Where Are They Now – George Foster

This week fans’ favourite George Foster is the player under the spotlight for the Where Are They Now series.

GEORGE FOSTER – Born 26th September 1956 Plymouth, Devon.

George started his football career as a striker. He was a prolific goalscorer and became the youngest player to be selected for Plymouth Schoolboys.
He was soon signed up as an apprentice at Argyle and at only fifteen was given his chance in the reserve team making his Combination League debut on 12th August 1972, although Argyle lost 2-1 to Reading at home, George managed to make it a goalscoring debut.
He scored again the following Saturday in his second game, unfortunately Argyle lost 3-1 at Swindon.
By the time he reached his sixteenth birthday George had played against the reserve teams of Division 1 giants, Arsenal, Spurs and Chelsea.
In his first season he played 19 times for the reserves and scored four goals.

1973-74 saw George make his first team debut. Argyle had been beaten knocked out of the League Cup in the semi-final at the end of January and as they were comfortably placed in mid-table manager Tony Waiters gave the youngster the chance to impress.
It came on 20th February in a 1-0 win at Hereford with Hughie Reed scoring the Argyle goal. By the season end he had made two starts and three substitute appearances while still an apprentice.

The following season George signed professional forms with Argyle on his eighteenth birthday, but unfortunately for him Billy Rafferty and Paul Mariner were firing Argyle to the runners up spot behind Blackburn and he was unable to force his way into the first team.
In 1975-76 George managed to break into the first team making 18 appearances and scoring his first league goal on 31st January 1976 in a 3-1 defeat at Blackburn
.
With George still not a first team regular in 1976-77 he was loaned out to neighbours Torquay to get some more experience.
While at Plainmoor he played in six game scoring three goals. He returned to Home Park with his confidence boosted and was rewarded with an extended first team run, playing in fourteen games and scoring two goals.
He scored the Argyle goal in a 1-1 draw at Luton and the following Saturday he got the first goal in a 2-0 win at home to Blackpool with Bruce Bannister scoring the other goal. Unfortunately Argyle finished in 21st and along with Hereford were relegated.

1977-78 saw a complete change in George’s career. He was on the bench in a pre-season Anglo Scottish cup tournament game against Birmingham when centre half John Peddelty got injured, the now Argyle manager Mike Kelly decided to send George on as he had played in defence in training matches. He was never the fastest of forwards and was able to shine at the heart of the defence.
He was an ever present for the rest of the season and even scored three goals.
He scored the first Argyle goal in a heavy 5-2 defeat at Preston with Brian Johnson also scoring. He scored in a 1-1 draw with Rotherham at Home Park and finished the season in style as Argyle thrashed Bradford City 6-0 with goals from Chris Harrison, Brian Taylor (2), Steve Perrin, George and Keith Fear sending the fans home happy.
As a reward for his consistency before their biggest win of the season George was presented with the Player of the Year trophy.

The next season George continued to play in every game until disaster struck, after 28 league and five cup games, on 20th February 1979 in a game at home to Oxford he broke his leg and was out for the rest of the season, to make matters worse Argyle lost the game 1-0.

1979-80 saw a fit again George return to first team duties, playing in every game, all 46 league games and eleven in various cup competitions.
And the end of the season he was once again awarded the Player of the Year trophy, becoming only the second player to win it twice. Paul Mariner was the first.

George went through the 1980-81 season as an ever present. Apart from his broken leg he had now gone four seasons with missing a game.
1981-82 started disastrously for Argyle after eleven games they had drawn two and lost nine. Manager Bobby Moncur had to make changes and George lost his first team place.
When the chance of first team football came he took it and was loaned out to Exeter for the rest of the season. George played his last game on 20th October in a 2-1 defeat at Wimbledon with Colin Randall scoring for Argyle.
George made 28 appearances for Exeter before returning to Home Park at the end of the season. When a bid of £40,000 from Derby manager Peter Taylor arrived George was on his way to the Baseball Ground. While at Argyle he made 248 appearances and scored six goals. Although George would spend more than ten years playing football, making over another 400 appearances, the once highly rated striker didn’t score another league goal.

George spent 1982-83 at Derby making 30 appearances before moving on to Mansfield on a free transfer.
He made his Mansfield debut on 27th August 1983 in a 4-0 defeat at the hands of Bristol City.
Things must have improved as at the end of the season George was awarded his third Player of the Year award following his two at Argyle.
The next season George was made team captain, with the miserly Mansfield defence only conceding 38 goals all season.

In 1985-86 Mansfield finished third and were promoted to the Third Division. As recognition of his fine season George was voted in to the PFA Team of the Year.
The following season George captained his team to win the Football League Trophy at Wembley, beating Bristol City in a penalty shoot-out.

In February 1989 when the Mansfield manager Ian Greaves resigned George took on the job of player-manager.
In 1990-91 Mansfield were relegated, but returned to Third Division at the first attempt.
Unfortunately it was only short lived and at the end of the next season Mansfield were relegated again.
In September 1993 after a poor start to the season George was sacked. While at Field Mill George made 373 appearances.

In October 1983 George was appointed player-manager of non-league Telford. He stayed there for two seasons making another two appearances in the Conference League.
George then joined Lincoln City as assistant manager.

After he had finished his playing and management career George moved into coaching.
In April 2001 he became chief scout at Wolves under Manager Dave Jones. He then moved to Coventry, managed by Micky Adams.
Again as chief scout. When Iain Dowie took over as manager after Micky’s dismissal George was also sacked.
In April 2007 he was appointed Academy Director at Stoke by Tony Pulis.
After leaving Stoke he scouted for the Glenn Hoddle Academy and was then appointed Chief Scout at Hull by Nick Barmby in 2011.
In November 2012 George again joined up with Micky Adams when he was appointed chief scout at Port Vale.