Hugh Patrick Curran (born 25 September 1943 in

Carstairs Carstairs (, Scottish Gaelic: ''Caisteal Tarrais'') is a village in South Lanarkshire, Scotland. Carstairs is located east of the county town of Lanark and the West Coast Main Line runs through the village. The village is served by Carstairs ra ...

Lanarkshire Lanarkshire, also called the County of Lanark ( gd, Siorrachd Lannraig; sco, Lanrikshire), is a historic county, lieutenancy area and registration county in the central Lowlands of Scotland. Lanarkshire is the most populous county in Scotlan ...

) is a Scottish former

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

who spent the majority of his career in the

English Football League The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, the league is the oldest such competition in the world. It was the top-level football league in Engl ...

. He played in five full international matches for

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

between 1969 and 1971.

Career

Curran began his career at Home Farm when his family moved to

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of th ...

in 1954. After 6 years playing at all grades he moved to

Shamrock Rovers Shamrock Rovers Football Club ( ga, Cumann Peile Ruagairí na Seamróige) is an Irish association football club based in Tallaght, South Dublin. The club's senior team competes in the League of Ireland Premier Division and it is the most su ...

to gain experience. After a period as an apprentice at

Manchester United Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of City of Salford, Salford to ...

he was released and returned to his native Scotland with

Third Lanark Third Lanark Athletic Club was a Scottish football club based in Glasgow. Founded in 1872 as an offshoot of the 3rd Lanarkshire Rifle Volunteers, the club was a founder member of the Scottish Football Association (SFA) in 1872 and the Scottish ...

as a semi-pro where he struggled to see much first team action, instead joining

Corby Town Corby Town Football Club is a football club based in Corby, Northamptonshire, England. They are currently members of the and play at Steel Park. History The club was established in 1948, taking over from Stewarts & Lloyds as the main team ...

. Spotted by

Millwall Millwall is a district on the western and southern side of the Isle of Dogs, in east London, England, in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It lies to the immediate south of Canary Wharf and Limehouse, north of Greenwich and Deptford, east ...

, Curran signed professional forms at

The Den The Den (previously The New Den) is a football stadium in New Cross, south-east London, and the home of Millwall Football Club. The Den is adjacent to the South London railway originating at , and a quarter of a mile from the Old Den, which it ...

in March 1964. Finishing his first full season with 19 goals, he was the club's leading scorer as they won promotion from the fourth tier in 1965. This proved to be his only full campaign for Millwall, as he moved to

Norwich City Norwich City Football Club (also known as The Canaries or The Yellows) is an English professional football club based in Norwich, Norfolk. The club competes in the EFL Championship following their relegation from the Premier League in the 20 ...

in January 1966. Serving the

Carrow Road Carrow Road is an association football stadium located in Norwich, Norfolk, England, and is the home of EFL Championship side Norwich City. The stadium is located toward the east of the city, near Norwich railway station and the River Wensum. N ...

club for three years in the second flight, Curran scored 53 goals in total and was voted their

player of the year Several sports leagues honour their best player with an award called Player of the Year (POY) . In the United States, this type of award is usually called a Most Valuable Player award. Association football In association football, this award is he ...

in 1968. In January 1969, Curran joined

Wolverhampton Wanderers Wolverhampton Wanderers Football Club (), commonly known as Wolves, is a professional football club based in Wolverhampton, England, which compete in the . The club has played at Molineux Stadium since moving from Dudley Road in 1889. The club's ...

in a £60,000 deal. He finished his first full season in the First Division as the leading goalscorer at Molineux with 23 goals, adding a further 20 in the following campaign. Curran scored the first goal in an English league match to be broadcast live in Norway, Denmark and Sweden, when he netted the only goal of a game against

Sunderland Sunderland () is a port city in Tyne and Wear, England. It is the City of Sunderland's administrative centre and in the Historic counties of England, historic county of County of Durham, Durham. The city is from Newcastle-upon-Tyne and is on t ...

on 29 November 1969. During his time at

Wolves The wolf (''Canis lupus''; plural, : wolves), also known as the gray wolf or grey wolf, is a large Canis, canine native to Eurasia and North America. More than thirty subspecies of Canis lupus, subspecies of ''Canis lupus'' have been reco ...

, Curran was selected to represent the Scotland national team; making his debut on 5 November 1969 in a 2-0 World Cup qualifying loss in

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

. He won five caps in total, over an 18-month period, his one goal coming against

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

in a 3–1 defeat at

Wembley Wembley () is a large suburbIn British English, "suburb" often refers to the secondary urban centres of a city. Wembley is not a suburb in the American sense, i.e. a single-family residential area outside of the city itself. in north-west Londo ...

in May 1971. The emergence of John Richards at

saw Curran's appearances limited to just eight matches during the 1971/72 season. His final game for the club was in the second leg of the

1972 UEFA Cup Final The 1972 UEFA Cup Final was the final of the first UEFA Cup football tournament. It was a two-legged contest played on 3 May and 17 May 1972 between two English clubs, Wolverhampton Wanderers and Tottenham Hotspur. This was the first UEFA club com ...

where they lost out on the trophy to their countrymen Spurs. Out of contention, Curran departed

with the impressive tally of 47 goals from his 98 appearances. Curran left

in September 1972, joining second-flight

Oxford United Oxford United Football Club is a professional football club in the city of Oxford, England. The team plays in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. The chairman is Grant Ferguson, the manager is Karl Robinson and th ...

for £50,000. Despite being their leading scorer in both the 1972/73 and 1973/74 campaigns – with 17 and 14 goals respectively – he departed the Manor Ground in September 1974, joining

Bolton Wanderers Bolton Wanderers Football Club () is a professional football club based in Horwich, Bolton, Greater Manchester, England, which competes in . The club played at Burnden Park for 102 years from 1895 after moving from their original home at Pike's ...

for £40,000. After three seasons, in which he featured more than 50 times for the

Burnden Park Burnden Park was the home of English football club Bolton Wanderers who played home games there between 1895 and 1997. As well as hosting the 1901 FA Cup Final replay, it was the scene in 1946 of one of the greatest disasters in English footba ...

club, Curran returned to

in 1977, where he remained until retiring due to injury in 1979. After football, Curran went into business in his native

Junction, before running a hotel with his brother Ronald in

Carnwath Carnwath (Gaelic: ''A' Chathair Nuadh''; English: "New Fort") is a moorland village on the southern edge of the Pentland Hills of South Lanarkshire, Scotland. The village lies about south of both Edinburgh and Glasgow. It is bounded by the Nort ...

. He then entered the licensing trade, running four pubs, all of which were called The Red Lion; three in Oxfordshire ( Marston,

Horton-cum-Studley Horton-cum-Studley is a village and civil parish in Oxfordshire about northeast of the centre of Oxford and bordering Otmoor, and is one of the "Seven Towns" of Otmoor. The 2011 Census recorded the parish's population as 455. A majority of res ...

and

Islip Islip may refer to: Places England * Islip, Northamptonshire *Islip, Oxfordshire United States *Islip, New York, a town in Suffolk County ** Islip (hamlet), New York, located in the above town **Central Islip, New York, a hamlet and census-d ...

) and one in London. After six months of retirement in 2005, Curran was "bored to tears" and decided to get a job as a supervisor at Oxford's Thornhill park-and-ride service.

References

* ''Canary Citizens'' by Mark Davage, John Eastwood, Kevin Platt, published by Jarrold Publishing, (2001),

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Curran, Hugh 1943 births Living people Home Farm F.C. players Shamrock Rovers F.C. players League of Ireland players Scottish men's footballers Scotland men's international footballers Men's association football forwards English Football League players Third Lanark A.C. players Corby Town F.C. players Millwall F.C. players Norwich City F.C. players Wolverhampton Wanderers F.C. players Bolton Wanderers F.C. players Oxford United F.C. players Expatriate men's association footballers in the Republic of Ireland