The Geoff Bray Story

Summer 1967: When it was announced in assembly that Geoff Bray was leaving Upbury to become an apprentice at Gillingham Football Club, the applause he received from pupils and teachers alike was loud and enthusiastic. Geoff Bray wasn’t just our head boy; he was a school icon. Hugely impressed, I clapped as loudly as anyone; bearing no grudge against him for the merciless mimicking I’d suffered in the aftermath of the ink incident.

By late 1969 I was a regular at Gillingham matches. Sometimes I’d go to the occasional reserve game. Football was football and at half the price of watching first team, a bargain. Geoff was established in the reserves by then, where he’d been joined by Graham Knight, another Upbury old boy.

Geoff’s career appeared to be nicely on track at the beginning of the 1970/71 season, when he was playing against the big boys on some very famous grounds.

In a night match against Peterborough Reserves Geoff scored a hat trick in 5-3 win. His third goal was the most memorable, an overhead kick at the Rainham End. Following a goalmouth scramble, the ball looped up in the air and dropped in the six yard box. Directly below it and with his back to goal, our old head boy shaped up for a spectacular overhead kick. Whether he got nudged at the vital moment, or whether he simply mistimed it I don’t know, but he was already flat on his back when the ball caught his shin and bobbled over the line. As spectacular overhead kicks go it remains the least spectacular overhead kick I’ve ever seen, but a goal is a goal and a hat trick is a hat trick, and it earned the applause of a sparse crowd that included Mister Carroll, standing behind that very goal.

With Geoff scoring goals in the reserves, a full league debut couldn’t be far away, it seemed, but it wasn’t to be. He was released without ever playing for the first team. When a small piece in the Evening Post said Gillingham had let him go, it was a sad end to a dream he’d lived for all us.

In the autumn of 1972 I was up north, staying with relatives on a holiday timed to coincide with three Manchester United home games, one being Bobby Charlton’s testimonial match against Celtic. Three games became four when a drawn match at Oxford in a league cup tie required a replay at Old Trafford – a replay that slotted nicely into my holiday fortnight.

I got to the ground nice and early for the Oxford game and treated myself to a seat in the stand, where I settled down to read the programme; teams, player profiles, manager’s comments, match statistics, the lot.

As kick off neared the team changes were announced. I didn’t bat an eye when I heard the United team changes, but I sat up in astonishment when I heard the single change to the Oxford side.

‘For Oxford United… number nine… Geoff Bray.’

What?!

I wondered if I’d heard right. I checked the programme again. Oxford team picture: nothing. Oxford player profiles: nothing at all. Then the name Geoff Bray flashed up on the electronic scoreboard, confirming the change.

Bloody hell

Moments later, our old head boy ran out at Old Trafford with the Oxford team.

Shocked, I struggled to take in what I was seeing. In a surreal moment I stared across the sacred turf, not to wonder at the holy trinity of Law, Best and Charlton, but to wonder at the number nine in the yellow shirt. I didn’t even know he was Oxford. Four members of United’s European Cup winning side… playing against a boy from Upbury Manor. No wonder it seemed unreal.

United took the lead through Ian Moore (known as Storey-Moore in his Nottingham Forest days). The first of many, I thought, against a side from a lower division, but with the score still at 1-0, Oxford broke away down the left wing. I saw no danger as a cross came in at around chest height, until the Oxford number nine dived to meet the ball with a bullet header that flew past Alex Stepney into the net. Goal! The scoreboard confirmed the scorer; Geoff Bray.

For the first and only time in my life I had a deep urge to jump up and cheer an opposition goal. Part of me wanted to babble ‘that’s Geoff Bray our old head boy, he once took the piss out of me!’ and bask in some kind of reflected glory. It’s probably as well that the more sensible part of me didn’t fancy a punch up the hooter and kept my Upbury pride suppressed.

In the end United were comfortable winners, winning 3-1 with George Best scoring twice. While George Best’s goals are long forgotten, this one won’t ever be…

Geoff Bray scores against Manchester United at Old Trafford (click to enlarge)

Though he went on to have a successful spell at Swansea, I suspect that goal at Old Trafford was the high spot of Geoff’s football career. And yes, many years later, it gave me great satisfaction to let him know he wasn’t the only Upbury boy at Old Trafford that night.