Johnny McNichol

Johnny McNichol
Personnel
Surname	John McNichol
birthday	August 20, 1925
place of birth	Kilmarnock ,  Scotland
date of death	March 17, 2007
Place of death	Uckfield ,  England
position	Half-forward , defender
Men's
Years	station	Games (goals) 1
0000-1946	Hurlford United
1946-1948	Newcastle United	0 ( 00)
1948-1952	Brighton & Hove Albion	158 (37)
1952-1958	Chelsea FC	181 (59)
1958-1963	Crystal Palace	189 (15)
1963-1967	Tunbridge Wells Rangers
Stations as a trainer
Years	station
1963-1967	Tunbridge Wells Rangers
1 Only league games are given.

John "Johnny" McNichol (born August 20, 1925 in Kilmarnock , † March 17, 2007 in Uckfield ) was a Scottish football player . The half-forward made his professional league debut at the relatively late age of 23, but then played more than 550 competitive games for Brighton & Hove Albion , Chelsea FC and Crystal Palace . His greatest success with Chelsea was winning the English championship in the 1954/55 season .

Athletic career

McNichol grew up as a teenager during World War II and most recently served in his Scottish homeland in the Fleet Air Arm . He played football near his hometown Kilmarnock for Hurlford United and there he was discovered in 1946 by talent scouts from the northern English club Newcastle United . McNochol spent a total of two years with the "Magpies". He only pursued the sport on a part-time basis and in the first team he was not used in any league games - he earned his living primarily in the learned profession as a car mechanic.

In August 1948 McNichol moved from the second division championship from Newcastle to Brighton & Hove Albion , which had recently been worried about being re-admitted to play as the bottom of the table in the southern division of the third-highest division. The coach Don Welsh , who was active there at the time , was so convinced of McNichol that he invested the club's record transfer fee of 5,000 pounds. In the club, many new players in the team spread a spirit of optimism, which ultimately led to a clear leap in the table to sixth place. McNichol's goal yield with two goals from the first 33 competitive games was poor, but his ball and pass security gave the offensive game stability - with just nine goals in the 1949/50 season he was subsequently the best scorer in his club. An offer from Manchester City then turned down coach Welsh before McNichols moved to first division club Chelsea in August 1952 . The transfer fee was £ 12,000 and Chelsea's Jimmy Leadbetter hired in Brighton.

In West London, McNichol quickly made a profit, and as a good preparer and goalscorer at the same time , he was instrumental in the close relegation in his first season . When he won the English championship in 1955 with Chelsea two years later, he was missing in only two of 42 league games. In addition, he was the club's second best goalscorer behind Roy Bentley with 14 goals . He then spent more than two and a half more years with the "Blues", finally lost his regular place to Jimmy Greaves and moved to the third division club Crystal Palace within the British capital before the end of the 1957/58 season . Somewhat surprisingly and to McNichol's disappointment, he had never been called up to the Scottish national team at his sporting zenith.

In the team of coach Cyril Spiers he should prevent the threatened fall of Crystal Palace in the fourth division from March 1958. This plan failed, but in the following years McNichol was captain of a stabilizing team that returned to the third division in 1961. McNichol had meanwhile been permanently withdrawn to the position of full-back and with 153 competitive appearances in a row (starting from his debut) he set an internal record, which Nigel Martyn only improved many years later . After a broken jaw, which he suffered at the beginning of the 1962/63 season, his active professional career was effectively over. Instead, McNichol spent four more years in the amateur field as a player-coach with the Tunbridge Wells Rangers in the Southern League . He later returned to Crystal Palace to start a weekly pool and bingo business. In the late 1970s he moved back to Brighton, where he worked for another ex-club in the gambling sector between 1979 and 1992, and remained in the area after his retirement. At the age of 81, he finally succumbed to a stroke in March 2007.

Title / Awards

• English Championship (1): 1955

Web links

• Statistical data from the Post War English & Scottish Football League AZ Player's Database
• Profile on barryhugmansfootballers.com

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Tribute to Albion great McNichol (The Argus)
2. ^ Ian King: Crystal Palace - The Complete Record . DB Publishing, Derby 2011, ISBN 978-1-85983-809-9 .