Allan Martin (26 February 1872 – 12 May 1906) was a Scottish
footballer
A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby ...
Scottish Football League Division One
Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including:
*Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland
*Scottish English
*Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...
Glasgow
Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...
and trained as an
iron works
An ironworks or iron works is an industrial plant where iron is smelted and where heavy iron and steel products are made. The term is both singular and plural, i.e. the singular of ''ironworks'' is ''ironworks''.
Ironworks succeeded bloomer ...
furnace tender (a trade he was reluctant to curtail as his reputation as a footballer increased), Martin began his career as a half back with
Northern F.C.
Northern Football Club was a football club based at Hyde Park in the Springburn area of Glasgow, Scotland. The club was a founder member of Scottish Football League Division Two, but left after a single season.
History
The club was formed ...
and was selected for the
Scottish Football Alliance The Scottish Football Alliance was a football league football structure set up in Scotland in competition with the Scottish Football League. Its success in the early years of professional football in both England and Scotland made Alliance the bas ...
XI against the rival Scottish Football League in 1892. He soon joined Rangers but played only two league matches for the club, going back to Northern before the end of the year (during which time he was selected to represent the Glasgow FA in their annual challenge match against
Sheffield
Sheffield is a city in South Yorkshire, England, whose name derives from the River Sheaf which runs through it. The city serves as the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire a ...
Easter Road
Easter Road is a association football, football stadium located in the Leith area of Edinburgh, Scotland, which is the home ground of Scottish Premiership club Hibernian F.C., Hibernian (Hibs). The stadium currently has an all-seated capacity ...
club, Martin helped Hibs win
Scottish Division Two
The Scottish Football League (SFL) was a league featuring professional and semi-professional football clubs mostly from Scotland.One club, Berwick Rangers, is based in the town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, which is located approximately 4 km sout ...
in the inaugural 1893–94 campaign and again in 1894–95, the latter leading to election to Division One; they also won the Rosebery Charity Cup in 1894 with a 4–2 win over Hearts (featuring a Martin hat-trick).
In summer 1895 he moved to Celtic due to being offered higher wages; in his single season with the ''Bhoys'', he scored 21 goals in 22 matches – 18 in 17 in the League, finishing national top goalscorer – as Celtic won
Division One
The Football League First Division was a division of the Football League in England from 1888 until 2004. It was the top division in the English football league system from the season 1888–89 until 1991–92, a century in which the First ...
, the
Glasgow Cup
The Glasgow Cup is a football tournament open to teams from Glasgow, Scotland. Operated by the Glasgow Football Association, it was competed for annually by senior Glasgow clubs from 1887 until 1989. It is now (since the 2019–20 amended rul ...
and the
Glasgow Merchants Charity Cup
The Glasgow Merchants' Charity Cup was a knockout football tournament open to teams from in and around Glasgow and later on in the tournament's history, teams from outwith Glasgow. Invitations were made and sent out by the Glasgow Charity Cu ...
; he played but did not score in the 11–0 league win over Dundee which remains the club's record margin of victory.
Martin then returned to Hibernian, but was less prolific in his second spell with 19 goals in 45 League and
Scottish Cup
The Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup,1896–97 and won the Rosebery Cup at the end of that season.
Martin's last appearance for Hibernian was their 0–10 defeat to Rangers on Christmas Day 1898. There is little recorded evidence of his career after leaving Hibs at the approximate age of 27, when in theory he would have been in his athletic prime but perhaps less so with the demands of his labour-intensive job and possible deteriorating health. Certainly he died aged 33 in 1906 'after a long illness', from multiple causes including
tuberculosis
Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease usually caused by '' Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can also affect other parts of the body. Most infections show no symptoms, i ...
.
Martin represented the
Scottish League
The Scottish Football League (SFL) was a league featuring professional and semi-professional football clubs mostly from Scotland.One club, Berwick Rangers, is based in the town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, which is located approximately 4 km sout ...
once, in February 1896 while playing for Celtic. He scored all three of the SFL goals in a 3–2 win over the
Irish League XI The Irish League representative team was the representative side of the Irish Football League, the national league for football in Northern Ireland from 1922 and, prior to that the league for Ireland.
The Irish League was suspended from 1941–42 ...