Tommy Leishman

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Tommy Leishman
Personnel
Surname Thomas Leishman
birthday September 3, 1937
place of birth Stenhousemuir ,  Scotland
position External rotor (left)
Juniors
Years station
Camelon Juniors
Men's
Years station Games (goals) 1
1955-1959 FC St. Mirren 15 (1)
1959-1963 Liverpool FC 107 (6)
1963-1965 Hibernian Edinburgh 30 (1)
1965-1967 Linfield FC
1967-1970 FC Stranraer 62 (4)
Stations as a trainer
Years station
1965-1967 Linfield FC
1 Only league games are given.

Thomas "Tommy" Leishman (born September 3, 1937 in Stenhousemuir ) is a former Scottish football player and coach . He was best known as the left wing runner of Liverpool FC when they returned from the second division in 1962 . He had previously won the Scottish Cup with FC St. Mirren . In the mid-1960s he was the player-coach of the Northern Irish Linfield FC , won the championship with this in 1966 and reached the quarter-finals in the European Cup .

Athletic career

After Leishman had spent his youth with the local Camelon Juniors , he joined the Scottish professional club FC St. Mirren in 1955 . Originally, he preferred the center runner position , but was soon transferred to the outside position in St. Mirren . He owed his jump into the first team primarily to team captain David Lapsley , who also coached the junior team. In his last season in 1958/59 for the club, he played 16 competitive games and won the Scottish Cup . Thereby he drew the interest of the English second division club Liverpool FC , especially since he had already maneuvered himself into the focus of the Scottish U23 selection. As a "midfield engine" he stood for a good physique and stamina, which made him predestined for English football. Liverpool finally signed him in November 1959. After Tom Morrison in the 1920s, he was the second Scottish player to join Liverpool as the newly crowned cup winner of FC St. Mirren.

In the outgoing 1959/60 season he completed 15 of the last 19 league games for the "Reds". In the following two years, Leishman was a regular on the left half position and played 81 of 84 possible second division games. He was thus one of the central pillars that brought Liverpool FC back to the top English league as second division champions in the 1961/62 season . Since the early 1960s, coach Bill Shankly had built on the fact that outside runners would provide more support in attacking play. He pulled half-strikers like Jimmy Harrower back a little to pull the opposing runner out of his position and the resulting gaps were then used by their own outside runners like Leishman or Johnny Wheeler for Liverpool offensive actions. Shankly publicly praised Leishman's mature style of play, but the English Premier League turned out to be too big for him. After signing Scottish compatriot Willie Stevenson , Leishman left the Reds in January 1963.

Leishman's next stop in the Scottish homeland at Hibernian Edinburgh was short-lived and for the 1956/66 season he accepted an offer from Northern Ireland's Linfield FC as a player-coach . There he won the Northern Irish Championship in 1966 and was named Player of the Year ("Ulster Footballer of the Year") in the same year. The following year he and his men caused a sensation in the European Cup after victories against the Luxembourg representative FC Aris Bonneweg and Vålerenga Oslo from Norway - Linfield only narrowly failed in the quarter-finals to CSKA Sofia . Shortly thereafter, he returned to his Scottish homeland, where he played 62 second division games at FC Stranraer until 1970.

Title / Awards

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Players - Tommy Leishman (LFCHistory.net)
  2. ↑ Tommy Leishman (Irish League Greats)
  3. ↑ The year Linfield lost £ 1,000 reaching the European Cup quarter-finals (Belfast Telegraph)
personal data
SURNAME Leishman, Tommy
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Leishman, Thomas
BRIEF DESCRIPTION scottish soccer player and coach
DATE OF BIRTH September 3, 1937
PLACE OF BIRTH Stenhousemuir