Jim Mallan
Scottish footballer (1924–1969)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
James Mallan (25 January 1924 – 27 May 1969) was a Scottish footballer who played for Celtic and St Mirren as a defender.
| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Date of birth | 25 January 1924[1] | ||
| Place of birth | Govanhill, Scotland | ||
| Date of death | 27 May 1969 (aged 45) | ||
| Position | 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
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
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.
