Ernie Hannigan
Encyclopedia
Ernest 'Ernie' Hannigan (born 23 January 1943) is a Scottish
former footballer
. Hannigan was a fast, tricky, right winger. He is perhaps best known for his games at 3 clubs and the partnership he forged with Scotland
international centre forward Neil Martin
at 2 of them; 147 games at Queen of the South
and 47 at Coventry City (he played with Martin at both) and also for 98 games in between at Preston North End.
's Queen of the South in 1961, the Dumfries
based club having spotted him playing amateur football in Glasgow with St Roch
. As Hannigan later said, "Going to Queen of the South turned out to be a great move". Fast and tricky, he made his debut there at 17 on 5 April 1961 away to Albion Rovers. George Farm
– Blackpool
goalkeeper when winning the 1953 F.A. Cup final
– became manager in the close season. Farm signed future Scotland international centre forward Neil Martin
. Hannigan and Martin formed a great pairing that helped Queen of the South gain promotion back to the Scottish First Division (then Scotland's top flight). Also still at Queens at this time was Jim Patterson
(251 strikes for the club make Jim Patterson the all time goals king of Queens).
Hannigan's two remaining seasons at Queens were spent playing top division football. In this spell Queens recorded a 1-0 league victory away to Celtic that featured an early career appearance for young goalkeeper Allan Ball
. Team mate Iain McChesney later in an interview reflecting on his 20 years at Queens named Hannigan as being amongst the best player he played beside.
Ernie Hannigan stayed with Queens at Palmerston Park
making 99 league appearances scoring 6 league goals until he was 20 when Preston signed him for £15,000 in June 1964. He would return to the club for a short spell in 1972 to make a further 13 league appearances. In total he would make 147 appearances scoring 8 goals for Queens.
at Deepdale
on 31 August 1964. But appearances for Hannigan were limited in his first season in England
, making just 11 first team appearances, as the number seven shirt was held for the remainder of the season by Dave Wilson, the 1964/65 season was the last before substitutes were allowed in the game.
The following season saw Ernie Hannigan make 29 league appearances and scored his first goal in a 5-2 defeat at Southampton
in November 1965. Hannigan then scored in the next two matches against Derby County
and Cardiff . Hannigan scored a brace in the FA Cup Third Round 3-2 victory against Charlton Athletic
. Hannigan scored a further goal in the Fifth Round as PNE beat Tottenham Hotspur 2-1, before losing in the Quarter Finals against Manchester United in a replay.
Ernie Hannigan ended the season in great form scoring six of his eleven league goals in the last four matches of the season, culminating in a hat-trick on the last day of the season when Cardiff were beaten 9-0 at Deepdale.
The 1966/67 season saw Ernie Hannigan as an ever-present and finished with 12 goals one behind leading scorer Alex Dawson. Hannigan scored twice in a match on two occasions in a win over Birmingham City and a 5-1 victory at Northampton Town.
The following season saw Ernie Hannigan again score twice in a match on two occasions in a 3-1 victory at Norwich City and a 3-0 home win against Cardiff . His last appearance for PNE was on 4 November 1967 in a 1-1 home draw against. Hannigan had scored 28 goals from 98 appearances for Preston.
had replaced Jimmy Hill
as manager in October 1967 and then took ten games before the new manager had got a win with the Sky Blues bottom of the table. In February 1968 Coventry won three games in a row to take them out of the relegation zone and Hannigan was joined by his old Queens partner Neil Martin who had signed from Sunderland for £90,000. Hannigan contributed five league goals during the 1967/68 season for Coventry as they eventually just avoided relegation, finishing third from bottom, one point above Sheffield United. He scored one goal the following season as Coventry again finished third from bottom, this time one point above Leicester City.
Of manager Noel Cantwell, Hannigan later said: "Cantwell was a nice guy but I used to argue with him all the time about the way he wanted me to play. I was a winger who wanted to take players on, but he wanted my first touch to be a cross into the box to aim for Tony Hateley
and Neil Martin who were our two big centre-forwards."
Hannigan joined Torquay United
on loan in December 1969, playing in the draws at home to Reading
and Bournemouth
, that month before returning to Coventry.
and USA by joining New York Cosmos
in 1971. In Hannigan's second spell at Queen of the South in 1972 he would play his last game for the club away to Montrose
on 23 September 1972., having spent the summer playing for the New Jersey Brewers
. His last spell in the UK was with Raith Rovers where he found the net twice in five league games.
He then spent one season with Eastern Hong Kong before emigrating to Perth, Western Australia
joining Stirling City. In 1975 he won a D'Orsogna Cup with Morley Windmills who he had joined the previous year as player-coach. Hannigan was also the recipient of the D'Orsogna 'Fairest and Best' Medal and runners-up in the Rothmans 'Fairest and Best' Medal. Hannigan made the first of twelve appearances for the Western Australian State in May 1974 against Scottish side Aberdeen
and later played in the side that won the Mara Halim Cup, an international tournament in Indonesia
. In 1979 he moved to Stirling Macedonia, again as player-coach, and in 1982 joined Spearwood Dalmatinacs, retiring from playing in 1983. In 1985 he was appointed coach of Galeb, a position he held until 1986, and later coached Yugal from 1991 to 1992
Hannigan gained the reputation as one of the best outside-right's Western Australian fans had seen. He was inducted into the Western Australian Hall of Fame when the Hall of Fame Committee selected the top one hundred players over the past Century. Hannigan was one of the 28 1970's players selected in the 'Century of Champions' when the ceremony took place in July 2004.
(who died 20/04/08 in his sleep whilst on holiday with family in Thailand) who played for Aberdeen and scored a brace in the Scottish Cup
Final against Celtic
in 1970.
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
former footballer
Football (soccer)
Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a sport played between two teams of eleven players with a spherical ball...
. Hannigan was a fast, tricky, right winger. He is perhaps best known for his games at 3 clubs and the partnership he forged with Scotland
Scotland national football team
The Scotland national football team represents Scotland in international football and is controlled by the Scottish Football Association. Scotland are the joint oldest national football team in the world, alongside England, whom they played in the world's first international football match in 1872...
international centre forward Neil Martin
Neil Martin
Neil Martin is a Scottish former football player, who scored 100 league goals in both Scotland and England and won three full international caps for Scotland in the 1960s and 1970s. Known for his strength, power, bravery and commitment, Martin scored consistently in a journeyman career...
at 2 of them; 147 games at Queen of the South
Queen of the South F.C.
Queen of the South Football Club is a Scottish professional football club founded in 1919 and located in Dumfries. The club currently plays in the Scottish First Division, the second tier of Scottish football. They are officially nicknamed The Doonhamers, but usually referred to as Queens or QoS...
and 47 at Coventry City (he played with Martin at both) and also for 98 games in between at Preston North End.
Queen of the South
Ernie Hannigan kicked off his professional career joining Jimmy McKinnell JuniorJimmy McKinnell Junior
James "Jimmy" McKinnell, Jr. was long time secretary and manager with Scottish Football League team Queen of the South of Dumfries....
's Queen of the South in 1961, the Dumfries
Dumfries
Dumfries is a market town and former royal burgh within the Dumfries and Galloway council area of Scotland. It is near the mouth of the River Nith into the Solway Firth. Dumfries was the county town of the former county of Dumfriesshire. Dumfries is nicknamed Queen of the South...
based club having spotted him playing amateur football in Glasgow with St Roch
St Roch's F.C.
St Roch's Football Club is a Scottish football club, based in Provanmill,Glasgow. Nicknamed "the Candy Rock", they were formed in 1921 and play at Provanmill Park. The team is currently managed by David Greig, assisted by Joe McCall and Patrick Parker. A revamped team for the 2009/2010 season has...
. As Hannigan later said, "Going to Queen of the South turned out to be a great move". Fast and tricky, he made his debut there at 17 on 5 April 1961 away to Albion Rovers. George Farm
George Farm
George Neil Farm was a Scottish professional football goalkeeper and manager.Born in Slateford, a suburb of Edinburgh, Farm represented his country on ten occasions, the last three of which occurred after a gap of five years....
– Blackpool
Blackpool F.C.
Blackpool Football Club are an English football club founded in 1887 from the Lancashire seaside town of Blackpool. They are competing in the 2011–12 season of the The Championship, the second tier of professional football in England, having been relegated from the Premier League at the end of the...
goalkeeper when winning the 1953 F.A. Cup final
FA Cup Final 1953
The 1953 FA Cup Final, also known as the Matthews Final, was the eighth to be held at Wembley Stadium after the Second World War. The football match was contested between Blackpool and Bolton Wanderers, with Blackpool winning 4-3. The match became famous for the performance of Blackpool winger...
– became manager in the close season. Farm signed future Scotland international centre forward Neil Martin
Neil Martin
Neil Martin is a Scottish former football player, who scored 100 league goals in both Scotland and England and won three full international caps for Scotland in the 1960s and 1970s. Known for his strength, power, bravery and commitment, Martin scored consistently in a journeyman career...
. Hannigan and Martin formed a great pairing that helped Queen of the South gain promotion back to the Scottish First Division (then Scotland's top flight). Also still at Queens at this time was Jim Patterson
Jim Patterson (footballer)
James "Jim" Patterson is a former professional footballer and all-time record goalscorer for Scottish League club Queen of the South.-Early years:...
(251 strikes for the club make Jim Patterson the all time goals king of Queens).
Hannigan's two remaining seasons at Queens were spent playing top division football. In this spell Queens recorded a 1-0 league victory away to Celtic that featured an early career appearance for young goalkeeper Allan Ball
Allan Ball
Allan Ball is an English former footballer. Born in Hetton-le-Hole, County Durham, Ball played as a goalkeeper, spending most of his professional career with Scottish club Queen of the South. Ball made 731 first team appearances for Queens, a club record, between 1963 and 1982...
. Team mate Iain McChesney later in an interview reflecting on his 20 years at Queens named Hannigan as being amongst the best player he played beside.
Ernie Hannigan stayed with Queens at Palmerston Park
Palmerston Park
Palmerston Park is a multi-purpose stadium on Terregles Street in Dumfries, south west Scotland. The site of the ground was formerly a farm called Palmers Toun. This is on the Maxwelltown side of the River Nith in Dumfries. It is currently used mostly for football matches and is the home ground of...
making 99 league appearances scoring 6 league goals until he was 20 when Preston signed him for £15,000 in June 1964. He would return to the club for a short spell in 1972 to make a further 13 league appearances. In total he would make 147 appearances scoring 8 goals for Queens.
Preston North End
Ernie Hannigan's debut was in the fourth match of the season in a 1-1 draw against Cardiff CityCardiff city
Cardiff City may refer to:* Cardiff city centre* Cardiff City Council* Cardiff City F.C.* Cardiff City L.F.C.* Cardiff City Stadium...
at Deepdale
Deepdale
Deepdale is a stadium in the Deepdale area of Preston, England, the home of Preston North End F.C. and, up to 2010, England's National Football Museum. Preston North End are one of the founder members of the Football League.- History :...
on 31 August 1964. But appearances for Hannigan were limited in his first season in England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, making just 11 first team appearances, as the number seven shirt was held for the remainder of the season by Dave Wilson, the 1964/65 season was the last before substitutes were allowed in the game.
The following season saw Ernie Hannigan make 29 league appearances and scored his first goal in a 5-2 defeat at Southampton
Southampton F.C.
Southampton Football Club is an English football team, nicknamed The Saints, based in the city of Southampton, Hampshire. The club gained promotion to the Championship from League One in the 2010–2011 season after being relegated in 2009. Their home ground is the St Mary's Stadium, where the club...
in November 1965. Hannigan then scored in the next two matches against Derby County
Derby County F.C.
Derby County Football Club is an English football based in Derby. the club play in the Football League Championship and is notable as being one of the twelve founder members of the Football League in 1888 and is, therefore, one of only ten clubs to have competed in every season of the English...
and Cardiff . Hannigan scored a brace in the FA Cup Third Round 3-2 victory against Charlton Athletic
Charlton Athletic F.C.
Charlton Athletic Football Club is an English professional football club based in Charlton, in the London Borough of Greenwich. They compete in Football League One, the third tier of English football. The club was founded on 9 June 1905, when a number of youth clubs in the southeast London area,...
. Hannigan scored a further goal in the Fifth Round as PNE beat Tottenham Hotspur 2-1, before losing in the Quarter Finals against Manchester United in a replay.
Ernie Hannigan ended the season in great form scoring six of his eleven league goals in the last four matches of the season, culminating in a hat-trick on the last day of the season when Cardiff were beaten 9-0 at Deepdale.
The 1966/67 season saw Ernie Hannigan as an ever-present and finished with 12 goals one behind leading scorer Alex Dawson. Hannigan scored twice in a match on two occasions in a win over Birmingham City and a 5-1 victory at Northampton Town.
The following season saw Ernie Hannigan again score twice in a match on two occasions in a 3-1 victory at Norwich City and a 3-0 home win against Cardiff . His last appearance for PNE was on 4 November 1967 in a 1-1 home draw against. Hannigan had scored 28 goals from 98 appearances for Preston.
Coventry City & Torquay United
Hannigan joined Coventry City, who was playing in their first season in the top division, in November 1967 for a fee of £55,000. It had been a difficult start for Coventry as Noel CantwellNoel Cantwell
Noel Euchuria Cornelius Cantwell was an Irish cricketer and football player born in County Cork, Irish Free State...
had replaced Jimmy Hill
Jimmy Hill
James William Thomas "Jimmy" Hill OBE is an English association football personality. His career has taken in virtually every role in football, including player, union leader, coach, manager, director, chairman, television executive, presenter, analyst and match official.-Early life:Hill was born...
as manager in October 1967 and then took ten games before the new manager had got a win with the Sky Blues bottom of the table. In February 1968 Coventry won three games in a row to take them out of the relegation zone and Hannigan was joined by his old Queens partner Neil Martin who had signed from Sunderland for £90,000. Hannigan contributed five league goals during the 1967/68 season for Coventry as they eventually just avoided relegation, finishing third from bottom, one point above Sheffield United. He scored one goal the following season as Coventry again finished third from bottom, this time one point above Leicester City.
Of manager Noel Cantwell, Hannigan later said: "Cantwell was a nice guy but I used to argue with him all the time about the way he wanted me to play. I was a winger who wanted to take players on, but he wanted my first touch to be a cross into the box to aim for Tony Hateley
Tony Hateley
Tony Hateley is a former footballer who played for numerous English clubs as a striker. He is also the father of former England footballer Mark Hateley and grandfather of Motherwell footballer Tom Hateley....
and Neil Martin who were our two big centre-forwards."
Hannigan joined Torquay United
Torquay United F.C.
Torquay United Football Club, nicknamed the Gulls, are an English association football club based in the tourist resort town of Torquay, Devon. They played in the Conference National in 2008–09, but were promoted to Football League Two after a 2–0 win over Cambridge United on 17 May 2009 at Wembley...
on loan in December 1969, playing in the draws at home to Reading
Reading F.C.
Reading Football Club is an English association football club based in the town of Reading, Berkshire who currently play in the Championship...
and Bournemouth
A.F.C. Bournemouth
A.F.C. Bournemouth is an English football club currently playing in Football League One. The club plays at Dean Court in Kings Park, Boscombe, Bournemouth, Dorset and have been in existence since 1899....
, that month before returning to Coventry.
Morton
On leaving Coventry in 1970, Hannigan returned to Scotland with Morton, scoring six times in 32 league games.Later career
Ernie Hannigan then moved abroad by having a short spell in South AfricaSouth Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
and USA by joining New York Cosmos
New York Cosmos
The New York Cosmos were an American soccer club based in New York City, New York and its suburbs. The team played home games in three stadiums around New York before moving in 1977 to Giants Stadium, East Rutherford, New Jersey, where it remained for the rest of its history...
in 1971. In Hannigan's second spell at Queen of the South in 1972 he would play his last game for the club away to Montrose
Montrose F.C.
Montrose Football Club is a Scottish semi-professional football team, based in the town of Montrose, Angus. They are members of the Scottish Football League and currently play in the Third Division.- Early years :...
on 23 September 1972., having spent the summer playing for the New Jersey Brewers
New Jersey Brewers
New Jersey Schaefer Brewers was an American soccer club that was a member of the American Soccer League.Established as the New Jersey Schaefer Brewers, the became the New Jersey Brewers after its first season...
. His last spell in the UK was with Raith Rovers where he found the net twice in five league games.
He then spent one season with Eastern Hong Kong before emigrating to Perth, Western Australia
Perth, Western Australia
Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia and the fourth most populous city in Australia. The Perth metropolitan area has an estimated population of almost 1,700,000....
joining Stirling City. In 1975 he won a D'Orsogna Cup with Morley Windmills who he had joined the previous year as player-coach. Hannigan was also the recipient of the D'Orsogna 'Fairest and Best' Medal and runners-up in the Rothmans 'Fairest and Best' Medal. Hannigan made the first of twelve appearances for the Western Australian State in May 1974 against Scottish side Aberdeen
Aberdeen F.C.
Aberdeen Football Club are a Scottish professional football club based in Aberdeen...
and later played in the side that won the Mara Halim Cup, an international tournament in Indonesia
Indonesia
Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...
. In 1979 he moved to Stirling Macedonia, again as player-coach, and in 1982 joined Spearwood Dalmatinacs, retiring from playing in 1983. In 1985 he was appointed coach of Galeb, a position he held until 1986, and later coached Yugal from 1991 to 1992
Hannigan gained the reputation as one of the best outside-right's Western Australian fans had seen. He was inducted into the Western Australian Hall of Fame when the Hall of Fame Committee selected the top one hundred players over the past Century. Hannigan was one of the 28 1970's players selected in the 'Century of Champions' when the ceremony took place in July 2004.
Later life
Hannigan still lives in Perth and owns an industrial cleaning business. His business partner was the late Derek McKayDerek McKay
Derek McKay was a Scottish footballer who played as a right winger.-Career:Born in Banff, McKay began his professional career with Dundee, featuring in a dozen league matches before moving to Aberdeen in 1969...
(who died 20/04/08 in his sleep whilst on holiday with family in Thailand) who played for Aberdeen and scored a brace in the Scottish Cup
Scottish Cup
The Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup,, commonly known as the Scottish Cup or the William Hill Scottish Cup for sponsorship purposes, is the main national cup competition in Scottish football. It is a knockout cup competition run by and named after the Scottish Football Association.The...
Final against Celtic
Celtic F.C.
Celtic Football Club is a Scottish football club based in the Parkhead area of Glasgow, which currently plays in the Scottish Premier League. The club was established in 1887, and played its first game in 1888. Celtic have won the Scottish League Championship on 42 occasions, most recently in the...
in 1970.