Personal information | |||
---|---|---|---|
Full name | George James Pope Gray [1] | ||
Date of birth | [1] | 7 July 1925||
Place of birth | Sunderland, England | ||
Date of death | 1995 (aged 69) | ||
Place of death | Kettering, England | ||
Position(s) | Wing half | ||
Senior career* | |||
Years | Team | Apps | ( Gls) |
1945–1947 | Derby County | 0 | (0) |
1947–1951 | Grimsby Town | 3 | (0) |
1951–1953 | Swindon Town | 45 | (0) |
1953–1954 | Darlington | 6 | (0) |
*Club domestic league appearances and goals |
George James Pope Gray (7 July 1925 – 1995) was an English footballer who played in the Football League as a wing half for Grimsby Town, Swindon Town and Darlington.
Gray was born in Sunderland, [1] the son of George Gray and his wife Vera Lister. [2] [3] [4] Gray senior played League football as a wing half for Swansea Town and Northampton Town in the 1920s, [2] [5] and went on to become trainer of Sunderland. [6]
Gray began his senior career as an amateur with Derby County in 1945, [7] but left the club two years later, without having represented them in the league, and joined First Division club Grimsby Town. [1] He made his debut in October 1950, some three-and-a-half years later, by which time they were playing the Second Division, [2] and played twice more before moving on to Third Division South club Swindon Town at the end of the season. [1]
He played intermittently at the start of the 1951–52 season, but established himself in the first team ahead of Ted Batchelor and appeared in most of Swindon's matches from mid-December onwards. He helped the team reach the fifth round (last 16) of the 1951–52 FA Cup, a run which included wins against Second Division runners-up Cardiff City and First Division Stoke City. [6] [8] He kept his place at the start of the next season, but Batchelor was preferred from October onwards, and Gray finished his Swindon career with 53 appearances in all competitions. [9] [10]
Gray returned to the north-east of England to sign for Darlington in July 1953. [11] He made six league appearances in his only season with the club. [1]
He died in Kettering, Northamptonshire, in 1995 at the age of 69. [a]