A Hoddesdon-born right-back who joined St Albans City from fellow Hertfordshire club Cheshunt in October 1926. Cheshunt were members of the Athenian League at that time and were in a run of finishing bottom of the table for four consecutive seasons.

George enjoyed somewhat better fortunes during his short time at Clarence Park with City winning 18 of the 21 games in which he featured. He scored one goal in that time when he was one of five players to find the target during a 13-1 destruction of Casuals at Clarence Park in the Isthmian League on 13th November. Given our record that season it is of little surprise to record that City ended the campaign as champions of the Isthmian League for the second time in four years.

George played his final game for St Albans City on Friday, 6th May 1927, a 1-0 win over Dulwich Hamlet at Champion Hill. He was due to also play for City the following day but was one of two players (George Anderson being the other) to miss the train from Paddington Station to Oxford. He did, though, attend City’s final match of the season as a spectator the follow week when Barnet defeated the Saints 4-1 at Underhill in the final of the Herts Charity Cup.

Leading the City attack at this time was the club’s all-time top goalscorer Wilf ‘Billy’ Minter who bagged 35 goals in George’s 21 games.

A regular in the County side he made 16 appearances for Hertfordshire in Southern Counties Amateur Championship and was in the Herts side that lifted the cup in both 1926 and 1927.

In the summer of 1927 George joined Football League side Northampton Town, he had previously been on the Cobblers books as an amateur prior to playing for St Albans. In five years with Northampton he made 158 appearances as a wing-half and scored ten goals. Top right: George Odell pictured with Northampton Town during the 1927-28 season.

In 1932 he moved further north to join Wigan Athletic and spent two years with the club making 76 appearances in the Cheshire League. He returned to the Football League in 1934 spending one season with Newport County and made 24 league appearances for the Welsh club.

George’s surname was frequently spelt either as Odell or O’Dell. St Albans, generally, went for Odell which is how Ancestry and Gamage’s, the authoritative football yearbook of the period, also spelt it.

George was born in Hoddesdon on 16th January 1901 and passed away in 1971.

St Albans City team photo taken on 12th February 1927 prior to City’s 2-0 defeat at home to Northern League side Crook Town in the F.A. Amateur Cup 3rd Round, attendance 7,418. Back: George Butcher, George Odell, Harold Figg, Cecil Canon, Sid Duller, Fred Hellicar, George Anderson, Willian J Green. Front: Percy Winter, Ken Seabrook, Wilfred Minter, Wally Buckingham, Roy Bethell.