Gerry Wolstenholme's Blog - Posts Tagged "hibernian-fc"
An Ancell Babe at Blackpool:
Patrick (Pat) Quinn 1936-2020
Pat Quinn was born in Glasgow on 26 April 1936 and played his junior football as an inside forward with Bridgeton Waverley. At a young age he was a prodigious talent and he joined Albion Rovers but he had played just two games for them when Motherwell spotted his potential and signed him in December 1955. Joining Motherwell as manager around the same time was Bobby Ancell, who had previously managed Berwick Rangers (then a non-League club) and Dunfermline Athletic, taking the latter club up to the Scottish First Division for the first time in 18 years. Ancell had a reputation for developing young talent and he put his principles into practice and developed a dynamic set of youngsters at Motherwell who were known as the 'Ancell Babes'. Eight of his young side went on to win Scottish international honours.
By October 1960 Blackpool, then bottom of the top flight of English football, were keeping an eye on Ancell’s Motherwell side and wanted to sign one of the inside forward trio, Ian St John, Pat Quinn or John Hunter. However, Motherwell did not want to part with any of their star men and were said to be ‘hanging on’ at that time. But Blackpool’s persistence paid off and Quinn was signed by Blackpool for a then club record fee of £34,000 on 16 November 1962. His weekly wage was agreed at £33 15s 0d [£33.75] with an extra £10 whenever he played in the first team.
He had played 196 League games for Motherwell in which he scored 83 goals and he won the Motherwell Supports Player of the Year Award at the end of the 1960/61 season. He recalled his debut for Motherwell as a substitute against Preston North End with, ‘It was the time before the regular use of substitutes had arrived, we could only use them in friendlies. They nominated me for the floodlit game with Preston. I was petrified. There I was sitting on the bench in voluminous track suit – It could have housed another couple of subs – when Billy Reid was injured, Mr Ancell gave me the nod and I was on! I was so excited. I was told I must have covered every blade of grass that night. Unfortunately we lost 3-2, but playing against Tommy Doherty and Tom Finney was a great experience.’ While with Motherwell he had also won four Scottish international caps between 1961 and 1962, making his debut in the infamous 9-3 Wembley defeat by England in 1961. He had also played six times for the Scottish League XI, for whom he scored one goal.
He made his League debut for Blackpool the day after he signed against Bolton Wanderers on 17 November 1962 [I was there!] and he immediately endeared himself to the crowd by scoring one of Blackpool’s goals in a 3-1 victory.
It was the season of the big freeze so between his debut and 2 March 1963 the club played only seven League games and Quinn scored his second goal in a 2-1 defeat by Liverpool on 15 December 1962. Then on 6 March 1963 he was involved in a controversial incident in a third round FA Cup replay with Norwich City at Bloomfield Road. The game had been postponed 11 times and then, belatedly, the two clubs had drawn the original fixture two days earlier.
With the score at 0-0 he appeared to have given Blackpool the lead when he had the ball in the net. The referee, Ernie Crawford of Doncaster, immediately awarded a goal but protestations from the Norwich players prompted him and his linesman to have a look at the goal net. [I was there, stood right behind the net and there was no doubt that the ball had gone in ... I am, of course, bias!] However, after a lot of pulling at the net, they somehow managed to find a hole in the side netting and eventually decided that the ball had entered the net through this hole and the ‘goal’ was disallowed. The crowd went wild but he later gave Blackpool the lead when he ‘timed Ray Parry’s excellent cross perfectly to ram the ball home’ it looked as though justice had been done. But Norwich equalised with four minutes remaining and went on to controversially win 3-1 after extra time.
After the match Quinn said of the disallowed effort, ‘The only time the ball touched the netting was after it had come to rest in the far wall of the goal. I saw the goalkeeper Sandy Kennon standing by the near post, swaying outwards as if expecting a centre, so I decided to try a shot. The ball hit the outside edge of the post, struck Kennon’s knee, dropped to the ground in the goalmouth and spun off the mud into the far wall of the net. Only when the referee awarded a goal did Kennon and others start tugging at the net to show a hole in it.’
The League season restarted in earnest after the Cup tie and Quinn played a starring role as Blackpool climbed out of the relegation zone to finish in a respectable 12th position in the table. Towards the end of the season he was hugely influential in the club winning four successive League games scoring 16 goals in the process, defeating Birmingham City 6-3, Blackburn Rovers 4-1, Arsenal 3-2 and Manchester City 3-0. And he finished his first season at the club having played 25 League games, scoring eight goals, and two FA Cup ties, scoring one goal.
He began the 1963/64 season in style with one of Blackpool’s goals in the opening day 2-2 draw with Sheffield United and he went on to appear in the first nine games. However, he was moved to inside left for the final two of those games because a certain Alan Ball finally broke through to the League side so he took the inside right spot. After two games at inside left, Quinn was left out of the side.
What turned out to be his final League game for Blackpool was against Wolverhampton Wanderers on 21 September 1963 when Blackpool lost 2-1 and then he was rested after what was said to be a disappointing run of ‘on off form’. He was philosophical about his exclusion from the first team, stated that he was well aware of his jaded form and announced that he was determined to ‘get back into top gear’ as soon as possible. And he made his first appearance in the Central League side against Bury reserves on 4 October 1963 when Blackpool won 2-1. He was also in the Central League side that drew 2-2 with Burnley reserves on 8 October 1963.
Hibernian noticed that he was out of favour at Bloomfield Road and they came in with an offer of £25,000 for his transfer. Blackpool agreed the sum and he joined Hibernian on 10 October 1963. Up to that point he had played nine League games, scoring one goal, and two Central League games in the 1963/64 season; his total Blackpool appearances were 34 League games, scoring nine goals, two FA Cup ties, scoring one goal, and two Central League games.
In September 1964 there were strong rumours that Hibernian were going to transfer him to Ipswich Town but they proved to be false and he became a key man, on the right wing, in the club’s revival in March 1965. After playing 131 League games and scoring 19 goals, in addition to being Hibernian’s first-ever used substitute against Clyde in November 1966 and also scoring a marvellous goal in a 5-0 demolition of Napoli in the Inter-City Fairs Cup when Hibernian were 4-1 down from the first leg, he was transferred to East Fife, where he eventually took over as player-manager and the club won promotion from the Scottish Second Division. He played 64 games for East Fife in which he scored six goals.
In March 1974 he joined Icelandic club Fimleikafélag Hafnarfjarðar as manager and he led the club to the Icelandic First Division after they had been out of the top flight for 10 years. He later said of his time in Iceland, ‘Our season extended from March 1974 to October 1974. It was a marvellous experience. The Icelanders are a wonderful nation. The hospitality was the finest I have ever experienced. They asked me to stay but I wanted to go back home. I was invited to go back the following year. They offered me excellent conditions but I had to reluctantly turn them down.’
In 1980 he became coach at Partick Thistle and assistant-manager to Bertie Auld. Interestingly all the Partick Thistle players were part-time and Pat Quinn acted in a part-time capacity as coach while pursuing his full-time job as a caretaker with the Sighthill Youth Centre in Glasgow. He later spent some time coaching at Hibernian, Motherwell and Hamilton Academical.
Commenting on his time in football in December 1976 he said, ‘Looking back on these years with Motherwell, they were among the happiest in my playing career. Motherwell and good football were synonymous with the result that we drew crowds everywhere. The understanding in all departments of the side was a sheer delight and I get great pleasure thinking back on the fact that I was a member of the team.’
Of his move to Bloomfield Road he said, ‘It was great to sample First Division football for the first time. I was particularly pleased to find among my club mates at that time John McPhee, who had been a colleague at Motherwell. The Blackpool team included Jimmy Armfield, the present Leeds United manager. He was skipper of the side. Big Tony Waiters, the current Plymouth Argyle boss, was in goal. A fellow Scot in Billy Cranston also played at that time and I can also vividly recall such dandy forwards as Alan Ball, Ray Charnley and Ray Parry. During season 1962/63 I played in 25 First Division matches and scored eight goals. We finished mid-way up the table. I have very happy memories of my stay at Bloomfield Road. I enjoyed it immensely. But Alan Ball was breaking through. We were both very small and it did not look as if the two of us would play in the same side because of our height and build. Ronnie Suart, the then manager, came to me in October 1963 to tell me that Hibs were interested in me and would I be willing to go back home? He also stated that they club were willing to let me and I took the opportunity to join a club which had such a good name in Scotland as Hibs.’
After his season in Iceland he went home. He recalled, ‘I returned to my native Glasgow and in January 1975 Bertie Auld, the Partick Thistle manager, approached me and asked me to join his club as coach to their reserve string. I did so and was delighted when my protégés won the Second Eleven Cup, the national trophy for reserve teams. Last season Thistle’s first team won the First Division championship and the second eleven clinched the Scottish Reserve League championship. Two of my boys have won through to the first team this season in Brian Whittaker and John Marr and I’m delighted. Now I’m coaching the first team and am over the moon. Thistle are a very good club and I’m very happy with them. But I still take an interest in Blackpool and follow their progress avidly. If they go back to the First Division this season – and I sincerely hope they do – nothing will give me greater pleasure. It would be wonderful to see top class football returning to Bloomfield Road next season.’
In later life he was a well-respected and popular member of Bothwell Castle Golf Club for many years. He used to tell members how he would play golf on a Saturday morning at Bothwell before heading off to play in important matches for Motherwell in the afternoon!
Pat Quinn was adored by the fans at all his clubs, especially at Bloomfield Road, and, even though his stay was relatively short, he will be remembered for his silky skills and, of course, by those of us who were there, for his goal that never was! He died on 13 July 2020 and will be sorely missed by family and friends alike.
Pat Quinn was born in Glasgow on 26 April 1936 and played his junior football as an inside forward with Bridgeton Waverley. At a young age he was a prodigious talent and he joined Albion Rovers but he had played just two games for them when Motherwell spotted his potential and signed him in December 1955. Joining Motherwell as manager around the same time was Bobby Ancell, who had previously managed Berwick Rangers (then a non-League club) and Dunfermline Athletic, taking the latter club up to the Scottish First Division for the first time in 18 years. Ancell had a reputation for developing young talent and he put his principles into practice and developed a dynamic set of youngsters at Motherwell who were known as the 'Ancell Babes'. Eight of his young side went on to win Scottish international honours.
By October 1960 Blackpool, then bottom of the top flight of English football, were keeping an eye on Ancell’s Motherwell side and wanted to sign one of the inside forward trio, Ian St John, Pat Quinn or John Hunter. However, Motherwell did not want to part with any of their star men and were said to be ‘hanging on’ at that time. But Blackpool’s persistence paid off and Quinn was signed by Blackpool for a then club record fee of £34,000 on 16 November 1962. His weekly wage was agreed at £33 15s 0d [£33.75] with an extra £10 whenever he played in the first team.
He had played 196 League games for Motherwell in which he scored 83 goals and he won the Motherwell Supports Player of the Year Award at the end of the 1960/61 season. He recalled his debut for Motherwell as a substitute against Preston North End with, ‘It was the time before the regular use of substitutes had arrived, we could only use them in friendlies. They nominated me for the floodlit game with Preston. I was petrified. There I was sitting on the bench in voluminous track suit – It could have housed another couple of subs – when Billy Reid was injured, Mr Ancell gave me the nod and I was on! I was so excited. I was told I must have covered every blade of grass that night. Unfortunately we lost 3-2, but playing against Tommy Doherty and Tom Finney was a great experience.’ While with Motherwell he had also won four Scottish international caps between 1961 and 1962, making his debut in the infamous 9-3 Wembley defeat by England in 1961. He had also played six times for the Scottish League XI, for whom he scored one goal.
He made his League debut for Blackpool the day after he signed against Bolton Wanderers on 17 November 1962 [I was there!] and he immediately endeared himself to the crowd by scoring one of Blackpool’s goals in a 3-1 victory.
It was the season of the big freeze so between his debut and 2 March 1963 the club played only seven League games and Quinn scored his second goal in a 2-1 defeat by Liverpool on 15 December 1962. Then on 6 March 1963 he was involved in a controversial incident in a third round FA Cup replay with Norwich City at Bloomfield Road. The game had been postponed 11 times and then, belatedly, the two clubs had drawn the original fixture two days earlier.
With the score at 0-0 he appeared to have given Blackpool the lead when he had the ball in the net. The referee, Ernie Crawford of Doncaster, immediately awarded a goal but protestations from the Norwich players prompted him and his linesman to have a look at the goal net. [I was there, stood right behind the net and there was no doubt that the ball had gone in ... I am, of course, bias!] However, after a lot of pulling at the net, they somehow managed to find a hole in the side netting and eventually decided that the ball had entered the net through this hole and the ‘goal’ was disallowed. The crowd went wild but he later gave Blackpool the lead when he ‘timed Ray Parry’s excellent cross perfectly to ram the ball home’ it looked as though justice had been done. But Norwich equalised with four minutes remaining and went on to controversially win 3-1 after extra time.
After the match Quinn said of the disallowed effort, ‘The only time the ball touched the netting was after it had come to rest in the far wall of the goal. I saw the goalkeeper Sandy Kennon standing by the near post, swaying outwards as if expecting a centre, so I decided to try a shot. The ball hit the outside edge of the post, struck Kennon’s knee, dropped to the ground in the goalmouth and spun off the mud into the far wall of the net. Only when the referee awarded a goal did Kennon and others start tugging at the net to show a hole in it.’
The League season restarted in earnest after the Cup tie and Quinn played a starring role as Blackpool climbed out of the relegation zone to finish in a respectable 12th position in the table. Towards the end of the season he was hugely influential in the club winning four successive League games scoring 16 goals in the process, defeating Birmingham City 6-3, Blackburn Rovers 4-1, Arsenal 3-2 and Manchester City 3-0. And he finished his first season at the club having played 25 League games, scoring eight goals, and two FA Cup ties, scoring one goal.
He began the 1963/64 season in style with one of Blackpool’s goals in the opening day 2-2 draw with Sheffield United and he went on to appear in the first nine games. However, he was moved to inside left for the final two of those games because a certain Alan Ball finally broke through to the League side so he took the inside right spot. After two games at inside left, Quinn was left out of the side.
What turned out to be his final League game for Blackpool was against Wolverhampton Wanderers on 21 September 1963 when Blackpool lost 2-1 and then he was rested after what was said to be a disappointing run of ‘on off form’. He was philosophical about his exclusion from the first team, stated that he was well aware of his jaded form and announced that he was determined to ‘get back into top gear’ as soon as possible. And he made his first appearance in the Central League side against Bury reserves on 4 October 1963 when Blackpool won 2-1. He was also in the Central League side that drew 2-2 with Burnley reserves on 8 October 1963.
Hibernian noticed that he was out of favour at Bloomfield Road and they came in with an offer of £25,000 for his transfer. Blackpool agreed the sum and he joined Hibernian on 10 October 1963. Up to that point he had played nine League games, scoring one goal, and two Central League games in the 1963/64 season; his total Blackpool appearances were 34 League games, scoring nine goals, two FA Cup ties, scoring one goal, and two Central League games.
In September 1964 there were strong rumours that Hibernian were going to transfer him to Ipswich Town but they proved to be false and he became a key man, on the right wing, in the club’s revival in March 1965. After playing 131 League games and scoring 19 goals, in addition to being Hibernian’s first-ever used substitute against Clyde in November 1966 and also scoring a marvellous goal in a 5-0 demolition of Napoli in the Inter-City Fairs Cup when Hibernian were 4-1 down from the first leg, he was transferred to East Fife, where he eventually took over as player-manager and the club won promotion from the Scottish Second Division. He played 64 games for East Fife in which he scored six goals.
In March 1974 he joined Icelandic club Fimleikafélag Hafnarfjarðar as manager and he led the club to the Icelandic First Division after they had been out of the top flight for 10 years. He later said of his time in Iceland, ‘Our season extended from March 1974 to October 1974. It was a marvellous experience. The Icelanders are a wonderful nation. The hospitality was the finest I have ever experienced. They asked me to stay but I wanted to go back home. I was invited to go back the following year. They offered me excellent conditions but I had to reluctantly turn them down.’
In 1980 he became coach at Partick Thistle and assistant-manager to Bertie Auld. Interestingly all the Partick Thistle players were part-time and Pat Quinn acted in a part-time capacity as coach while pursuing his full-time job as a caretaker with the Sighthill Youth Centre in Glasgow. He later spent some time coaching at Hibernian, Motherwell and Hamilton Academical.
Commenting on his time in football in December 1976 he said, ‘Looking back on these years with Motherwell, they were among the happiest in my playing career. Motherwell and good football were synonymous with the result that we drew crowds everywhere. The understanding in all departments of the side was a sheer delight and I get great pleasure thinking back on the fact that I was a member of the team.’
Of his move to Bloomfield Road he said, ‘It was great to sample First Division football for the first time. I was particularly pleased to find among my club mates at that time John McPhee, who had been a colleague at Motherwell. The Blackpool team included Jimmy Armfield, the present Leeds United manager. He was skipper of the side. Big Tony Waiters, the current Plymouth Argyle boss, was in goal. A fellow Scot in Billy Cranston also played at that time and I can also vividly recall such dandy forwards as Alan Ball, Ray Charnley and Ray Parry. During season 1962/63 I played in 25 First Division matches and scored eight goals. We finished mid-way up the table. I have very happy memories of my stay at Bloomfield Road. I enjoyed it immensely. But Alan Ball was breaking through. We were both very small and it did not look as if the two of us would play in the same side because of our height and build. Ronnie Suart, the then manager, came to me in October 1963 to tell me that Hibs were interested in me and would I be willing to go back home? He also stated that they club were willing to let me and I took the opportunity to join a club which had such a good name in Scotland as Hibs.’
After his season in Iceland he went home. He recalled, ‘I returned to my native Glasgow and in January 1975 Bertie Auld, the Partick Thistle manager, approached me and asked me to join his club as coach to their reserve string. I did so and was delighted when my protégés won the Second Eleven Cup, the national trophy for reserve teams. Last season Thistle’s first team won the First Division championship and the second eleven clinched the Scottish Reserve League championship. Two of my boys have won through to the first team this season in Brian Whittaker and John Marr and I’m delighted. Now I’m coaching the first team and am over the moon. Thistle are a very good club and I’m very happy with them. But I still take an interest in Blackpool and follow their progress avidly. If they go back to the First Division this season – and I sincerely hope they do – nothing will give me greater pleasure. It would be wonderful to see top class football returning to Bloomfield Road next season.’
In later life he was a well-respected and popular member of Bothwell Castle Golf Club for many years. He used to tell members how he would play golf on a Saturday morning at Bothwell before heading off to play in important matches for Motherwell in the afternoon!
Pat Quinn was adored by the fans at all his clubs, especially at Bloomfield Road, and, even though his stay was relatively short, he will be remembered for his silky skills and, of course, by those of us who were there, for his goal that never was! He died on 13 July 2020 and will be sorely missed by family and friends alike.
