Alexander Bryce Linwood (13 March 1920 – 26 October 2003) 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 le ...
Middlesbrough
Middlesbrough ( ) is a town on the southern bank of the River Tees in North Yorkshire, England. It is near the North York Moors national park. It is the namesake and main town of its local borough council area.
Until the early 1800s, the a ...
Greenock Morton
Greenock Morton Football Club is a Scottish professional football club, which plays in the Scottish Championship. The club was founded as Morton Football Club in 1874, making it one of the oldest senior Scottish clubs. Morton was renamed Greeno ...
mining
Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the Earth, usually from an ore body, lode, vein, seam, reef, or placer deposit. The exploitation of these deposits for raw material is based on the economic via ...
settlement of Drumsmudden, near
Drongan
Drongan is a former mining village in East Ayrshire, some east of Ayr and west of Cumnock. It had a population of 4686 in 2011.https://www.scotlandscensus.gov.uk/ods-analyser/jsf/tableView/tableView.xhtml
History
The earliest references to Dr ...
in
Ayrshire
Ayrshire ( gd, Siorrachd Inbhir Àir, ) is a historic county and registration county in south-west Scotland, located on the shores of the Firth of Clyde. Its principal towns include Ayr, Kilmarnock and Irvine and it borders the counties of Re ...
, Linwood began working in the mines at the age of 14. He played schools and juvenile football before joining the newly formed Muirkirk Juniors in 1938. Linwood signed for St Mirren the same year, however on the outbreak of
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, the player was forced to resume his mining career for the war effort.
A centre-forward, Linwood continued to play wartime football for St. Mirren and also played in an unofficial international match against
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
at Maine Road in 1943 which the Scots lost 8–0. In all, Linwood scored 165 goals in 236 competitive matches for St Mirren between 1938–1946 and remains the club's second top goalscorer of all time. He finished as the team's top scorer in all seven seasons with the club.
After
Motherwell
Motherwell ( sco, Mitherwall, gd, Tobar na Màthar) is a town and former burgh in North Lanarkshire, Scotland, United Kingdom, south east of Glasgow. It has a population of around 32,120. Historically in the parish of Dalziel and part of Lanarks ...
had a bid rejected in November 1945, Linwood moved to
Middlesbrough
Middlesbrough ( ) is a town on the southern bank of the River Tees in North Yorkshire, England. It is near the North York Moors national park. It is the namesake and main town of its local borough council area.
Until the early 1800s, the a ...
in 1946 but struggled to make an impact in the
English First Division
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 ...
, partly due to still having to work as a miner while his teammates were full-time professionals. The player returned to Hibernian and won the
Scottish Football 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 south ...
championship in 1948, his only senior footballing honour.
Later in 1948, Linwood represented the Scottish League XI. In November 1949, now as a Clyde player, Linwood scored in his only cap for
Scotland
Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...
, a 2–0 win over
Wales
Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...
in a
British Home Championship
The British Home Championship
* sco, Hame Internaitional Kemp
* gd, Farpais lìg eadar-nàiseanta
* cy, Pencampwriaeth y Pedair Gwlad, name=lang (historically known as the British International Championship or simply the International Champio ...
Shawfield
Shawfield is an industrial/commercial area of the Royal Burgh of Rutherglen in South Lanarkshire, Scotland, located to the north of the town centre. It is bordered to the east by the River Clyde, to the north by the Glasgow neighbourhood of Oatl ...
, Linwood played in 1949 Scottish Cup final and scored 30 goals the season after. He was the first post-war Clyde player to net five goals in a match.
He later moved to
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 ...
in 1951 before retiring in 1955. Linwood died on 23 October 2003 at the age of 83.