulson, who also injured himself during that semi final match in his only appearance of the season as Grimsby lost to Wolverhampton Wanderers at Old Trafford.

During the Second World War, players played in teams close to where they were stationed and this gave Tweedy the chance to play with Grimsby Town until 1942. However, most of the team including keeper Tweedy were eventually sent off to battle and this left the remaining team with a mixture of untried young players and guests. Tweedy’s replacement in goal was, once again, George Moulson who left for Lincoln County upon Tweedy’s return in 1946. Tweedy played as a guest for both Arsenal and Hibernian (where he made 7 appearances during 1943-44) in the intervening years.

After the War, Tweedy returned to Grimsby who managed only two more seasons in the First Division and have never regained top flight status since. Tweedy is also the second of three Grimsby players to be capped by England whilst playing for the club along with Jackie Bestall and Harry Betmead. After 375 peacetime appearances he retired as a player in 1950 to become assistant manager with Grimsby, and from July 1950 to January 1951, stayed with the team as caretaker manager. He returned as a player for a small time period in late 1951, before making his final appearance against York City on 3rd April 1953 before retirement.

NB in the photograph Tweedy punches clear playing for England against Hungary at Highbury on 2nd December 1936.