James Kelly (11 November 1931 – 10 August 2003) was an English

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 defender.

Career

Born in Linton,

Morpeth, Northumberland Morpeth is a historic market town in Northumberland, North East England, lying on the River Wansbeck. Nearby towns include Ashington, Northumberland, Ashington and Bedlington, Northumberland, Bedlington. In the United Kingdom Census 2011, 2011 ...

, Kelly started his career at

Watford Watford () is a town and borough in Hertfordshire, England, 15 miles northwest of Central London, on the River Colne. Initially a small market town, the Grand Junction Canal encouraged the construction of paper-making mills, print works, a ...

, who then played in

Division Three South The Third Division South of The Football League was a tier in the English football league system from 1921 to 1958. It ran in parallel with the Third Division North with clubs elected to the League or relegated from Division Two allocated to o ...

. He signed for

Blackpool Blackpool is a seaside resort in Lancashire, England. Located on the North West England, northwest coast of England, it is the main settlement within the Borough of Blackpool, borough also called Blackpool. The town is by the Irish Sea, betw ...

on 15 October 1954 for £15,000 and the promise of playing Watford in a friendly with ''the Seasiders'', who were then playing in the First Division, the top flight in England. Kelly recalled of the events: "On the Friday I signed for Blackpool, within 24 hours I had travelled from London to

Bramall Lane Bramall Lane is a association football, football stadium in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England, which is the home of Sheffield United F.C., Sheffield United. The stadium was originally a cricket ground, built on a road named after the Bramal ...

and was playing against

Sheffield United Sheffield United Football Club is a professional football club in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England, which compete in the . They are nicknamed "the Blades" due to Sheffield's history of cutlery production. The team have played home games at ...

. We got beaten 2–1 – and we desperately needed the points too – but meeting my new colleagues in the dressing room and having my first experience of Blackpool's polished style of play helped to make it an otherwise unforgettable day." He scored his first goal for the club later that season, on 26 February 1955 in a 3–1 defeat to

West Lancashire West Lancashire is a local government district with borough status in Lancashire, England. The council is based in Ormskirk, and the largest town in the borough is Skelmersdale. At the 2011 Census, the population of the borough was 110,685 ...

rivals

Preston North End Preston North End Football Club, commonly referred to as Preston, North End or PNE, is a professional football club in Preston, Lancashire, England, who currently play in the EFL Championship, the second tier of the English football league syste ...

. The following summer he toured with a

Football Association The Football Association (also known as The FA) is the governing body of association football in England and the Crown Dependencies of Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man. Formed in 1863, it is the oldest football association in the world an ...

XI, playing against

Bermuda ) , anthem = "God Save the King" , song_type = National song , song = " Hail to Bermuda" , image_map = , map_caption = , image_map2 = , mapsize2 = , map_caption2 = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = , e ...

on 12 May 1955. In October 1955 he had a transfer request turned down, and another request in January 1956 was also turned down. In 1958 he won another representative honour when he played for the FA XI against the

Army An army (from Old French ''armee'', itself derived from the Latin verb ''armāre'', meaning "to arm", and related to the Latin noun ''arma'', meaning "arms" or "weapons"), ground force or land force is a fighting force that fights primarily on ...

. In the 1959–60 season he became Blackpool's

club captain The team captain of an association football team, sometimes known as the skipper, is a team member chosen to be the on-pitch leader of the team; they are often one of the older or more experienced members of the squad, or a player that can heavi ...

. He then gained his coaching certificate at

Lilleshall Lilleshall is a village and civil parish in the county of Shropshire, England. It lies between the towns of Telford and Newport, on the A518, in the Telford and Wrekin borough and the Wrekin constituency. There is one school in the centre of ...

. In May 1961, after 244 league and cup games for Blackpool, Kelly emigrated to Australia, where he joined South Coast United in New South Wales. He was voted

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 ...

by three newspapers in Sydney at the end of 1961: the ''

Sydney Morning Herald ''The Sydney Morning Herald'' (''SMH'') is a daily compact newspaper published in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, and owned by Nine. Founded in 1831 as the ''Sydney Herald'', the ''Herald'' is the oldest continuously published newspaper i ...

'', the ''

Illawarra Mercury The ''Illawarra Mercury'' is a daily newspaper serving the Illawarra region of New South Wales, Australia. It has been published since 1855, making it one of Australia's oldest newspapers and the second oldest regional newspaper in New South Wal ...

'' and the ''

Sydney Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', also nicknamed ''The Tele'', is an Australian tabloid newspaper published by Nationwide News Pty Limited, a subsidiary of News Corp Australia, itself a subsidiary of News Corp. It is published Monday through Saturday a ...

''. He then became player-coach of South Coast United and went on to coach the Australian national team, as well as the New South Wales Federation. In the 1964–65 season he won the Sydney First Grade League competition with South Coast United. He was offered a new contract but chose instead to go back to England in 1965. He returned to the

Fylde coast The Fylde () is a coastal plain in western Lancashire, England. It is roughly a square-shaped peninsula, bounded by Morecambe Bay to the north, the Ribble estuary to the south, the Irish Sea to the west, and the foot of the Bowland hills to ...

playing

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

Lancashire Combination The Lancashire Combination was a football league founded in the North West of England in 1891–92. It absorbed the Lancashire League in 1903. In 1968 the Combination lost five of its clubs to the newly formed Northern Premier League. In 1982 it ...

with

Fleetwood Fleetwood is a coastal town in the Borough of Wyre in Lancashire, England, at the northwest corner of the Fylde. It had a population of 25,939 at the United Kingdom Census 2011, 2011 census. Fleetwood acquired its modern character in the 1830 ...

in the 1966–67 season. In the summer of 1968 he returned to Australia for a second spell.

After football

In 1965 Kelly established an

insurance broker An insurance broker is an intermediary who sells, solicits, or negotiates insurance on behalf of a client for compensation. An insurance broker is distinct from an insurance agent in that a broker typically acts on behalf of a client by negoti ...

company, Jim Kelly & Co. Ltd, in Blackpool. The company still bears his name. Kelly died on 10 August 2003, aged 71.

Career

After football

References

Further reading