Mulraney Jock Image 1 Clapton Orient 1936

Description

Wishaw, Lanarkshire born outside right Jock Mulraney began his football career with Wishaw White Rose and played for Carluke Rovers in 1932, having a trial with Heart of Midlothian the same year. He joined Glasgow Celtic in 1933 but didn’t make their first eleven, having trials with Hamilton Academical, Sligo Rovers and Blackpool before joining Third Division (South) club Clapton Orient in August 1936. He didn’t make the first team at Millfields Road.

He joined Southern League club Dartford in 1936, from where he was signed by fellow Southern League club Ipswich Town in 1937, helping them finish third in the Southern League in 1937-38 before they were elected to the Football League, Mulraney making his Football League debut at Walsall in August 1938 in their second League match, scoring the only goal of the game. A regular for Ipswich until peacetime football was abandoned in September 1939 due to the outbreak of the Second World War, Mulraney scored 9 goals in 34 matches for Ipswich, and 18 goals in 60 matches including Southern League games. He scored their first ever Football League hat-trick in the 4-0 win over Bristol City on 8th April 1939.

Mulraney served in The Royal Air Force during the War as a PT Instructor, reaching the rank of Flight Sergeant. His military service did not prevent him playing in the wartime football competitions, in which he made guest appearances for no fewer than twelve clubs. From the 1943-44 season onwards he was able to play regularly for Birmingham City, for whom he scored 41 goals in 118 appearances in wartime football. On demobilisation from The RAF in October 1945, he joined the club permanently for a fee of £3,750. That season he contributed to the club winning the Championship of the Football League South and scored seven goals in their run to the semi-final of the first post-war FA Cup where they were beaten by eventual winners Derby County in a replay at Maine Road. He played a single season of League football for Birmingham when peacetime football returned over the summer.

In July 1947 he joined Shrewsbury Town after 17 goals in 41 matches for The Blues, with whom he won a Midland League Championship medal, and a year later joined Southern League club Kidderminster Harriers. Two months later, in September 1948, he signed for First Division Aston Villa, where he ended his Football League career after a single season at Villa Park, scoring twice in 12 matches. He then tried his hand at management with Cradley Heath in the Birmingham & District League, where he had three years as player-manager, and in 1952 with Birmingham & District League champions Brierley Hill Alliance before his eventual retirement in 1953.