Martin Moran (footballer)

This article is about the Scottish footballer. For the British mountaineer, see Martin Moran (climber). For the American actor, see Martin Moran (actor).

Martin Moran
Personal information
Date of birth 19 December 1879
Place of birth Bannockburn, Scotland
Date of death 1948
Height 5 ft 5 in (1.65 m)[1]
Position(s) Outside right
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
– Benburb
1898 Celtic 1 (0)
1898–1899 Clyde 10 (1)
1899–1900 Sheffield United 7 (0)
1900–1902 Middlesbrough 36 (5)
1902–1904 Millwall Athletic 86 (13)
1904–1905 Heart of Midlothian 24 (1)
1905–1908 Chelsea 63 (6)
1908–1909 Celtic 2 (0)
1909–1910 Hamilton Academical 20 (1)
1910–1911 Albion Rovers 3 (0)
Total 252 (27)
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Martin Moran (19 December 1879 – 1948)[2] was a Scottish footballer who played mainly as an outside right.[3][4] His many clubs included Celtic (two spells),[5] Clyde, Heart of Midlothian,[6] Hamilton Academical[1] and Albion Rovers in Scotland, and Sheffield United, Middlesbrough,[7] Millwall Athletic and Chelsea in England.[8] Small and slight in stature, he was known as "Mighty Midget".

His first spell at Celtic in 1898, aged 20, included appearances in a two-legged friendly billed as the informal 'Championship for Great Britain' against Sheffield United (although the first match took place before either club was officially champion of their nation),[9] before being moved on in October of that year long with several other fringe players in a cost-cutting measure.[10] After a good season with Clyde he moved to England with Sheffield United, where he was a back-up squad member as the Blades were runners-up in the 1899–1900 Football League, then played a minor role in Middlesbrough's promotion from the second tier in 1901–02. From 1902 to 1904 he appeared in 99 competitive matches (17 goals) for Millwall Athletic,[11] reached the FA Cup semi-final in 1902–03 and won the London League and the Southern Professional Charity Cup in 1903–04.[12] In his season with Hearts back in Scotland he won the minor Rosebery Charity Cup,[6] and was involved in another English promotion with Chelsea in 1906–07, having been in their first-ever team the previous year. On returning to Celtic in 1908, a decade after his previous time in Glasgow (this time in the role of an experienced reserve), he was a Glasgow Merchants Charity Cup winner.[10]

Moran played in the Home Scots v Anglo-Scots international trial match of 1905 while contracted to Hearts,[3][13] but received no further representative honours.

  1. ^ a b Moran, Martin (1909), Hamilton Academical Memory Bank
  2. ^ Martin Moran at the English National Football Archive (subscription required)
  3. ^ a b John Litster (October 2012). "A Record of pre-war Scottish League Players". Scottish Football Historian magazine. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  4. ^ Moran Martin Image 1 Chelsea 1907, Vintage Footballers
  5. ^ (Celtic player) Moran, Martin, FitbaStats
  6. ^ a b Martin Moran, London Hearts Supporters Club
  7. ^ Martin Moran, 11v11.com
  8. ^ Chelsea FC Player Profile: Martin Moran, Stamford-Bridge.com
  9. ^ Champions, The Scottish Referee, 15 April 1898, scan via London Hearts Supporters Club
  10. ^ a b Moran, Martin, The Celtic Wiki
  11. ^ Tarrant, Eddie; Richard Lindsay (2010). Millwall: The Complete Record. DB Publishing. p. 532. ISBN 978-1-85983-833-4.
  12. ^ Tarrant, Eddie; Richard Lindsay (2010). Millwall: The Complete Record. DB Publishing. pp. 268–271. ISBN 978-1-85983-833-4.
  13. ^ Football | Anglo-Scots Trial Match., The Glasgow Herald, 21 March 1905