Westland Jim Image 1 Stoke City 1936

Description

Aberdeen born inside left Jim Westland began his football career with Inchgarth in 1931 and played for Banks o’ Dee in 1932 before joining Scottish League Aberdeen in June 1932, making his Scottish League debut in January 1934 at Hibernian. He scored twice in three first team appearances before being released in April 1935, and after a month’s trial with First Division Stoke City he joined them in September 1935, making his Football League debut the same month at Liverpool. He scored 4 times in 14 appearances during his debut season and played in around half of The Potters’ games in 1936-37 and 1937-38, scoring a hat-trick in an 8-1 thrashing of Derby County in September 1937. However he lost his place in the first team in March 1938 and he only played twice more for Stoke’s first eleven before the Second World War forced the abandonment of peacetime football, by when he had scored 16 goals in 64 appearances for Stoke.

In November 1946 he joined Mansfield Town and made 11 appearances for The Stags in 1946-47 in the Third Division (South) before retiring from professional football.

His older brother Doug Westland also played for Aberdeen and Stoke City as a goalkeeper, making 6 appearances for Stoke in the late 1930’s, playing for Raith Rovers after the War.