Brown: George

1935-1936 (Player Details)

Centre Forward

Born: Mickley, Northumberland: 22-06-1903

Debut v Chelsea (a): 14-09-1935

5’9” 10st 7lb (1935)

“Mickley” Brown was one of the biggest names in football when he led Huddersfield Town’s attack during their dominance of the 1920's. He was a pit boy, on strike, when Town signed him from Mickley in May 1921. He proved to be an inspired purchase. He scored twice on debut against West Bromwich Albion and went on to score scoring one hundred and forty-two League goals in eight years to set a Huddersfield Town aggregate record which he shares with Jimmy Glazzard. However, he did score another seventeen goals in the F.A. Cup, which, with one hundred and fifty-nine goals, makes him Town's greatest aggregate goalscorer. His thirty-five League goals in 1925-26, in Town’s third successive championship-winning season, is still the club record for goals scored in one season. He made a total of two hundred and twenty-nine appearances, two hundred and thirteen in the League and sixteen in the Cup, a rate of three goals every four games. A remarkable feat. While at Huddersfield he was capped eight times by England and he kept up his phenomenal scoring record, scoring five times in those games. He made his England debut on 20th October 1926 and scored within eight minutes as England drew 3-3 with Ireland at Anfield. He gained his second cap on 12th February 1927 at Wrexham in another 3-3 draw and followed this up with a third cap on 2nd April 1927 at Hampden Park when he helped England to a 2-1 win, but did not score in either game. He was back on the scoring trail with two goals as England beat Belgium 9-1 in Brussels on 11th May 1927, and he scored England's first goal after eleven minutes and their fourth after thirty-four minutes. Just ten days later he gained his fifth cap, but didn't score as England recovered from being 0-2 down to win 5-2, thanks to a Dixie Dean "hat-trick" at the Stade de la Frontiere, Esch-Uelzecht, Luxembourg. Five days later he was again amongst the goals with a brace in a 6-0 thrashing of France at the Stade Olympique de Colombes, Paris, where he opened the scoring after just four minutes and added England's third goal after fifty minutes. He failed to score in his seventh and eighth games for England as, on 28th November 1927, England went down 1-2 to Wales at Turf Moor, Burnley, and on 13th April 1929 and also went down 0-1 to Scotland at Hampden Park. In his time at Huddersfield he helped Town to win three Football League Championships in consecutive seasons in 1923-24, 1924-25 and 1925-26, the first English club ever to achieve the feat. He was a member of the 1926-27 and 1927-28 sides that finished runners-up in the First Division and also led their attack on 21st April 1928 as Town lost 1-3 in the F.A. Cup Final to Blackburn Rovers at Wembley. He moved to Aston Villa for £5,000 on 17th August 1929, where he added one more England Cap to the eight he had already collected with Huddersfield as England drew with Wales 0-0 at Wrexham on 16th November 1932. He served Villa well, scoring seventy-nine League and ten F.A. Cup goals in one hundred and sixteen League games and ten in the F.A. Cup. He signed for Burnley in October 1934 for £1,400. He was thirty-one by the time he arrived at Burnley but the centre forward more than justified the Turf Moor club's decision to sign him by scoring twenty-for goals in the League and three in the F.A. Cup from thirty-five League appearances and six in the Cup. Joining Leeds in September 1935, when he was thirty-two, he was top scorer with eighteen goals in the 1935-36 season before he became Darlington’s Player-Manager in October 1936, a position he held for two years, and managed to net twelve goals in forty-four League games. He was the cousin of Joe Spence of Manchester United and England and although his spell with Leeds was brief, he made an immense contribution to English football over a fifteen year period. He later ran a pub in Aston and died on 10th June 1948, aged forty-four.