George Hope (1969/70 to 1974/75)

Centre-forward George Hope only played in six first-team matches and scored a single goal, but as his home debut was televised the pinnacle of his career will be remembered for ever.

His arrival at United was via the local postman in Hayden Bridge, who was extolling his virtues in the Post office when the local Wills (cigarettes) representative (Alan Thompson) came in, who just happened to also work within the Newcastle juniors set-up.

George joined as a junior at the age of fifteen and (during the 1970/71 season) got his first call-up for the reserves for a match at Leeds when he was only sixteen.

His debut at Leicester came as a complete surprise. As soon as he arrived at the ground Joe Harvey told him he was playing and immediately drove him to Central Station so he could catch the train to his home at Hayden Bridge to pick up his belongings. He then made it back just in time to join the rest of the squad before they departed.

Joe Harvey had this to say about him before his debut. “George is strong, he can take knocks and he’ll run into tight situations in the penalty area. That’s what I’m looking for tomorrow. George has a big heart, he will chase everything for 90 minutes”.

He puts in a hardworking performance and seven days later he made his home debut against Manchester United. He took all sorts of punishment from centre-back Jim Holton but still came back for more. And then in the 70th minute he headed in what turned out to be the winner prompting the Sunday Sun headline “LAND OF HOPE AND GLORY”.

Although he played four more matches that season he was asked to play on the wing. He didn’t get any first team games at all in 1974/75 and was released at the end of the season after which he signed for Charlton.

It was noted in one newspaper article that he liked a noggin of whisky before he played, but I cannot verify if this is true!