Kenneth Allison (born 6 January 1937), known as Ken or Kenny Allison, is a Scottish former

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 lea ...

who played in the

Scottish Football League The Scottish Football League (SFL) is a defunct 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&nbs ...

for

Hibernian Hibernian may refer to: * Of Hibernia, Latin name for Ireland; hence ** Irish (disambiguation) Hibernian, Hibernians or The Hibernian may refer to: Sports clubs * Hibernian F.C., a Scottish football club, founded 1875 * Hibernian W.F.C., a Sc ...

Dumbarton Dumbarton (; , or ; or , meaning 'fort of the Britons (historical), Britons') is a town in West Dunbartonshire, Scotland, on the north bank of the River Clyde where the River Leven, Dunbartonshire, River Leven flows into the Clyde estuary. ...

and

Cowdenbeath Cowdenbeath () is a town and burgh in west Fife, Scotland. It is north-east of Dunfermline and north of the capital, Edinburgh. The town grew up around the extensive coalfields of the area and became a police burgh in 1890. According to a 20 ...

, in the English

Football League The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional association football, football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, it is the oldest football league in Association football around the world, the w ...

for

Darlington Darlington is a market town in the Borough of Darlington, County Durham, England. It lies on the River Skerne, west of Middlesbrough and south of Durham. Darlington had a population of 107,800 at the 2021 Census, making it a "large town" ...

and Lincoln City, and in the American Soccer League for the Rochester Lancers and Syracuse Scorpions. He played as an

inside forward In the sport of association football, a forward (attacker or striker) is an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield position which primarily plays further up the pitch than Midfielder, midfielders and Defender (association football), d ...

or, in the latter part of his career, in

midfield In many sports, midfield is the part of a sports field that is near the line that is equally far from the end lines. That is, in American football it is the part of the field near the 50-yard line; in association football (soccer) and field hoc ...

Life and career

Allison was born in

Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...

. He joined

from

Junior Junior or Juniors may refer to: Aircraft * Ekolot JK-05L Junior, a Polish ultralight aircraft * PZL-112 Junior, a Polish training aircraft * SZD-51 Junior, a Polish-made training and club glider Arts and entertainment Characters * Bowser Jr., ...

club West Calder United in January 1958. He scored on his

Scottish League The Scottish Football League (SFL) is a defunct 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 k ...

debut that October, in a 2–1 win at home to Clyde, and produced three more goals in his and Hibernian's next four matches, but made no more appearances for them. At the end of the season, he moved down a division and signed for

, scoring four goals in fourteen league games before moving on again in January 1960, this time to fellow

Second Division In sport, the Second Division, also called Division 2 or Division II is usually the second highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Following the rise of Premier League style compet ...

club

. He moved to England in 1963 to sign for Fourth Division club

, for whom he scored a goal every two games. In February 1966, Allison joined Lincoln City in part-exchange for Barry Hutchinson, in a deal estimated by ''

the Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'' at about £5,000, as Darlington reinforced an already strong squad to ensure their first promotion for more than 40 years. Allison scored seven goals in his twelve appearances in what remained of the 1965–66 season, but was less productive the following year, and left Lincoln to play in the American Soccer League for the Rochester Lancers in 1967. He remained with the Lancers until 1970, when he joined the Syracuse Scorpions as part of the deal in which top scorer Jim Lefkos moved to Rochester.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Allison, Ken 1937 births Living people Footballers from Edinburgh Scottish men's footballers Men's association football inside forwards Hibernian F.C. players Dumbarton F.C. players Cowdenbeath F.C. players Darlington F.C. players Lincoln City F.C. players North American Soccer League (1968–1984) players Rochester Lancers (1967–1980) players Syracuse Scorpions players Scottish Junior Football Association players Scottish Football League players English Football League players American Soccer League (1933–1983) players West Calder United F.C. players Scottish expatriate sportspeople in the United States Expatriate men's soccer players in the United States Scottish expatriate men's footballers