Ray Wood

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Personal information
Ray Wood
Full name	Raymond Ernest Wood
Date of birth	11 June 1931(1931-06-11)
Place of birth	County Durham, England
Date of death	7 July 2002 (aged 71)
Place of death	Bexhill-on-Sea, England
Playing position	Goalkeeper
Senior clubs¹
Years	Club	App (Gls)*
1949 1949–1958 1958–1965 1965–1966 1966–1968	Darlington Manchester United Huddersfield Town Bradford City Barnsley	012 (0) 178 (0) 207 (0) 032 (0) 030 (0)
National team
1954	England	003 (0)
Teams managed
1971–1972	APOEL
¹ Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. * Appearances (Goals)

Raymond Ernest Wood (11 June 1931 – 7 July 2002) was a Manchester United goalkeeper who played in the 1956 and 1957 championship-winning teams. Wood was a very fast player, he had the opportunity to be a professional sprinter but chose to play football, and was very agile, although he frequently had trouble with crosses. He played for England three times.

[edit] Biography

During the 1957 FA Cup final against Aston Villa Wood was the victim of what was then a perfectly legal shoulder charge. In the sixth minute of the game Wood successfully claimed a cross; however, Villa outside-left Peter McParland clattered into him, breaking Wood's jaw due to him ducking to avoid the challenge. As this game was played in the era before substitutes Jackie Blanchflower was forced to play in goal following the incident, Wood eventually came back on after treatment to play as a forward, United went on to lose the game 2–1.

He survived the Munich air disaster with minor injuries, but played just one first-team game afterwards and was later sold to Huddersfield Town one year later. He spent seven seasons at Huddersfield, playing more than 250 first-team games. He then played one season at Bradford City, before finishing his career with two seasons at Barnsley. During the early 1960s, Matt Busby unsuccessfully tried to re-sign him for Manchester United when Harry Gregg was injured.

He continued as a manager in several countries including USA, Ireland, Zambia, Canada, Greece, Kenya, Kuwait and United Arab Emirates. He coached Cyprus and Kenya national football teams. He also coached the NASL team Los Angeles Wolves and the Cypriot team APOEL in 1971–72.

He died in 2002 aged 71 in Bexhill-on-Sea. He was survived by his wife Elizabeth as well as his two daughters.

[edit] External links

Obituary, The Independent

Persondata
NAME	Wood, Raymond Ernest
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Wood, Ray
SHORT DESCRIPTION	English footballer
DATE OF BIRTH	June 11, 1931
PLACE OF BIRTH	County Durham, England
DATE OF DEATH	July 7, 2002)
PLACE OF DEATH	Bexhill-on-Sea, East Sussex, England