James Forrest (22 September 1944 – 27 September 2023) was a Scottish professional footballer who played as a striker for Rangers, Preston,

Aberdeen Aberdeen ( ; ; ) is a port city in North East Scotland, and is the List of towns and cities in Scotland by population, third most populous Cities of Scotland, Scottish city. Historically, Aberdeen was within the historic county of Aberdeensh ...

and Hong Kong Rangers.

Club career

James Forrest was born in

Glasgow Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...

, raised in the

Townhead Townhead (, ) is a district within the city of Glasgow, Scotland. It is one of Glasgow's oldest areas, and contains two of its major surviving medieval landmarks – Glasgow Cathedral and the Provand's Lordship. In medieval times, Townhead was ...

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 for development. In coming into the first-team, he displaced Jimmy Millar as the successful early 1960s Rangers side was breaking up. Forrest 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 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 match, scoring five in an 8–0 victory over Stirling Albion in August 1966. Other highlights included two goals in his first Old Firm appearance in 1963 (when he was aged just 18), four in the 1963 Scottish League Cup Final win over Morton, 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 in January 1967. He and George McLean were deemed entirely to blame, and both were dropped by manager Scot Symon and transferred within weeks. After spending a year at Preston, he had a five-year stint at

, where he received a Scottish Cup winner's medal in 1970, before transferring to Hong Kong Rangers in 1973.

International career

Forrest played five times for

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

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

Personal life and death

Forrest's cousin, Alex Willoughby, was also a professional footballer. The two were team-mates at Drumchapel, Rangers, Aberdeen and Hong Kong Rangers. Jim Forrest died on 27 September 2023, at the age of 79.

Career statistics

Club

International

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Forrest, Jim 1944 births 2023 deaths People from Townhead Scottish men's footballers Footballers from Glasgow Men's association football forwards Scotland men's international footballers Scotland men's under-23 international footballers Scottish Football League players English Football League players National Football League (South Africa) players North American Soccer League (1968–1984) players Scottish league football top scorers Aberdeen F.C. players Drumchapel Amateur F.C. players Cape Town City F.C. (1960) players Hong Kong Rangers FC players Preston North End F.C. players Rangers F.C. players San Antonio Thunder players Hawick Royal Albert F.C. players Scottish expatriate men's footballers Scottish expatriate sportspeople in South Africa Expatriate men's soccer players in South Africa Scottish expatriate sportspeople in Hong Kong Expatriate men's footballers in Hong Kong Scottish expatriate sportspeople in the United States Expatriate men's soccer players in the United States