Neil Martin

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Personal information
Neil Martin
Date of birth	20 October 1940(1940-10-20)
Place of birth	Tranent, East Lothian, Scotland
Playing position	Striker
Senior clubs¹
Years	Club	App (Gls)*
1959-1961 1961-1963 1964-1965 1965-1967 1967-1970 1970-1975 1975-1976 1975-1976	Alloa Athletic Queen of the South Hibernian Sunderland Coventry City Nottingham Forest Brighton and Hove Albion Crystal Palace St Patrick's Athletic	048 0(25) 061 0(33) 065 0(53) 086 0(38) 106 0(40) 119 0(28) 017 00(8) 009 00(1)
National team
1965	Scotland	003 00(0)
¹ Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. * Appearances (Goals)

Neil Martin (born 20 October 1940) was a Scottish football player in the 1960s and 1970s. He was the first player to score 100 league goals in both Scotland and England and won three full international caps for Scotland.

Known for his strength, power, bravery and commitment, Martin scored consistently in a journeyman career. He played for Alloa Athletic, Queen of the South, Hibernian, Sunderland, Coventry City, Nottingham Forest, Brighton and Hove Albion and Crystal Palace.

1 Domestic career
2 International career
3 References
4 External links

[edit] Domestic career

[edit] Alloa Athletic

Neil Martin began his senior football at Alloa Athletic in Central Scotland. In 1960-61 Neil he scored 25 league and cup goals. This helped take Alloa as far as they have ever been on a Scottish Cup run (to the quarter finals).^[1] At that stage they were knocked out by a Dunfermline Athletic side at the beginning of their golden decade; Jock Stein would manage the Pars to victory in that season's Scottish Cup and to the next season's last eight of the European Cup Winners Cup.

Martin's feats attracted suitors and at the end of the season he was on his way.

[edit] Queen of the South

In 1961 Neil Martin joined Dumfries side Queen of the South for a £2,000 transfer fee. George Farm had been at Blackpool since 1948 and was goalkeeper through the tangerines' 1950s golden era (this included winning the 1953 'Matthews' FA Cup Final alongside Stanley Matthews and Stan Mortensen). In his second season at Queens he was now player manager (Farm went on to make over 100 league appearances for Queen of the South, as player-manager for three of his four years there). Also at the club was Jim Patterson (251 strikes for the club make Jim Patterson the all time goals king of Queens). And arriving shortly before Martin was Ernie Hannigan (with Martin as his chief accomplice Hannigan would later say, "Going to Queen of the South turned out to be a great move").^[2]

Fast and tricky right winger Hannigan would form an outstanding partnership wih Martin.^[3] In 1961/62 Queens were promoted back to the top division as division 2 runners up. Martin was on the score sheet 30 times in league and cup. In Martin's second season at Palmerston Park Queens condemned Celtic to a defeat at Celtic Park on their way to retaining their top flight status.

[edit] Hibernian

In 1963 Hibs battling to come out of a slump paid £7,500 for Neil Martin. Martin's goals helped add impetus to the club. Jock Stein became manager in 1964 and the up turn was instantaneous. Martin scored 29 league and cup goals. Hibs finished 4th in the 1964-65 league season (curiously ahead of both halves of the Old Firm) and knocked out Rangers on the way to Scottish Cup semi finals (again Dunfermline would prove Martin's nemesis in this competition). Hibs played Real Madrid in a challenge match at Easter Road and handed their guests a 2-0 defeat.

Mercilessly against ex club Alloa he acored 4 in an 11-2 League Cup thrashing. He also hit 4 in a first division game against his other ex side Queen of the South. Martin was at Hibs in their Fairs Cup 1st round exit to Valencia. Hibs won at home 2-0 but a defeat by the same margin in Spain meant a play off. Hibs lost 3-0.

[edit] Sunderland

£45,000 was the latest transfer fee for the seemingly fearless forward to a club with Jim Baxter on the playing staff. Sunderland kept away from relegation during Neil Martin's time at the club. His effectiveness was reduced by the club being unable to pair him with the right kind of strike partner. Nick Sharkey was maybe his best at Roker Park but departed early in season 1966-67. Sharkey was replaced was by the willing but unprolific John O'Hare. Martin was never paired there with a nippy poacher able to feed off a brawny centre forward. So Martin remained primary goalscorer. After three seasons in the top tier Martin moved again in 1968.

[edit] Coventry City

Coventry (where he would be re-united with Ernie Hannigan from their successful partnership at Queen of the South) splashed £90,000 for the battling Scot during a relegation battle. Neil Martin replaced Bobby Gould and by the season's end had equalled Gould as joint top goal getter for the season with eight. Coventry survived their first season of top flight football.

A couple of mobile, smaller stirkers benefited from their partnership with Martin, namely Ernie Hunt and John O'Rourke. After another relegation battle in 1968-69 things improved significantly. With Martin and O'Rourke up front and youngsters Willie Carr and Dennis Mortimer in midfield Coventry achieved a European spot by finishing sixth.

After scoring against Trakia Plovdiv before being knocked out of Europe by Bayern Munich, the 30 year old was on the move again.

[edit] Nottingham Forest

Although Neil Martin only contributed one goal in what was left of that season the club stayed up benefiting from the Scot's experienced presence. With injuries starting to niggle Martin, Forest were relegated at the of season 1971-72. Martin's days of top flight football were over.

1972-73 season was a disappointment with Forest never threatening a promotion challenge and Martin picking up an injury pre-season against Kaiserslautern - he would miss three months. Martin hit the net on his come back in a 2-1 victory at Sheffield Wednesday but the season was undistinguished.

The next season seem some improvement. Martin kept away from injury and acted as foil to Duncan McKenzie who hit 26 goals as the divisions top scorer that season.

In the FA Cup Martin scored twice in sweeping aside Bristol Rovers in he third round. Martin then played his part as Manchester City were on the end of a tremendous 4-1 thumping. After seeing off Portsmouth, Forest were away to Newcastle United in the 6th round. Forest were looking good as they went 3-1 up against a 10 men Newcastle. Newcastle fans invaded the pitch. After the restart the roof fell in on Forest - they lost 4-3. The FA declared a replay at neutral Goodison Park. After a no score draw Newcastle went through 1-0 when they replayed on Merseyside again.

In 1974-75, in good form Martin scored twice winning in 3-2 at Sheffield Wednesday in late September. And so he became the 1st player to score 100 league goals in each of Scotland and England. When he scored the 1-0 winner in the FA Cup 3rd round replay at Tottenham Hotspur this was the first game at the club of manager Brian Clough.

[edit] Brighton & Hove Albion

Neil Martin in his mid 30s joined third division Brighton scoring a debut goal against Rotherham United. He scored two more at Sheffield Wednesday (yet again) this time in a draw. Despite things seeming to go well at the Seagulls, Brighton signed Sammy Morgan and Martin was reduced to a peripheral figure.

[edit] Crystal Palace

In March Neil Martin left one promotion chase for another signing for Crystal Palace but only scored once for the Eagles when drawing with Halifax Town. The Palace promotion challenged petered out (Brighton also lost out). Martin then moved on to St Patrick's Athletic in the Republic of Ireland

[edit] After playing

After hanging up is boots Neil Martin stayed in the game as a coach and in the early 80s was joint manager at Walsall with Alan Buckley.

[edit] International career

Neil Martin played for Scotland at U-23 level and 2 games for the Scottish League (scoring at Roker Park in the 2-2 draw against the English League). At the end of the 1964-65 season Scotland played two away World Cup qualifiers. Martin made his debut partnering a scoring Denis Law in a 1-1 draw in Poland, and again in a 2-1 victory in Finland.

Neil Martin won his third and yet again unbeaten final cap after his move to Sunderland (all three caps were awarded in 1965). Martin partnered Alan Gilzean in the 1-0 victory over Italy at Hampden Park with a late winner from John Greig.

#	Date	Opponent	Result	Competition
1	May 23, 1965	Poland	Poland 1-1 Scotland	FIFA World Cup qualifier
2	May 27, 1965	Finland	Finland 1-2 Scotland	FIFA World Cup qualifier
3	Nov 09, 1965	Italy	Scotland 1-0 Italy	FIFA World Cup qualifier