Peter Pursell (1 July 1894 – 14 August 1968) 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 ...

. A defender, he won one cap 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 ...

in 1914. He was the younger brother of Robert Russell Pursell, and the father of Robert Wilson Pursell. He began his senior career at Queens Park, before joining

Rangers A Ranger is typically someone in a military/paramilitary or law enforcement role specializing in patrolling a given territory, called “ranging”. The term most often refers to: * Park ranger or forest ranger, a person charged with protecting and ...

in 1914. He helped the club to the league title in 1917–18 and 1918–19, before he signed with English club

Port Vale Port Vale Football Club are a professional football club based in Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent, England, which compete in . Vale are the only English Football League club not to be named after a place; their name being a reference to the valley o ...

for a £2,500 fee in August 1919. He spent five years with the Vale, before joining Wigan Borough for a two-year spell. He later became

player-manager A player-coach (also playing coach, captain-coach, or player-manager) is a member of a sports team who simultaneously holds both playing and coaching duties. A player-coach may be a head coach or an assistant coach. They may make changes to the sq ...

at non-League side

Congleton Town Congleton Town Football Club is an association football club based in Congleton, Cheshire, England. They currently play in the and are full members of the Cheshire County Football Association. The club have played in a number of regional league ...

and then

manager Management (or managing) is the administration of an organization, whether it is a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government body. It is the art and science of managing resources of the business. Management includes the activities o ...

at Dutch club

Dordrecht Dordrecht (), historically known in English as Dordt (still colloquially used in Dutch, ) or Dort, is a city and municipality in the Western Netherlands, located in the province of South Holland. It is the province's fifth-largest city after R ...

Club career

Queens Park

Pursell played for Campbeltown Academicals and played for one season with Queens Park. He made his

Scottish Division One The Scottish Football League (SFL) was a league featuring professional and semi-professional football clubs mostly from Scotland.One club, Berwick Rangers, is based in the town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, which is located approximately 4 km south ...

debut on 16 August 1913, in a 4–0 defeat at Dumbarton. He featured 21 times throughout the 1913–14 campaign.

Rangers

He joined

in 1914. He made 31 appearances in 1914–15, as the club finished third in Scottish Division One. He played 20 games in 1915–16, as the ''Gers'' finished second behind

Old Firm The Old Firm is the collective name for the Scottish football clubs Celtic and Rangers, which are both based in Glasgow. The two clubs are by far the most successful and popular in Scotland, and the rivalry between them has become deeply em ...

rivals

Celtic Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to: Language and ethnicity *pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia **Celts (modern) *Celtic languages **Proto-Celtic language * Celtic music *Celtic nations Sports Fo ...

. The

Ibrox Park Ibrox Stadium is a football stadium on the south side of the River Clyde in the Ibrox area of Glasgow, Scotland. The home of Rangers Football Club, Ibrox is the third largest football stadium in Scotland, with an all-seated capacity of . O ...

club again finished third in 1916–17, before winning the league title in 1917–18, with Pursell making 24 appearances. He featured 23 times in 1918–19, as Rangers retained the league title.

Port Vale

He joined

for a £2,500 fee in August 1919. When Vale were elected to 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 ...

two months later, the club had to fork out an extra £500 to Rangers for the services of Pursell and Willie Aitken. He played 49 of the club's 51 games in 1919–20, and also helped Vale to lift the Staffordshire Senior Cup and North Staffordshire Infirmary Cup. He played alongside brother

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in 1920–21, making 34

Second Division In sport, the Second Division, also called Division 2 or Division II is usually the second highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Following the rise of Premier League style compet ...

appearances. He featured 32 times in 1921–22, though his brother was forced to retire with a broken leg. Pursell featured 42 times in 1922–23 and 25 times in 1923–24, before leaving

The Old Recreation Ground The Old Recreation Ground was a football stadium located in Hanley, Stoke-on-Trent, England, and home to Port Vale F.C. from 1913 to 1950. It was the sixth ground the club used. Structure and facilities The stadium was in rather bad conditio ...

for Wigan Borough at the end of the campaign. Pursell played a total of 183 matches for the Vale without finding the net.

Wigan Borough

He played 35

Third Division North The Third Division North 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 South with clubs elected to the League or relegated from a higher division allocated to ...

games for Wigan, helping the club to finish 11th in 1924–25 and 17th in 1925–26.

International career

Pursell received his sole

cap on 28 February 1914, in a

British Home Championship The British Home Championship * sco, Hame Internaitional Kemp * gd, Farpais lìg eadar-nàiseanta * cy, Pencampwriaeth y Pedair Gwlad, name=lang (historically known as the British International Championship or simply the International Champio ...

match against

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...

which ended in a 0–0 draw.

Managerial career

After leaving Wigan Borough, Pursell became

and also managed Dutch club

Career statistics

Source:

Honours

Rangers *

Scottish Football League The Scottish Football League (SFL) was a league featuring professional and semi-professional football clubs mostly from Scotland.One club, Berwick Rangers, is based in the town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, which is located approximately 4 km south ...

: 1917–18, 1918–19 Port Vale * Staffordshire Senior Cup: 1920 *North Staffordshire Infirmary Cup: 1920, 1922

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pursell, Peter 1894 births 1968 deaths People from Campbeltown Footballers from Argyll and Bute Scottish men's footballers Scotland men's international footballers Men's association football defenders Queen's Park F.C. players Rangers F.C. players Port Vale F.C. players Wigan Borough F.C. players Congleton Town F.C. players Scottish Football League players English Football League players Men's association football player-managers Scottish football managers Scottish expatriate football managers Expatriate football managers in the Netherlands FC Dordrecht managers