Norman William Sidey was born 31 May 1907 joined Arsenal as an amateur from Nunhead (in the Isthmian League) in March 1929 before turning professional two years later in February 1931.
He was a midfield player and made his début in playing at number 4 on December 27 1932 in a 0-0 draw with Leeds. (The Arsenal site seems to have him playing a year earlier at centre half, but I can’t find any record of that).
He played in the Charity Shield final against Everton on October 18 1933, (Arsenal won 3-0) and November 28 1934 when Arsenal beat Manchester City 4-0 but otherwise he was mostly playing in the reserves, where according to Arsenal he made 228 appearances.
By his second season in playing for the first team he had moved to centre half where he took over from Herbie Roberts early in the season when the regular number five was injured.
His First Division appearances are shown here.
Lge games | Goals | ||
1932/3 | 2 | 0 | Chapman |
1933/4 | 12 | 0 | Chapman/Shaw |
1934/5 | 6 | 0 | Allison |
1935/6 | 11 | 0 | Allison |
1936/7 | 6 | 0 | Allison |
1937/8 | 3 | 0 | Allison |
Total | 40 | 0 |
Norman helped Arsenal to Football Combination honours for four consecutive seasons between 1933 and 1938 before moving on in 1939.
In total, Norman Sidey made 45 first-team starts for Arsenal. He served as a Pilot Officer in the RAF Regiment in the Second World War.
We have no record of his date of death, nor any information on what he did after the war – although we can be fairly sure that he did not play professional football as there is no listing for him after the outbreak of war and he would have been 38 by this time.
The books…
- Woolwich Arsenal: The club that changed football – Arsenal’s early years
- Making the Arsenal – how the modern Arsenal was born in 1910
- The Crowd at Woolwich Arsenal FC: crowd behaviour at the early matches
Other sites from the same team…
- Untold Arsenal
- Referee Decisions – just what are the refs up to this season?