James Dailey (8 September 1927 – January 2002) was a Scottish professional

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 played as a

centre forward Forwards (also known as attackers) are outfield positions in an association football team who play the furthest up the pitch and are therefore most responsible for scoring goals as well as assisting them. As with any attacking player, the role ...

Biography

Dailey was born in

Glenboig Glenboig (Scottish Gaelic: An Gleann Bhog) is a village in North Lanarkshire, Scotland lying north of Coatbridge and to the south east of Kirkintilloch and is approximately from Glasgow City Centre. According to a estimate, the population of ...

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 ...

. He began his football career during the Second World War as an amateur with

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 ...

. After the war he returned home and signed for Third Lanark. When he arrived at

Sheffield Wednesday Sheffield Wednesday Football Club is a professional association football club based in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. The team competes in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. Formed in 1867 as an offshoot of ...

from Scotland as an 18-year-old, the team were struggling. He scored seven goals in his first eight games to start their recovery. At the start of the following season he scored ten in seven weeks, including all five in a 5–2 defeat of

Barnsley Barnsley () is a market town in South Yorkshire, England. As the main settlement of the Metropolitan Borough of Barnsley and the fourth largest settlement in South Yorkshire. In Barnsley, the population was 96,888 while the wider Borough has ...

, but the club preferred

Eddie Quigley Edward Quigley (13 July 1921 – 18 April 1997) was an English football player and manager. He was born in Bury, Lancashire, the son of Edward and Martha (née Rowley) Quigley. He scored 179 goals from 337 appearances in the Football League ...

and

Clarrie Jordan Clarrie Jordan (20 June 1922 – 24 February 1992) was an English professional footballer who played as a centre forward for Upton Colliery, Doncaster Rovers and Sheffield Wednesday. He holds the Doncaster record of 42 league goals scored in on ...

. Dailey moved to

Birmingham City Birmingham City Football Club is a professional football club based in Birmingham, England. Formed in 1875 as Small Heath Alliance, it was renamed Small Heath in 1888, Birmingham in 1905, and Birmingham City in 1943. Since 2011, the first te ...

for a not inconsiderable fee of £10,000 in February 1949. The next season, 1949–50, he was top scorer with nine goals in 23 games for a poor side which finished at the bottom of the table, but after that he rarely played. After leaving Birmingham he went on to score freely in the lower divisions, notably with 74 goals in 176 League games for

Workington Workington is a coastal town and civil parish at the mouth of the River Derwent on the west coast in the Allerdale borough of Cumbria, England. The town was historically in Cumberland. At the 2011 census it had a population of 25,207. Loca ...

, including a club all-time record 26 in 1956–57. At

Rochdale Rochdale ( ) is a large town in Greater Manchester, England, at the foothills of the South Pennines in the dale on the River Roch, northwest of Oldham and northeast of Manchester. It is the administrative centre of the Metropolitan Borough ...

he scored a goal every other game, which contributed to the club being placed in the

Third Division In sport, the Third Division, also called Division 3, Division Three, or Division III, is often the third-highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Association football *Belgian Thir ...

on goal average when the Football League was reorganised in 1958. Dailey later played

non-league football Non-League football describes football leagues played outside the top leagues of a country. Usually, it describes leagues which are not fully professional. The term is primarily used for football in England, where it is specifically used to de ...

in the south-west of England and managed Portland United and

Dorchester Town Dorchester Town Football Club are a semi-professional football club, based in Dorchester, Dorset, England. They currently play in the . The club is affiliated to the Dorset County Football Association and is a FA chartered Standard club. They ...

. After leaving football he ran a sports shop in Weymouth. He retired to Spain but returned in 2001 due to ill health, and died in Weymouth in January 2002, at the age of 74.

Honours

* with Birmingham City ** Club's top scorer (9) 1950 * with Workington ** Club's top scorer (26) 1957 * with Weymouth ** Club's top scorer (31) 1959

Notes and references

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Dailey, Jimmy 1927 births 2002 deaths Scottish men's footballers Men's association football forwards Wolverhampton Wanderers F.C. players Third Lanark A.C. players Sheffield Wednesday F.C. players Birmingham City F.C. players Exeter City F.C. players Workington A.F.C. players Rochdale A.F.C. players Weymouth F.C. players Bath City F.C. players Bridport F.C. players English Football League players Scottish football managers Date of death missing