Sgt. Sergeant (abbreviated to Sgt. and capitalized when used as a named person's title) is a rank in many uniformed organizations, principally military and policing forces. The alternative spelling, ''serjeant'', is used in The Rifles and other uni ...

John "Sandy" McMillan (1869–1892) was a Scottish soldier who made one appearance at

centre-half In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield position whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Centre-backs are usually positioned in pairs, with one full-back on either s ...

in the FA Cup for Southampton St. Mary's Football Club in 1891.

Football career

McMillan was a member of the 93rd Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders who played a friendly

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

match against St. Mary's at the County Ground, Southampton on 10 October 1891. The Highlanders won the match 2–0 and afterwards, the "Saints" promptly signed McMillan and his team-mate Private

Jock Fleming James John "Jock" Fleming (September 1864 – August 1934) was a Scottish footballer who played at centre-forward for Southampton St. Mary's, Aston Villa and Lincoln City in the 1890s. Football career Fleming was born in Leith, near Edinbu ...

. The Saints' next fixture was an FA Cup Second Qualifying Round match against Reading to be played at the Antelope Ground two weeks later. Prior to the cup match, the local press reported that both McMillan and Fleming "had been a Saint for over a year". The FA Cup match ended in a 7–0 victory to the "Saints", in which Fleming scored a hat-trick. At the reception after the match, the Reading secretary asked for, and received, an advance of £3 on the share of the gate money. With this he immediately sent a telegram of protest accompanied by the necessary fee of 2 guineas to the Football Association (FA) claiming that the Saints had fielded illegally registered players in Fleming and McMillan. The claim was upheld by the FA, who found that the players had not been registered at least 28 days before the match, and as the Saints had not complied with the requirements of Rule 5 they were thus expelled from the competition.

Later career

Unlike Fleming, who went on to have a career in The Football League, McMillan immediately returned to his regiment and shortly afterwards was posted to India, based at Umballa, where he died the following year of enteric fever.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:McMillan, Sandy 1869 births Place of birth missing 1892 deaths Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders soldiers Scottish men's footballers Southampton F.C. players English Football League players Deaths from typhoid fever in India Men's association football central defenders British people in colonial India