It is difficult to imagine how a player with George's scoring record might become surplus to requirements even at a First Division club.  Having emerged from the Adelphi Lads' Club in Salford (a place familiar to fans of The Smiths, coincidentally!) he joined City just before the War and played 166 times for them, scoring a creditable 75 goals.

City's loss was Chesterfield's gain, and George stayed long enough at Saltergate to take third place in the Spireites' list of all-time League goalscorers.  He was immediately noticeable as `the one with the withered arm'.  In fact, he was shot through the hand while on military service in South Africa, and part of his hand was subsequently amputated.  This clearly posed no threat to his subsequently significant career.

After scoring 45 goals in 90 wartime games for City, he won a Division Two championship medal in `46-7, scoring five goals against Newport County at the end of that season.  At Saltergate, he scored at least fifteen goals in each of five successive seasons and was selected to play for the Third (North) against the Third (South) in a televised match at Peel Park, Accrington, in 1955.

With his marvellous consistency in mind, it is tempting to speculate how Chesterfield might have done had they signed him a year earlier - when they were relegated from Division Two for want of a regular goalscorer.

Upon leaving The Spireites in 1958 George served non-league football in the area, at such sides as Mossley and Hyde United. He settled locally, though, working for Kenning's until 1975, whereupon he moved back to the Manchester area.  He was probably the first Spireite to appear in a light entertainment programme on tv - he guested on a 1958 "This is Your Life" tribute to Matt Busby.

For Chesterfield: 250 League appearances, 98 goals.