James Forrest (born 22 September 1944) is a Scottish former professional

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 ...

, who played as a striker for Rangers, Preston,

Aberdeen Aberdeen (; sco, Aiberdeen ; gd, Obar Dheathain ; la, Aberdonia) is a city in North East Scotland, and is the third most populous city in the country. Aberdeen is one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas (as Aberdeen City), and ...

and

Hong Kong Rangers Hong Kong Rangers Football Club (), often abbreviated to Rangers, currently known as Biu Chun Rangers due to sponsorship reasons, is a Hong Kong football club which currently competes in the Hong Kong Premier League. They have won the Hong Kong ...

Career

Club

Forrest was born in

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 ...

, raised in the

Townhead Townhead ( gd, Ceann a' Bhaile, sco, Tounheid) is an area of the city of Glasgow, Scotland. It is situated immediately north-east of Glasgow city centre and contains a residential sector (redeveloped from an older neighbourhood in the mid 20th ...

district of the city and signed for Rangers (the club he supported) as a schoolboy; he was sent for a short period to

Drumchapel Amateurs Drumchapel Amateur Football Club is a football club from the village of Duntocher, near Clydebank in Scotland. Formed in 1950 in the Drumchapel area of the city of Glasgow, they are nicknamed ''"The Drum"''. The club presently competes in the C ...

for development. In coming into the first-team, he displaced Jimmy Millar as the successful early 1960s Rangers side was breaking up. He was known as a prolific goalscorer – in total scoring 145 goals in his 163 games for Rangers, his 50th goal for the club coming in his 45th appearance. He scored 57 goals in the 1964–65 season, just two short of

Jimmy McGrory James Edward McGrory (26 April 1904 – 20 October 1982) was a Scottish footballer who played for Celtic and Clydebank as a forward and then went on to manage Kilmarnock before returning to Celtic as manager after the end of the Second Wor ...

of Celtic who holds the record of most goals scored in a season in British football. Forrest holds the record for number of goals scored for Rangers in a

League Cup In several sports, most prominently association football, a league cup or secondary cup generally signifies a cup competition for which entry is restricted only to teams in a particular league. The first national association football tournament t ...

match, scoring five in an 8–0 victory over

Stirling Albion Stirling Albion Football Club is a Scottish football club based in the city of Stirling. The club was founded in 1945 following the demise of King's Park after World War II. The club currently competes in Scottish League Two as a member of the ...

in August 1966. Other highlights included two goals in his first

Old Firm The Old Firm is the collective name for the Scottish football clubs Celtic and Rangers, which are both based in Glasgow. The two clubs are by far the most successful and popular in Scotland, and the rivalry between them has become deeply em ...

appearance in 1963 (when he was aged just 18), four in the 1963 Scottish League Cup Final win over

Morton Morton may refer to: People * Morton (surname) * Morton (given name) Fictional * Morton Koopa, Jr., a character and boss in ''Super Mario Bros. 3'' * A character in the ''Charlie and Lola'' franchise * A character in the 2008 film '' Horton H ...

, both goals in the 1964 Scottish League Cup Final victory over Celtic, and another five-goal haul against Hamilton in a 1965 league game. His Rangers career came to an end shortly after the infamous Scottish Cup defeat to

Berwick Rangers Berwick Rangers Football Club is a football team based in the town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, England, just south of the border with Scotland. Founded in 1881, they currently play in the , the fifth tier of Scottish football, despite hailing fr ...

in January 1967. He and George McLean were deemed entirely to blame, and both were dropped by manager

Scot Symon James Scotland Symon (9 May 1911 – 30 April 1985) was a Scottish football player and manager. He also played cricket for Scotland in an age when it was possible to play and excel in several sports. Footballer Symon started his professional c ...

and transferred within weeks. After spending a year at Preston, he had a five-year stint at

, where he received a

Scottish Cup The Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup,1970 Events January * January 1 – Unix time epoch reached at 00:00:00 UTC. * January 5 – The 7.1 Tonghai earthquake shakes Tonghai County, Yunnan province, China, with a maximum Mercalli intensity of X (''Extreme''). Between 10,000 and ...

, before transferring to

in 1973.

International

Forrest played five times for

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a Anglo-Scottish border, border with England to the southeast ...

between 1965 and 1971, but did not score. He had also featured for the Under-23 side.

Family

Forrest's cousin, Alex Willoughby, was also a professional footballer. The two were team-mates at Drumchapel, Rangers, Aberdeen and Hong Kong Rangers.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Forrest, Jim 1944 births Footballers from Glasgow Aberdeen F.C. players Drumchapel Amateur F.C. players Association football forwards Cape Town City F.C. (NFL) players Expatriate footballers in Hong Kong Expatriate soccer players in South Africa Expatriate soccer players in the United States Hong Kong Rangers FC players Living people North American Soccer League (1968–1984) players Preston North End F.C. players Rangers F.C. players San Antonio Thunder players Scotland under-23 international footballers Scotland international footballers Scottish expatriate footballers Scottish expatriate sportspeople in Hong Kong Scottish Football League players Scottish footballers English Football League players Hawick Royal Albert F.C. players Scottish league football top scorers Scottish expatriate sportspeople in the United States National Football League (South Africa) players People from Townhead