Aberdeen and Scotland footballer

Born: May 8, 1936

Died: April 27, 2018

GEORGE Mulhall, who has died aged 81, was an excellent, old-fashioned Scottish winger who was much-better known in his adopted North of England than in his native Scotland.

Born in Westquarter, Falkirk, the youngest of eight children, he played for Denny YMCA and Kilsyth Rangers, before signing for Aberdeen on his 17th birthday. By turning senior, he followed the example of his older brothers Martin and Edward; however, his exploits would go on to dwarf theirs.

He had a lengthy apprenticeship at Pittodrie, understudying the great Jackie Hather. An injury to Hather saw the young Mulhall, just back from national service, make his debut in a 1-0 Easter Road win over Hibs, on 13 August, 1955; however, it wasn't until Hather retired at the end of the 1958-59 season that Mulhall became the regular occupant of the number 11 shirt, going on to play 150 games and score 42 goals.

Once he was in the team, his rise was meteoric. He won the first of his eventual three Scotland caps against Northern Ireland, at Windsor Park, on 3 October, 1959. He was one of three forwards with an Aberdeen connection in the Scotland forward line that afternoon, along with ex-Don Graham Leggat and Aberdeen-born Denis Law. Mulhall marked his first cap with the fourth goal.

However, he had to wait a long time for his second cap, replacing regular incumbent Davie Wilson of Rangers for the match against Northern Ireland, at Hampden, on 17 November, 1962 – Scotland winning 5-2, with Law scoring four of the goals. His third and final cap came, again against the Irish, at Windsor Park, on 12 October, 1963, as he once more filled in for the injured Wilson. This time, the Irish won 2-1.

These latter two caps were won as a Sunderland player; he had joined the Black Cats in September, 1962, his signature costing the English club £23,000. He played some 300 games for the club, including a run of 114 in succession, scoring 67 goals, during seven seasons at Roker Park. These seasons included 1963-64, when he helped the club to win promotion back to the First Division, and, during his spell there (until injury ended the Englishman's career) he formed a deadly partnership with Brian Clough, laying on many of the goals Clough scored, while Mulhall's famously fierce shooting brought him a few as well.

He also had fellow Scotland caps Jim Baxter, George Herd and Neil Martin as team mates at Sunderland, while Ian McColl, under whom he won his second and third Scotland caps was briefly his club manager too.

In 1967 he had spent the summer in Canada, playing for Vancouver Royal Canadians in the North American Soccer League. Two years later, in 1969, he headed to South Africa, where he played for three seasons with Cape Town City, but wife Elizabeth was keen to see their three children raised in the UK, so they returned. He played one final game, for Morton, then hung up his boots and switched full-time to coaching, something he had started doing in Cape Town.

He began as assistant coach at Halifax Town, before a relatively-successful two-year stint as manager of Halifax Town.

He then crossed the Pennines to become assistant manager at Bolton Wanderers, He stayed there for three years, then went back to Yorkshire, to manage Bradford City for three years. Bolton then tempted him back, in 1981, but, a year later, they sacked him.

Undaunted, he continued in football, as a scout for Ipswich Town, then assistant manager at Tranmere Rovers before, in 1996, with Halifax Town by now relegated out of the Football League into the Conference, he was tempted back to the Shay.

He duly restored the Shaymen to the Football League, then, in circumstances which remain a mystery to this day, the now 63-year-old Mulhall quit football. His achievement, in getting Town back into the Football League, however, earned him hero status in Halifax.

He remained in Yorkshire in retirement, like so many footballers of his generation finding his declining years blighted by dementia. He suffered a broken hip and was hospitalised in Huddersfield, where he died.

George Mulhall is survived by Elizabeth, and their three children, and is remembered as a fine player and manager, who, but for the fact he was a contemporary of Davie Wilson, might well have won more Scotland caps than he did.

MATT VALLANCE