James Mallan (25 January 1924 – 27 May 1969) was a Scottish footballer who played for Celtic and St Mirren as a defender.

Jim Mallan
Personal information
Date of birth (1924-01-25)25 January 1924[1]
Place of birth Govanhill, Scotland
Date of death 27 May 1969(1969-05-27) (aged 45)
Position(s) Right back
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
Pollok
1942–1953 Celtic 90 (0)
1953–1956 St Mirren 65 (0)
Total 155 (0)
International career
1949 Scottish League XI 1 (0)
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Career

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Having joined Celtic as a teenager, his time at the club coincided with one of the poorest eras in their history in terms of performances and trophies.[citation needed] He did win the Glasgow Cup in 1948–49, and had also featured regularly for four seasons during World War II which are not counted as official matches.[2] At the end of that period he was sent off in a controversial 1946 Victory Cup match against Rangers which led to a lengthy suspension from the Scottish Football Association,[3] so he was not able to make his Scottish Football League debut until December 1946.[2]

He was selected for the Scottish League XI once, in 1949,[4] but was criticised for his performance in a 3–0 defeat to the Football League XI, which he felt was unjust.[3]

At St Mirren, he was responsible for scoring an own goal in the 1955 Scottish League Cup Final against Aberdeen, who went on to win the match 2–1.[5] He retired from playing at the end of the season, and later ran a public house in Paisley. He died in 1969, aged 45.

Personal life

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Jimmy was the first of four generations of Mallan men to play football to a high level. His son, also Jimmy, played Junior football as a striker, scoring a hat-trick for Johnstone Burgh in the 1964 Scottish Junior Cup final.[6][7] His grandson Stevie, a striker born in 1967, played for several Scottish Football League clubs in the 1990s, and after moving to Junior football in his mid-30s, played for several more years and appeared in the 2011 Scottish Junior Cup Final at the age of 44.[8] His great-grandson, also Stevie, born in 1996, made his debut as a midfielder for St Mirren in November 2014[9] and played 100 games for the club before moving to England, later signing for Hibernian.

References

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  1. ^ Statutory registers - Births - Search results, ScotlandsPeople
  2. ^ a b "[Celtic player] Mallan, Jim". FitbaStats. Retrieved 13 June 2017.
  3. ^ a b Tales of Jimmy Mallan, Charles Buchan's Football Weekly, September 1955, via Not The View, January 2019
  4. ^ "[SFL player] Jimmy Mallan". London Hearts Supoporters Club. Retrieved 13 June 2017.
  5. ^ Lifelong St. Mirren fan undertook epic journey to see League Cup Final win for Hearts, Scottish Professional Football League, 15 March 2013
  6. ^ "On The Record". Daily Record. 20 October 2008. Retrieved 13 June 2017.
  7. ^ Purdie, Tom (2011). The Scottish Junior Cup 1946-1975. Amberley Publishing. ISBN 9781445604176.
  8. ^ "Auchinleck Talbot 2-1 Musselburgh Athletic". BBC Sport. 29 May 2011. Retrieved 13 June 2017.
  9. ^ Mullen, Scott (24 November 2014). "Buddies boss can still beat the boos". Evening Times. Retrieved 27 December 2014.
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  • Jim Mallan at Post War English & Scottish Football League A–Z Player's Transfer Database
  • Jimmy Mallan, The Celtic Wiki