George Farm

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George Farm
Image:George Farm.jpg
Personal information
Full name George Neil Farm
Date of birth July 13, 1924 (1924-07-13)
Place of birth    Edinburgh, Scotland
Date of death    July 18, 2004 (aged 80)
Place of death    Edinburgh, Scotland
Playing position Goalkeeper
Youth clubs
Armadale Thistle
Senior clubs1
Years Club App (Gls)*
1947-1948
1948-1960
1960-1964		 Hibernian
Blackpool
Queen of the South
Career		 007 (0)
461 (1)
119 (0)
587 (1)   
National team
1953-1959 Scotland 010 (0)
Teams managed
1961-1964
1964-1967
1967-1970
1971-1974		 Queen of the South (player-manager)
Raith Rovers
Dunfermline Athletic
Raith Rovers

1 Senior club appearances and goals
counted for the domestic league only.
* Appearances (Goals)

George Neil Farm (July 13, 1924 — July 18, 2004) was a Scottish professional football goalkeeper and manager.

Born in Slateford, a suburb of Edinburgh, Farm represented his country on ten occasions, the last four of which occurred after a gap of five years.

Contents

[edit] Club player

After playing junior football with Armadale Thistle, Farm began his professional career in 1947 at Hibernian.

A year later, he moved South to join English club Blackpool for £2,700. Stanley Matthews, Stan Mortensen and fellow Scot Jackie Mudie were already on the playing staff at Blackpool. The 1950s are the most successful decade in the club's history to date. Farm would be at the club playing top division football throughout as would right winger Matthews, forward Mudie and outside left Bill Perry. After being third choice at Easter Road, Farm made a name for himself at the seaside, breaking several appearance records and playing in two FA Cup finals.

Well-built, Farm possessed a distinctive way of holding the ball, preferring to catch it with one hand above and one below, as opposed to the more orthodox style of one hand on either side of the ball. He was a perfectionist, and could often be seen practicing long after his teammates had left.

Farm made his league debut for Blackpool on September 18, 1948, replacing an out-of-form Joe Robinson, in a home draw against Bolton Wanderers. Robinson didn't play for Blackpool again, as Farm went on to play in 111 consecutive league games. The first game he missed, due to his receiving a first cap for Scotland, on October 18, 1952, Blackpool lost, 4-0 at Tottenham Hotspur. He also played in all 47 of Blackpool's FA Cup ties between 1949 and 1960, including victory in the the famous 1953 "Matthews Final".

On October 29, 1955, in a 6-2 home defeat by Preston North End, Farm became one of the few goalkeepers to score a goal. He injured a shoulder and replaced Mudie at centre-forward, where he proceeded to open the scoring with his head. That season Blackpool finished league runners-up, the highest finish in the club's history.

In February 1960, at the age of 35 and after over 500 first-team appearances for the Tangerines, Farm was granted a transfer. Blackpool manager Ron Suart, who had once been the goalkeeper's teammate, accepted a bid of £3,000 for the Scot from Queen of the South, a £300 profit on the fee Joe Smith had paid Hibernian twelve years earlier.

[edit] International player

George Farm's 10 full Scotland caps included games in the 1954 FIFA World Cup qualification campaign and a 3 - 2 victory over West Germany at Hampden Park in 1959.

# Date Opponent Result Competition
1 18/10/1952 Flag of Wales Wales SCOTLAND 2 - 1 WALES British International Championship
2 05/11/1952 Flag of Northern Ireland Northern Ireland SCOTLAND 1 - 1 NORTHERN IRELAND British International Championship
3 18/04/1953 Flag of England England ENGLAND 2 - 2 SCOTLAND British International Championship
4 06/05/1953 Flag of Sweden Sweden SCOTLAND 1 - 2 SWEDEN Challenge match
5 03/10/1953 Flag of Northern Ireland Northern Ireland NORTHERN IRELAND 1 - 3 SCOTLAND FIFA World Cup qualifier
6 04/11/1953 Flag of Wales Wales SCOTLAND 3 - 3 WALES FIFA World Cup qualifier
7 03/04/1954 Flag of England England SCOTLAND 2 - 4 ENGLAND FIFA World Cup qualifier
8 06/05/1959 Flag of Germany Germany SCOTLAND 3 - 2 WEST GERMANY Challenge match
9 27/05/1959 Flag of the Netherlands Netherlands NETHERLANDS 1 - 2 SCOTLAND Challenge match
10 03/06/1959 Flag of Portugal Portugal PORTUGAL 1 - 0 SCOTLAND Challenge match

[edit] Player-manager

George Farm went on to make over 100 league appearances for Dumfries club Queen of the South, as player-manager for three of his four years with the club. He guided Queens back to the Scottish First Division with promotion as Second Division runners-up in 1961-62 with a team that included future Scotland centre forward Neil Martin, right winger Ernie Hannigan (later re-united with Martin in England's top flight at Coventry City) and goals king of Queens Jim Patterson; two years later, however, in January 1964, Farm was sacked, though the club retained him as a player.

[edit] Manager

A trio of three-year managerial appointments followed between the mid-1960s and mid-'70s. Firstly, from 1964 until 1967, he was in charge of Raith Rovers. In his final season at Raith Farm repeated his achievements at Queens by guiding Rovers to promotion to Scotland's top division.

Then, between 1967 and 1970, George Farm took charge of Dunfermline, with whom he won 51 out of 107 league games[1] in addition to winning the Scottish Cup in 1968 and guiding them to the semi-finals of the resulting 1969 UEFA Cup Winners' Cup campaign. Dunfermline lost by one goal on aggregate to eventual winners Slovan Bratislava. This is the greatest achievement in the club's history, surpassing even that of Jock Stein's time at the club.

A second stint followed at Raith Rovers, from 1971 until 1974.

[edit] Retirement

When Farm finally retired from football in 1974, he and his wife enjoyed a quiet life in Edinburgh. He tried his hand at sports presenting on Radio Forth and also worked as a lighthouse keeper.

In 1988, Farm returned to Bloomfield Road to take part in Blackpool Football Club's celebrations to mark the Football League's centenary.

Farm died in the city of his birth in 2004, five days after his 80th birthday.

[edit] Honours

[edit] As a player

Blackpool

[edit] As a player-manager

Queen of the South

[edit] As a manager

Raith Rovers

Dunfermline Athletic

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ ParsDatabase.co.uk

[edit] References

[edit] External links

v • d • e
Queen of the South F.C. – Managers

Directors (1919–21) • Dodds (1922–23) • Directors (1924–27) • Wright (1928–31) • Directors (1932–1934) • McLachlan (1935–37) • Ferguson (1937–38) • McKinnell, Sr. (1938–46) • McKinnell, Jr. (1946–61) • Farm (1961–64) • Directors (1964–65) • Shearer (1965–66) • Husband (1967–68) • Directors (1968–70) • Davis (1970–71) • Easton (1971–73) • McLean (1973–75) • Jackson (1975–78) • Hunter (1978–79) • Little (1979–80) • Herd (1980–81) • Hood (1981–82) • Busby (1982–84) • Clark (1984–86) • Jackson (1986–87) • Wilson (1987–89) • McLaren (1989–90) • McGarvey (1990–91) • MacLeod (1991–92) • Frye (1992–93) • McLaren (1993–96) • Alexander (1996–99) • Rowe & Eadie (1999–00) • Connolly (2000–04) • Scott (2004–05) • McCall (2005–07) • Chisholm (2007–-) •
v • d • e
Raith Rovers F.C. – Managers

Herdman (1945–61) • Shaw (1961–62) • Conn (1963–64) • Cowie (1963–64) • Farm (1964–67) • Walker (1967–69) • Millar (1969–70) • Baxter (1970–71) • Farm (1971–74) • Paton (1974–75) • Matthew (1975–78) • W.McLean (1978–79) • Wallace (1979–83) • Wilson (1983–86) • Connor (1986–90) • Nicholl (1990–96) • Thomson (1996) • T.McLean (1996) • Munro (1996–97) • Nicholl (1997–99) • McVeigh (1999) • Hetherston (1999–2001) • Scott (2001–02) • Calderon (2002–04) • Anelka (2004) • Dalziel (2004–06) • Levein (2006) • McGlynn (2006–)
v • d • e
Dunfermline Athletic F.C. – Managers

Knight (1922–25) • Paterson (1925–30) • Knight (1930–36) • Taylor (1936–38) • Wilson (1938–39) • Archibald (1939–46) • McAndrew (1947) • Calder (1947–48) • Terris (1948–49) • Lees (1949–51) • Younger (1951–52) • Ancell (1952–55) • Dickson (1955–60) • Stein (1960–64) • Cunningham (1964–67) • Farm (1967–70) • Stevenson (1970) • Wright (1970–72) • Miller (1972–75) • Thomson (1975) • Melrose (1975–80) • Stanton (1980–82) • Thomson (1982) • Forsyth (1982–83) • Leishman (1982–90) • Munro (1991) • Scott (1991–93) • Paton (1993–99) • Campbell (1999) • Nicholl (1999) • Calderwood (1999–2004) • Hay (2004–05) • Leishman (2005–06) • Kenny (2006–07) • McIntyre (2008–)