Corbett: Norman George (Norrie)

1943-1944 (Leeds United War-time Guest Player Details)

Left Half

Born: Camelon, Nr Falkirk, Scotland: 23-06-1919

Debut: York City (a): 26-02-1944

Height & Weight: Unknown

Corbett was a talented footballer and captained the Falkirk Boys team that won the Scottish Schools Trophy and he also represented the Scotland Schoolboys. He started his football career in Musselburgh and joined Heart of Midlothian at the age of fifteen. English Second Division side West Ham United followed his progress closely and he joined them in April 1937, while still only eighteen. He went straight into the West Ham first team, making his debut for them at Right Half in a 1-0 home victory over Sheffield United on 1st May 1937. It was his only game of the season but he added another six games before the next season had ended, even though he was not yet nineteen. Even at that early age he had started to establish himself as a regular and before the Second World War brought the Football League games to an end he had scored one goal, in a 6-1 win over Tranmere Rovers on 24th September 1938, in thirty-eight League games and played four F.A. Cup ties. The possessor of one of the longest throw-ins in the Football League, his form was so good that many expected him to soon follow his elder brother Willie Corbett and represent Scotland. The War put an end to those notions and at twenty, with his best years still to come, his potential International career was put on hold for the duration of the war, and as luck would have it the potential was never achieved. He joined the Essex Regiment and later became, like many other football players, a Physical Training Instructor at Aldershot. West Ham reached the Final of a very quick fire Football League War Cup, where they played Blackburn Rovers in the Final at Wembley on 8th June 1940. Corbett did not play in the final but had played in a 2-0 win at Chelsea and a 1-1 draw at Leicester City as West Ham beat Chelsea (3-2 and 2-0), Leicester City (1-1 and 3-0), Huddersfield Town (3-3 and 3-1), Birmingham City (4-2) and Fulham (3-2). The Hammers duly won the Final 1-0 and Corbett collected his only medal of his career. During the war he scored three goals in one hundred and six games in the League Competitions and scored two goals in twenty-six appearances in the Cup Competitions. He also guested for York City, Southampton and Swansea Town and had one game with Leeds United. It was at Left Half in a 1-7 hiding at York City in the 1943-44 Football League Northern Region (Second Championship). He had one game with York City in 1941-42, Four games for Southampton in 1943-44 and one game in 1944-45 and also one game for Swansea Town in 1945-46. Corbett continued to play for West Ham after the war and was an ever-present in the 1947-48 season and in total he scored twice and played one hundred and twenty-eight League and four F.A. Cup games in the post-war games for the Hammers. He played his last game for the club in a 0-1 home loss to Cardiff City on 15th April 1950. He then played some reserve team football for West Ham United and joined the coaching staff before he left the club to become a coach at Clapton. His brothers David and Willie both also played for West Ham. He died in June 1990.