Name: Alexander ConnellBorn: c.1910, Belfast
Height:
Weight:
Position: Half-Back
Representative Honours: Ireland: 6 Amateur Caps (1934-1938).
Club Honours:
Club Career:
Teams
|
Seasons
|
Signed
|
Fee
|
League
|
FA Cup
|
Other
|
53rd
Old Boys
|
27/28
|
-
|
Amateur
|
(Amateur League)
|
||
Brantwood
|
28/29
|
-1928
|
Amateur
|
(Intermediate League)
|
||
Larne.Olympic
|
28/29-29/30
|
-1928
|
Amateur
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
Ballycarry
|
29/30
|
-1929
|
Amateur
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
Larne
|
29/30-30/31
|
-1930
|
Amateur
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
Ards
|
31/32-32/33
|
-1931
|
Amateur
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
Glenavon
|
33/34-34/35
|
-1933
|
Amateur
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
Ballymena.United
|
35/36-37/38
|
-1935
|
Amateur
|
*42/2
|
-
|
-
|
TOTALS
|
-
|
£
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
|
Biography:
A Shore Road lad, Alex Connell was a clever player "who can play with his head as well as with his feet" and was capable as either a right or left half-back, positions he regularly fulfilled both at club and international level.
As a teenager Connell helped 53rd Old Boys to runners-up spot in the Amateur League in the 1927/28 season. He then played a single game for Brantwood at the start of the following season before joining Larne Olympic where he played regularly through to September 1929 when he was truck down by a serious illness. Advised to quit the game altogether, Connell "had the taste" for the game, and by Christmas was back and "treading the turf" with Ballycarry. His form recovered, he was persuaded back to Larne and towards the end of the 1929/30 season he was introduced to senior football and in the following campaign he "rarely had a Saturday off."
After becoming unsettled at Larne, Connell took his enthusiasm to Ards. At Castlereagh Park he started out in his favoured right-half position, but after a few games moved over to the other side with immediate success. He "gave entire satisfaction" to the Ards management and supporters, and was not once absent from the team throughout the campaign. Already a "successful career" was being predicted for Connell, but it was not until he had joined Glenavon that he claimed his first major representative honours, playing three time for Amateur Ireland while on the books at Mourneview. He retained his place in the amateur international set-up while with Ballymena United, taking his cap total to six.
Ireland Amateur Cap Details:
25-04-1934 Scotland H W 4-1
16-02-1935 England. H L 2-4
17-04-1935 Scotland A W 3-2
15-02-1936 England. A L 0-5
22-04-1936 Scotland H L 3-5
13-04-1938 Scotland H W 2-1
Summary: 6/0. Won 3, Drew 0, Lost 3.
From details contained in an ISN profile kindly supplied by Jim Murphy.
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