John McCartney

John McCartney

Born in Glasgow in 1866, John had played for Rangers before moving south to England and Newton Heath (Manchester United) in 1894.

With the Town now in the Southern League he came to Luton in April 1895 and for three years was a mainstay in the side, soon assuming the captaincy. A full-back, he was quite short but was a bull of a man who had perfected the shoulder charge and possessed good ball control and a turn of pace.

With the club in financial difficulties he joined Barnsley in 1898 and worked his way up to becoming secretary-manager in 1901. He joined St Mirren in a similar capacity in 1904 before a long spell at Hearts.

Having encouraged his Hearts players to join the Scottish Footballers Battalion during the Great War and then seeing a disproportionate number of them killed in action he felt emotionally unable to continue in Scotland so joined Portsmouth as manager in 1920 who he would lead to successive promotions.

Citing ill-health he left Portsmouth in 1927 and four months later he was appointed secretary-manager at Luton! Converting Andy Rennie from centre-half to the forward line was an inspired decision leading to seventh place finish in his second season.

Illness continued to dog him, and after a leg amputation he decided to retire completely and devote time to writing books and newspaper articles.

John passed away in Edinburgh in 1933.