George Shipley (footballer)

George Shipley
Personal information
Full name	George Michael Shipley
Date of birth	7 March 1959 (age 65)
Place of birth	Newcastle, England
Position(s)	Midfielder
Youth career
1975–1977	Southampton
Senior career*
Years	Team
1977–1980	Southampton
1979	→ Reading (loan)
1979	→ Blackpool (loan)
1980–1985	Lincoln City
1985–1987	Charlton Athletic
1987–1989	Gillingham
1989	Lincoln City
	*Club domestic league appearances and goals

George Michael Shipley (born 7 March 1959 in Newcastle) is an English former professional footballer. He played for six clubs but spent the majority of his career with Lincoln City.

Playing career

Shipley was one of several players discovered by Southampton's scouting network in the North East and was brought to The Dell as a trainee in August 1975. After regular appearances for the reserves, he signed professional papers on his 18th birthday in March 1977. For the next two seasons he was a regular fixture in the reserves and, after a loan spell with Reading at the end of the 1978–79 season, he eventually made his first team appearance as a substitute in a First Division match at Crystal Palace on 21 August 1979. He started the next two games but despite an "assist" for the winning goal in a home victory over Liverpool he never played for the Saints again.

After a loan spell with Blackpool in October 1979, he joined Lincoln City in January 1980 for a then club record £45,000. A tenacious midfielder, he remained with Lincoln City for the next 5 years, making a total of 274 appearances and 52 goals. He was recently voted number 24 in the top 100 league legends at Lincoln. In his last game for Lincoln he was to witness a nightmare when 56 spectators were killed in a horrendous stand fire while playing Bradford City.

He joined Charlton Athletic in July 1985 and was a regular member of the side who came runners-up in Division 2 in 1985–86, thus gaining promotion to the First Division. In 1986–87, Shipley managed to hang on to his place in the team who struggled to avoid relegation. He then joined Gillingham for the next two seasons, before returning to Lincoln City on a non-contract basis for a short period at the end of 1989.

Training career

After a period scouting for Maidstone United, he returned to Gillingham as youth team manager in July 1991 before quickly moving on to fill a similar position at Middlesbrough. In June 1994, he became assistant manager at Bradford City. He later became the Football in the Community Personnel Manager with Newcastle United.

References

Duncan Holley & Gary Chalk (2003). In That Number - A post-war chronicle of Southampton FC. Hagiology Publishing. ISBN 0-9534474-3-X.
Lincoln stats at Neil Brown's site

External links

Lincoln City League Legends