Tommy Mulgrew

Tommy Mulgrew
Personal information
Full nameThomas Mulgrew
Date of birth13 April 1929
Place of birthMotherwell, Scotland
Height5 ft 8 in (1.73 m)
Playing positionForward
Youth career
Cleland Juniors
Senior career*
YearsTeamApps(Gls)
19481949Greenock Morton
19491952Northampton Town8(1)
19521954Newcastle United14(1)
19541962Southampton293(90)
19621965Aldershot112(2)
1965????Andover
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only.
† Appearances (Goals).

Thomas (Tommy) Mulgrew (born 13 April 1929) is a retired Scottish professional footballer who played most of his career, as an inside forward, for Southampton.

Playing career

Born in Motherwell Scotland, he started his football career with Morton in March 1948, before moving to England firstly with Northampton (from July 1949). In October 1952 he joined Newcastle where he made fourteen First Division appearances[1] but found it difficult to claim a regular place, having to compete with Reg Davies and Ivor Broadis.

In July 1954, Southampton's manager George Roughton paid £12,000 to bring Mulgrew and Billy Foulkes to The Dell of which £7,000 was attributed to Mulgrew.[2] He scored 15 seconds into his debut on 21 August 1954 at home to Brentford (won by Saints 64); this was the fastest-ever goal scored at The Dell.

Mulgrew went on to score eight league goals that season, as Saints narrowly missed out on promotion to the Second Division. Although Mulgrew showed promise, this was largely unfulfilled and he did not score consistently. According to Holley & Chalk he was "a real glutton for fetching and carrying." "There was no doubt that Tommy was not only a crowd favourite but popular with his colleagues as well".[3]

He became the first player to be sent off for Southampton for 21 years in a match at home to Coventry over Christmas 1954.[4] His career at Southampton spanned eight seasons during which he scored 90 league goals in 293 appearances placing him 10th on the club's list of all-time league goal-scorers. He also played 37 cup and friendly games, scoring 10 goals to bring his total goals scored for the Saints to a round century.

In August 1962, after a dispute over terms, he moved to Aldershot, where he played 112 league games, before he joined Andover in August 1965. He had a brief spell in non-league football before moving to Northampton, where he worked in a steel factory in Rothwell until his retirement. He still lives in Northampton with his wife.

References

  1. "NUFC Player profile". www.talkofthetyne.net. Retrieved 2007-12-16.
  2. Duncan Holley & Gary Chalk (1992). The Alphabet of the Saints. ACL & Polar Publishing. p. 250. ISBN 0-9514862-3-3.
  3. Duncan Holley & Gary Chalk (2003). In That Number - A post-war chronicle of Southampton FC. Hagiology Publishing. p. 555. ISBN 0-9534474-3-X.
  4. Gary Chalk & Duncan Holley (1987). Saints - A complete record. Breedon Books. pp. 126–127. ISBN 0-907969-22-4.

External links