fullname years death_date death_place clubs birth_place caps goals height position birth_date image article_title name
george norman wilbert 1941 -- 1955 10 september 1993 alnwick , england gateshead dunston , england 312 109 5 9 2 centre forward 11 july 1924 george profile photo.jpg george wilbert
 george wilbert
george wilbert

george norman wilbert -lrb- 11 july 1924 -- 10 september 1993 -rrb- was an english footballer who played as a centre forward .
he played his entire career for gateshead , originally signing on 1 august 1942 from tottenham hotspur while serving in the royal air force .
at the time , he was a fast , goal-scoring left winger .
wartime service restricted his appearances to 43 games and 14 goals , until the 1947-48 season , when he was demobbed and became gateshead 's regular centre forward .
he played at redheugh park in the heyday of gateshead 's fa cup runs , notably in 1952 and 1953 when they reached the fourth and sixth rounds , but was missing through injury for the game against bolton wanderers in 1953 when gateshead lost only to a disputed nat lofthouse goal .
bolton went on to play at wembley in the famous matthews final .
it was said at the time that if wilbert had played , history may well have been different as he had played brilliantly in the previous rounds , particularly in the fifth against plymouth argyle , which gateshead won 1-0 .
he left gateshead in the 1954-55 season to work for the forestry commission in northumberland .
he scored a total of 97 goals in 285 appearances in the league and fa cup .
