Jimmy Melia

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Personal information
Jimmy Melia
Full name	James Melia
Date of birth	November 1, 1937 (age 69)
Place of birth	Liverpool, England
Height	5 ft 7 in (1.7 m)
Playing position	Midfielder
Youth clubs
1952-1954	Liverpool
Senior clubs¹
Years	Club	App (Gls)*
1954-1964 1964 1964-1968 1968-1972 1972	Liverpool Wolverhampton Wanderers Southampton Aldershot Crewe Alexandra Total	269 0(76) 024 00(4) 139 0(11) 135 0(14) 004 00(0) 571 (105)
National team
1963	England	002 00(1)
Teams managed
1972-1973 1975 1982-1983 1983-1986 1986	Crewe Alexandra Southport Brighton & Hove Albion C.F. Os Belenenses Stockport County
¹ Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. * Appearances (Goals)

Jimmy Melia (born Liverpool, Merseyside, England on 1 November 1937) is a former English footballer who spent most of his career playing for Liverpool and went on to became a manager.

1 Playing career
2 Management career
3 Honours
- 3.1 As a player
- 3.2 As a manager
4 References
5 External links

[edit] Playing career

[edit] Liverpool

Jimmy joined the Reds straight from school as a 15 year old, when manager Don Welsh saw the potential in the young schoolboy internationals feet, he signed professional forms on his 17th birthday, 1 November 1954. He made his debut aged 18 on 17 December 1955 at Anfield in a 2nd Division fixture, Nottingham Forest were the visitors and came up against an in form Billy Liddell who scored a hat-trick in the 5-2 victory, Jimmy also scored his first goal for the club in the 48th minute, John Evans got the other.

Although Jimmy received rave reviews about his performance, Welsh held him back and brought him in to the set up slowly; it wasn't until the following season that he got a real run in the side starting 27 matches. Melia followed this up with a 36 match season scoring 10 goals - he had made his name and would be difficult to shift.

Melia, along with the rest of the staff at Anfield, would feel dejection 3 seasons on the spin as they just missed out on promotion on each occasion. It was all too much for manager Phil Taylor who resigned in 1959. He was followed by the man who would return Liverpool to the status the club deserves, one Bill Shankly.

Shankly liked Melia and used him as part of his plan for Liverpool to rule English football, the first attempt at promotion fell short again by 8 points as Cardiff City finished 2nd behind champions Aston Villa. The frustration continued in 1960-61 as, for a 5th straight time, Liverpool finished 3rd, 7 points adrift of winners Ipswich Town and 6 short of Sheffield United.

Something had to change to break the 3rd spot hoodoo, so Shankly went north of the border to buy Ian St John from Motherwell and the man he nicknamed the Colossus Ron Yeats from Dundee United, these 2 along with the likes of Alan A'Court, Gerry Byrne, Gordon Milne, Ian Callaghan, Ronnie Moran, 'Sir' Roger Hunt and Melia, who was an ever-present, scoring 13 goals, would help guide the Reds to the 2nd Division title by a clear 8 points over Leyton Orient, finally after so many years in the wilderness Liverpool were back in the top flight of English football.

Melia flourished in the 1st Division and played 39 times as the Liverpool finished a very respectable 8th place; unfortunately for the red half of Merseyside Everton won the league and were 17 points better than the Reds. This wasn't what Shankly wanted and he would do anything he could to get Liverpool to the top of the league.

During this spell Jimmy caught the eye of England manager Alf Ramsey who gave him his debut, whilst still a 2nd Division player, on 6 April 1963 in British Championship match at Wembley against Scotland, the outcome didn't quite go to script however, as the Scots left London with a 2-1 victory. Melia's 1 and only goal came in his 2nd an final appearance for his country, on 5 June 1963 at St. Jakob Park, Basel. England were on form that night as they thumped their hosts, Switzerland, 8-1 Along with Melia's strike, Bobby Charlton scored a hat-trick and Johnny Byrne got a brace, with Bryan Douglas and Tony Kay getting the others.

Nobody could have predicted how quickly Shankly would make things happen, his all conquering squad swept aside the competition as they pipped rivals Manchester United and Everton by 4 and 5 points respectively. Melia, now aged 27, could now add a championship medal to the 2nd division title medal he already owned as he appeared 24 times during the triumphant campaign; however he received it whilst at a different club. Alf Arrowsmith had taken Jimmy's place in the side and without too much thought Shankly allowed Melia to leave, joining Black Country side Wolverhampton Wanderers in March 1964.

[edit] Wolverhampton Wanderers

His stay in the Midlands was a short one. While he had a good run in the first team, this came to an abrupt end when manager Stan Cullis was sacked and replaced by Andy Beattie. Beattie decided that Melia was not the type of player he wanted and quickly offloaded him to Southampton.

[edit] Southampton

Melia was signed for Southampton in December 1964 by Ted Bates for a fee of £30000. Saints' then record signing brought his visionary skills and finesse to the midfield and although Saints missed out on promotion at the end of the 1964-65 season, Melia linked up well with Terry Paine and Martin Chivers in the following season, helping them to promotion from Division 2, finishing 5 points behind champions Manchester City.

He remained an ever-present for Saints in their first season in Division 1, as Saints narrowly hung on to their place in the top flight, with Melia helping Ron Davies and Martin Chivers score 37 and 14 goals respectively, adding 4 for himself, the best being a header in a 2-1 victory over Arsenal on 27 December 1966.

He continued to make a valuable contribution to the team but lost his place to Mick Channon and in November 1968 he moved on to Aldershot for £10000.

In his 4 years at The Dell he made a total of 152 appearances, scoring 12 goals.

[edit] Management career

[edit] Aldershot and Crewe Alexandra

He left Southampton in 1968 to take up the player/manager role at Aldershot Town, from there he took up a similar role at Crewe Alexandra; after retiring as a player he took on the managerial role at Gresty Road full-time.

[edit] Brighton & Hove Albion

He went on to manage Brighton & Hove Albion, where his greatest managerial feat occurred when he took them to the 1983 FA Cup final, even taking the side, who were bottom of the league, to his old stomping ground of Anfield where a goal from ex-Red Jimmy Case broke the hearts of the watching Koppites. During the cup run Melia became famous for his 'disco' style of dress and his glamorous younger girlfriend, Val Lloyd.

[edit] After Brighton

Melia went on to spells in charge of Southport, Portuguese side Beleneses and Stockport County.

In 1989 Jimmy had a stint in youth training when he travelled to Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates where he set up an academy. He currently coaches the youth team for Texas Longhorns Soccer Club in Dallas, Texas.

[edit] Honours

[edit] As a player

With Liverpool F.C.

First Division (level 1) championship winners medal (1964)
Second Division (level 2) championship winners medal (1962)

With Southampton F.C.

Second Division (level 2) championship runner up (1966)

With England

2 caps, 1 goal (1963)

[edit] As a manager

With Brighton & Hove Albion F.C.

FA Cup runners-up 1983

[edit] References

Duncan Holley & Gary Chalk (1992). The Alphabet of the Saints. ACL & Polar Publishing. ISBN 0-9514862-3-3.
Duncan Holley & Gary Chalk (2003). In That Number - A post-war chronicle of Southampton FC. Hagiology. ISBN 0-9534474-3-X.

[edit] External links

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