Players - Fred Geary

Fred Geary
Birthdate: 23 January 1868
Birthplace: Hyson Green, England
Date of death: 8 January 1955
Other clubs: Balmoral, Notts Rangers (1886-87), Grimsby Town (1887-88), Notts Rangers (2 / 1888), Notts County (1888-89), Notts Rangers (3 / 1889), Everton (1889-95)
Signed from: Everton
Signed for LFC: £60, 17.05.1895
International debut: 15.03.1890 vs. Ireland
International caps: 2/3 (caps at Everton) - 06.04.1891
Liverpool debut: 07.09.1895
Last appearance: 17.09.1898
Debut goal: 07.10.1895
Last goal: 31.03.1898
Contract expiry: 1900
Win ratio: 53.33% W:24 D:9 L:12
Games/goals ratio: 3.21
Honours: Second Division 1895/96
League games / goals: 39 / 14
Total games / goals: 45 / 14

Player Profile

Small and powerful Fred Geary, barely 5 ft. 2 ins. (157 cm.) and weighing 9 st. 6 lbs. (60 kg.) at best, is the smallest man to ever play for Liverpool. He was a record-breaking Everton centre-forward of the Victorian era from 1889-1895 who scored 86 goals in 99 games! He was the Blues' leading scorer with 20 goals in 23 matches in the 1890/91 season when they won the League Championship. On 12 January 1891, in a North - South trial at Nottingham’s Town ground, Geary became the first man to score a goal after a net was put between the frames of the goal, an invention by Liverpudlian John Alexander Brodie, who was also the designer of the Mersey Tunnel. Football became secondary when Geary and his wife, Winifred, suffered a tragic loss when their first and only child died. They later had four other children. Injuries curtailed three out of Geary's last four seasons at Everton. He was particularly unlucky in an away game at Sunderland in October 1891 when he injured his right ankle, got kicked in the ribs and then his left ankle was so severely mauled he had to spend the next week in a hospital. Geary probably didn't enjoy playing Sunderland as another incident occurred in January 1891 when he was striving to equalise to avoid being knocked out of the FA Cup. "A minute from time he dashed up the field like lightning if so be he might score at the last and save the game," the Sunderland Daily Echo wrote some nine years later. "He came an awful bang against one of the Sunderland backs and down went Fred, his head striking the side post with a sickening thud. They picked him up senseless, and from that shock Geary never fairly recovered. It had knocked all the fight out of him; he grew timorous, shirked a charge, and bye-and-bye Everton got rid of him, and he went over to Liverpool." Still a rather harsh dismissal of a man who went on to score 45 goals in 59 matches for Everton in the seasons following this incident!

When Geary was 27-years-old he joined neighbours Liverpool when they had just been relegated to the Second Division, while Everton were runners-up in the League. Geary made his debut at Notts County on the opening day of the 1895/96 season and, feeling reinvigorated by the move, played in 19 games that year, scoring 11 times as the club won the Second Division. However, he was only selected eight times as Liverpool finished fifth in the top division a year later and would only make a further 12 appearances over the next two seasons as injuries had robbed him of his greatest asset, his pace, which his teammates had complained about because Geary used to leave them way behind when he took off on his turbo-charged bursts. Two years after playing his last-ever game for Liverpool's first team he was still turning out for the club's reserves in the Lancashire Combination on occasion. Alongside his football activities Geary owned a pub - the Foutnains Abbey in Walton Road, and when his career finished he became groundsman at Goodison Park. He died aged 86 in 1955 and was buried in Anfield Cemetery.
Appearances per season
Season League FA LC Europe Other Total
Totals 39 5 0 0 1 45
1895-1896 19 2 0 0 1 22
1896-1897 8 3 0 0 0 11
1897-1898 11 0 0 0 0 11
1898-1899 1 0 0 0 0 1
A more detailed look at the player's appearances
Apps Minutes Opponent
4 360 Wolves
4 360 Notts County
4 360 WBA
3 270 Sheffield United
2 180 Bolton Wanderers
2 180 Leicester City
2 180 Arsenal
2 180 Aston Villa
2 180 Lincoln City
2 180 Manchester United
2 180 Bury
2 180 Manchester City
2 180 Crewe
2 180 Darwen
1 90 Rotherham Town
1 90 Burnley
1 90 Nottingham Forest
1 90 Everton
1 90 Newcastle United
1 90 Sheffield Wednesday
1 90 Port Vale
1 90 Millwall
1 90 Stoke City
1 90 Sunderland
Total Venue
22 Away
22 Home
1 Neutral
Total Competition
39 League
5 FA Cup
1 Test Match
Total W D L Win % Manager
23 10 7 6 43.5% Tom Watson
22 14 2 6 63.6% John McKenna
Goals per season
Season League FA LC Europe Other Total
Totals 14 0 0 0 0 14
1895-1896 11 0 0 0 0 11
1896-1897 2 0 0 0 0 2
1897-1898 1 0 0 0 0 1
1898-1899 0 0 0 0 0 0
A more detailed look at the player's goalscoring
Total Competition
14 League
Total Goal origin
14 Open play
Milestone Appearances
# Date Against Stadium Competition
1 07.09.1895 Notts County Town Ground League
Milestone Goals
# Minute Date Against Stadium Competition
1 0 07.10.1895 Crewe Anfield League
Scrapbook
Everton and Geary in profile in 1889!
Everton and Geary in profile in 1889!
Other Clubs
Club Season Club rank League apps League goals Total apps Total goals
Balmoral N/A N/A N/A N/A
Notts Rangers 1886-1887 N/A N/A N/A N/A
Grimsby Town 1887-1888 N/A N/A N/A N/A
Notts Rangers 1888 N/A N/A N/A N/A
Notts County 1888-1889 England First Division 0 0 0 0
Notts Rangers 1889 N/A N/A N/A N/A
Everton 1889-1890 England First Division 18 21 20 25
Everton 1890-1891 England First Division 22 20 23 20
Everton 1891-1892 England First Division 10 6 11 6
Everton 1892-1893 England First Division 24 19 27 23
Everton 1893-1894 England First Division 9 8 9 8
Everton 1894-1895 England First Division 8 4 9 4
Total 91 78 99 86