Neil Martin

Alloa Athletic

Neil Martin began his senior football career at Alloa Athletic in Central Scotland. In 1960–61 Neil Martin scored 25 league and cup goals. This helped take Alloa as far as they have ever been on a Scottish Cup run (to the quarter finals). At that stage they were knocked out by a Dunfermline Athletic side at the beginning of their golden decade; Jock Stein would manage the Pars to victory in that season's Scottish Cup and to the next season's last eight of the European Cup Winners Cup. Martin's feats attracted suitors and at the end of the season he was on his way South.

Queen of the South

In 1961 Neil Martin followed in the footsteps of Irish international Laurie Cumming by joining Dumfries side Queen of the South after leaving Alloa. For Martin there was a £2,000 transfer fee. George Farm had been at Blackpool since 1948 and was goalkeeper through the tangerines' 1950s golden era (this included winning the 1953 'Matthews' FA Cup Final alongside Stanley Matthews and Stan Mortensen). In his second season at Queens he was now player manager (Farm went on to make over 100 league appearances for Queen of the South, as player-manager for three of his four years there). Also at the club was Jim Patterson (251 strikes for the club make Jim Patterson the all time goals king of Queens). And arriving shortly before Martin was Ernie Hannigan (with Martin as his chief accomplice Hannigan would later say, "Going to Queen of the South turned out to be a…

Martin played once for Scotland at U-23 level and twice for the Scottish Football League XI, scoring at Roker Park in a 2–2 draw against the Football League. At the end of the 1964–65 season Scotland played two away World Cup qualifiers. Martin made his debut partnering a scoring Denis Law in a 1–1 draw in Poland, and again paired with Law in a 2–1 victory in Finland. Martin won his third and yet again unbeaten final cap after his move to Sunderland (all three caps were awarded in 1965). Martin partnered Alan Gilzean in the 1–0 victory over Italy at Hampden Park with a late winner from John Greig. He also had 4 children, one of them was called Yvonne and had two children Callum and Scarlett, another called Craig who had one child called Lily and Martin's other children have yet to have children.