MIKE MCCARTNEY

Born: 28 September 1954

Came from: Southampton   Went to: Carlisle United

First game: 15 August 1981   Last game: 19 March 1983

Appearances: 62 (62/0)   Goals: 6

McCartney was born in Musselburgh, a historic coastal town in East Lothian, Scotland, in 1954. He grew up supporting Edinburgh club Heart of Midlothian and, having represented Scotland Schoolboys, turned down the opportunity to join Hearts as a trainee and instead moved to England. He joined West Bromwich Albion as an apprentice in July 1970 and signed a professional contract in December 1971, but failed to break into the first team.

After his release from The Hawthorns, he joined Carlisle United in May 1973 for what proved to be a successful five-season stay at Brunton Park. He made 156 appearances and scored 17 goals, including two appearances during Carlisle’s only season in the top flight, 1974-75.

Having been described as ‘one of the left-backs in the lower divisions’, McCartney was given another opportunity in the top-flight when Southampton manager Lawrie McMenemy signed him for £50,000. He featured during the 1980-81 season, when Saints finished sixth, their highest-ever league placing at the time, later equalled in the Premier League in 2015-16. McCartney made 22 appearances and scored once that season, playing alongside Kevin Keegan and making his debut in the same game.

He moved to Home Park in August 1981 for £50,000, signing under Bobby Moncur. The tough-tackling full-back spent two seasons in green, making 62 appearances and scoring six goals before returning to Carlisle shortly before the end of the 1982-83 season in an exchange deal involving Gordon Staniforth.

McCartney added a further 131 appearances and seven goals during his second spell at Carlisle, remaining at Brunton Park for another five years. The club suffered two relegations, finishing second from bottom of the Fourth Division in 1987-88. In February 1986, McCartney suffered an ankle injury during a match at Sunderland which ultimately brought his Football League career to an end, aged 31.

He then moved into non-league football with Gretna, then an English club playing in the Northern League, before its later move into Scottish football. Initially player-manager, he won the league twice before taking on the role of groundsman. He left in January 2000, before the club was acquired by Brooks Mileson, whose substantial investment took Gretna into the Scottish Football League, the Scottish top flight and European competition. The club subsequently fell back into non-league football and eventually became insolvent after Mileson withdrew his support.

Ironically, Gretna’s later success in gaining entry to the Scottish Football League had been a goal McCartney himself had advocated. He had also worked on improvements to the club’s Raydale Park ground during earlier, unsuccessful attempts to secure entry to the league.

In later years, McCartney regularly watched Hearts, travelling from his home in Carlisle, where he had settled and worked in the building trade and as a van driver. He died in January 2018, aged just 63, following a short illness.

Footnote: In 2001, McCartney was voted number 49 in the Daily Mail's online ‘Top 50 of Football’s Greatest Hardmen’.