John Weir (10 January 1865 – 11 January 1946) was a Scottish

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 half-back.

Career

Weir initially played club football in Glasgow for Third Lanark,The Blacksmith of Crossmyloof
Tony Onslow, ToffeeWeb, 4 November 2014 and made one appearance for Scotland in February 1887; he took part in a trial the following month but had no further international recognition. In around August 1887 he moved south to England, initially joining Bootle before soon being tempted to sign for Everton along with another former Third Lanark player Robert Izatt, much to the annoyance of Bootle. At the same time Everton eliminated

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 ...

from the

1887–88 FA Cup The 1887–88 Football Association Challenge Cup was the 17th staging of the FA Cup, England's oldest Association football, football tournament. One hundred and forty-nine teams entered, twenty-one more than the previous season, although four of t ...

but following a protest were found to have several professionals in their ranks – against the rules of the time – and these players, including Weir (who by then had been injured in a match against Bootle), Izatt and other Scotsmen, had their registrations suspended while Everton were disqualified from the competition. Most of the Scottish players left the area but Weir remained on Merseyside, was re-instated and played for the club in 16 of their 22 fixtures in the first season of the

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 Engla ...

in 1888–89 (Everton finished eighth of twelve teams). His elder brother Charles, a former Third Lanark teammate, featured for the ''Toffees'' reserve team for the latter part of the season (joining after playing against them in a friendly) but was not retained. Weir played in the first three matches of the next campaign but then suffered a badly broken arm which caused him to miss the rest of the season and also impacted his trade as blacksmith. He appeared the following April in the Liverpool Senior Cup final, a victory over his old club Bootle, but was then released by the club. He spent a season with non-league High Park ( Southport) then served

Rossendale Rossendale may refer to several places and organizations in Lancashire, England: Places *Rossendale Valley, a river valley *Borough of Rossendale, a local government district *Rossendale (UK Parliament constituency), a former parliamentary constitu ...

of the Lancashire League as player-manager for four seasons, the highlight of his time there being a 7–1 victory over local rivals

Bury Bury may refer to: *The burial of human remains *-bury, a suffix in English placenames Places England * Bury, Cambridgeshire, a village * Bury, Greater Manchester, a town, historically in Lancashire ** Bury (UK Parliament constituency) (1832–19 ...

in the early rounds of the

1892–93 FA Cup The 1892–93 FA Cup was the 22nd staging of the world's oldest football cup competition, the Football Association Challenge Cup, commonly known as the FA Cup. Wolverhampton Wanderers won the competition, beating Everton 1–0 in the final at ...

. His family settled in the area, where he died in 1946.J. Weir, Third Lanark Everton and Scotland 1887
ScottishLeague.net, 4 March 2014

Notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Weir, John 1865 births Scottish men's footballers Scottish people of Irish descent Footballers from Glasgow 1946 deaths Scotland men's international footballers Third Lanark A.C. players Bootle F.C. (1879) players Everton F.C. players Men's association football wing halves Men's association football central defenders Scottish football managers Men's association football player-managers English Football League players