Sam Torrans

Name: Samuel Torrans
Born: 27 October 1869, Belfast
Died: 8 May 1948
Position: Forward/Left-Half/Left-Back

Representative Honours: Ireland: 26 Full Caps (1889-1901); Irish League: 8 Caps (1895-1901).
Club Honours: (with Linfield) Irish League Champion 1890/91, 1891/92, 1892/93, 1894/95, 1897/98, 1901/02; Irish Cup Winner 1890/91, 1891/92, 1892/93, 1894/95, 1897/98, 1898/99, 1901/02; City Cup Winner; Belfast Charity Cup Winner; Co. Antrim Shield Winner.

Club Career

Clubs	Seasons	Signed	Fee	League	FA Cup	Other
Linfield	1886/87-1901/02	-1886	Amateur	-	??/30	-
TOTALS		£-		-	-	-

Biography:
Undoubtedly the star of the famous Torrans clan, Sam was the only one of the four brothers to play in each of Linfield’s first six Irish League titles and first seven Irish Cup wins. A founding member of th club, he was originally a free-scoring forward, scoring 18 times in Linfield’s first title winning season, including five in a 14-0 win over Oldpark. He ended the 1890/91 season with another strike in a 4-2 Irish Cup win over Ulster. He scored another Irish Cup final goal a year later as the Black Watch Regiment were defeated 7-0 (Rab also scored) and although he failed to find the net in the 1893 5-1 final win over Cliftonville, another brother, Tom, did.

By 1893 however, Torrans had begun to feature more often at left-back and it was in that position he played in further Irish Cup wins in 1895, 1898, 1899 and 1902. In his seventeen year Blues career Torrans also claimed City Cup, Charity Cup and Co. Antrim Shield winner’s medals, many as captain. Despite playing the latter portion of his career as a back, Torrans’ thirty goals in the Irish Cup competition has been bettered by just seven others.

Torrans was a mainstay for Ireland for twelve years, claiming a total of 26 caps. He featured at outside-right, inside, left, outside-left, left-half and left-back, but despite his admirable goalscoring return at club level, never scored on the international stage, in the opponents net at any rate. His best opportunity came against England in March 1892, with the game scoreless after 75 minutes, as Ireland were awarded the first penalty in international football – Torrans’ effort was saved by English ‘keeper William Rowley, who then recovered to save the follow up from William Dalton. Further ignominy to his international career came in the form of the unwanted record of most own goals scored in the International Championship – three in all. Torrans also captained Ireland on two occasions during the 1894 Championship.

Although only two of the four Torrans brothers won Ireland caps (Sam and Rab) a third, Jim, did make the field at international level as a referee. A mechanic/fitter by trade, Torrans was widowed at a young age before remarrying and having several children.

Ireland Cap Details:
09-03-1889 Scotland A L 0- 7 BC
08-02-1890 Wales... A L 2- 5 BC
29-03-1890 Scotland H L 1- 4 BC
07-02-1891 Wales... H W 7- 2 BC
28-03-1891 Scotland A L 1- 2 BC
27-02-1892 Wales... A D 1- 1 BC
05-03-1892 England. H L 0- 2 BC
18-03-1892 Scotland H L 2- 3 BC
25-02-1893 England. A L 1- 6 BC
25-03-1893 Scotland A L 1- 6 BC
24-02-1894 Wales... A L 1- 4 BC
03-03-1894 England. H D 2- 2 BC
31-03-1894 Scotland H L 1- 2 BC
09-03-1895 England. A L 0- 9 BC
29-02-1896 Wales... A L 1- 6 BC
07-03-1896 England. H L 0- 2 BC
28-03-1896 Scotland H D 3- 3 BC
20-02-1897 England. A L 0- 6 BC
06-03-1897 Wales... H W 4- 3 BC
27-03-1897 Scotland A L 1- 5 BC
05-03-1898 England. H L 2- 3 BC
26-03-1898 Scotland H L 0- 3 BC
18-02-1899 England. A L 2-13 BC
04-03-1899 Wales... H W 1- 0 BC
23-02-1901 Scotland A L 0-11 BC
23-03-1901 Wales... H L 0- 1 BC

Summary: 26/0. Won 3, Drew 3, Lost 20.

Mark Todd

Name: Mark Kenneth Todd
Born: 4 December 1967, Belfast
Height: 5.08 ft
Weight: 10.04 st
Position: Midfielder

Representative Honours: Northern Ireland: 1 Under-23 Cap (1990), Youth, 3 Schoolboy Caps (1983).
Club Honours: (with Sheff. United) Football League Division Two Runner-Up 1988/89; Football League Division Three 1987/88; (with Rotherham) Football League Division Four Runner-Up 1991/92.

Club Career:

Teams	Seasons	Signed	Fee	League	FA Cup	FL Cup	Other
Manchester United	85/86-86/87	Aug-85	Youth	0 (0)/ 0	-	-	-
Sheffield United	87/88-90/91	Jun-87	Free	62 (8)/ 5	10(1)/1	5(1)/0	5(1)/0
Wolverhampton W.	90/91	Mar-91	Loan	6 (1)/ 0	-	-	-
Rotherham United	91/92-94/95	Sep-91	£35k	60 (4)/ 7	3(0)/0	5(0)/2	2(0)/1
Scarborough	95/96	Aug-95	Free	23 (0)/ 1	1(0)/0	2(0)/0	0(1)/0
Mansfield Town	95/96	Feb-96	Free	10 (2)/ 0	-	-	-
Stalybridge Celtic	96/97	-	Free	4 (2)/ 0	(Conference)
TOTALS	-	£35k		165(17)/13	14(1)/1	12(1)/2	7(2)/1

Biography:
A diminutive ball-playing midfielder, Mark Todd had been an apprentice at Manchester United and won Northern Ireland Schoolboy and Youth honours. Although he had been on the fringe of the United first-team squad, it wasn't until after signing for Sheffield United in the summer of 1987 that he made his League debut, in a 4-1 defeat at Blackburn on New Years Day 1988. Although the Blades suffered relegation from Division Two in his first campaign, Todd was part of the squad that attained successive promotions, arriving in the top-flight in 1990.

A member of the Northern Ireland squad through 1990, Todd was included in the Under-23 team that suffered a 3-2 defeat by the Republic of Ireland in May 1990, but never added senior caps to his collection. Finding his chances in top-flight football limited, he left Bramall Lane in March 1991 for a loan spell at Wolves before he was released at the end of that season. He signed for Rotherham United where his performances aided the Millmoor side to promotion to Division Three. Hailed for his whole-hearted displays, Todd's later career was plagued by injuries and he spent brief spells with Scarborough, Mansfield and Stalybridge Celtic before hanging up his boots at the age of 28.

Todd remained involved in football, spending ten years as Rotherham's Football in the Community Manager and is currently (2013) Community Development Manager at Sheffield United.

Northern Ireland Under-23 Cap Details:
15-05-1990 Rep. Ireland H L 2-3 FR

Summary: 1/0. Won 0, Drew 0, Lost 1.

James Thompson

Name: James Neill Thompson
Born:
Died:
Height:
Weight:
Position: Goalkeeper

Representative Honours: Ireland: 1 Full Cap (1897); Irish League: 1 Cap (1895).
Club Honours: (with Distillery) Irish League Champion 1895/96, 1898/99; Irish Cup Winner 1893/94, 1895/96; Charity Cup Winner 1899/00; Co. Antrim Shield Winner 1892/93, 1895/96, 1896/97, 1899/00.

Club Career:

Teams	Seasons	Signed	Fee	League	FA Cup	Other
Distillery	92/93-99/00	-	-	*146/0	-	-
TOTALS	-	£-		146/0	-	-

* all games

Biography:
Distillery’s multi-trophy winning goalkeeper throughout the 1890s, Jimmy Thompson made his debut on 17 December 1892 and proved a remarkably consistent custodian. He was an ever-present for the Whites in 1895/96, 1896/97 and 1897/98 and as well as winning nine major honours, he finished a runner-up in the City Cup once, the Charity Cup three times and the Co. Antrim Shield once.

Capped for the only time at Ibrox in March 1897, Thompson was held responsible for Scotland’s opener as he let the ball squirm through his hands and legs and into the net as the Scots went on to record an easy 5-1 victory. Thompson’s only inter-League appearance was also against the Scots, in a 4-1 defeat at Grosvenor Park in February 1895.

Legend surrounds an appearance by Thompson against Glentoran. The match was held in thick fog and the referee decided to abandon play – nobody however told Thompson, and it was a full 15 minutes after they had returned to the pavilion that his Distillery teammates realised their ‘keeper was still on the pitch.

Ireland Cap Details:
27-03-1897 Scotland A L 1-5 BC

Summary: 1/0. Won 0, Drew 0, Lost 1.

Frank Thompson

Name: Francis William Thompson
Born: 2 October 1885, Ballynahinch
Died: 4 October 1950, Ayr (Scotland)
Height: 5.07 ft
Weight: 11.06 st
Position: Outside-Left

Representative Honours: Ireland: 12 Full Caps / 2 Goals (1910-1914), 3 Amateur Caps (1906-1910), Junior; Irish League: 3 Caps (1908-1909).
Club Honours: (with Cliftonville) Irish League Champion 1909/10; Irish Cup Winner 1908/09, Runner-Up 1909/10; (with Linfield) Irish League Champion 1910/11; (with Bradford City) FA Cup Winner 1910/11.

Club Career:

Teams	Seasons	Signed	Fee	League	FA Cup	Other
Cliftonville	05/06-10/11	-	Amateur	-	-	-
Black Diamonds	-	-	-	-	-	-
Linfield	10/11	-1910	-	-	-	-
Bradford City	11/12-12/13	Jan-1911	-	51/11	9/2	-
Clyde	13/14-23/24	May-1913	-	174/32	-	-
TOTALS	-	£-		225/43	9/2	-

Biography:
Frank Thompson made his name as an amateur with Cliftonville. While with the Reds the flying winger gained Irish League and Cup medals and a plethora of representative honours. The first of three Ireland Amateur caps was won in a 2-1 defeat by England in Dublin in December 1906. He also played three times for the Irish League, each match resulting in defeat. In 1909 he was a member of the Cliftonville side that claimed the Irish Cup, with a 2-1 Final replay win over Bohemians, and the following year claimed an Irish League winner’s medal but missed out on the “Double” following a Cup Final defeat by Distillery.

Thompson won the first three of his twelve Full Ireland caps while with Cliftonville, and he got off to a flyer at international level. His debut, against England in Belfast at Solitude in 1910, brought a goal as the Irish led 1-0 at half-time only to be pegged back to 1-1 in the second-half. His second cap against Scotland a month later brought another goal, and an even better result as the Scots suffered a 1-0 defeat on their first ever visit to Windsor Park. The run came to an end at Wrexham as Wales cruised to an easy 4-1 win to deny Ireland their first outright Home Nations title.

Early in the 1910/11 season Thompson made the move to professional status with Linfield, helping the Blues to regain the Irish League title that they had surrendered to Cliftonville the season before. His stay at Windsor Park was brief, though it did bring a fourth cap in another defeat to Wales, before he moved moved to Bradford City. In his first campaign the Ballynahinch-Bantam helped his new club to an FA Cup success. He scored two goals on the way to the Final, including the winner in a fourth round game against Burnley that attracted a record 39,146 attendance to Valley Parade. The Final, played at the Crystal Palace, finished goalless against cup-holders Newcastle United. In the replay, held at Old Trafford, Thompson set up the only goal in a 1-0 win so giving the Bantams their only ever Cup win.

In May 1913, three months after featuring in Ireland’s first ever win over England, Thompson joined Scottish First Division side, Clyde. It was an association which was to last 21 years as a player then manager. In the years that preceded Thompson’s arrival Clyde had been a solid top-half side, but by the immediate post-War seasons they were obviously a club in decline and had started to slip down the table. It was while with the Bully Wee that Thompson won his final two caps in what would become an historic 1914 British Championship campaign for Ireland. Having been overlooked for the opening win over Wales (Bradford City’s Louis Bookman an ironic replacement), Thompson came in for the 3-0 win over England at Middlesbrough – Ireland’s first victory on English soil. He retained his place for Scotland’s visit to Windsor Park and, in a match mixed with both farcical muddy playing conditions and the adversity of losing ‘keeper Fred McKee to injury, Ireland attained the 1-1 draw required to claim their first outright Championship success.

As the Scottish League continued largely unhindered through the years of the Great War Thompson did not feature at all from 1915/16 to 1918/19. He returned when hostilities ceased and helped Clyde battle against relegation until their almost inevitable fall into Division Two in 1924 and Thompson decided to hang-up his boots. He had taken the managerial reigns at Shawfield in 1922, but following relegation the turn-around in the club’s fortunes was rapid. In 1925/26 Clyde not only attained promotion back to Division One as runners-up to Dunfermline, they also won the Glasgow Cup, defeating Celtic 2-1 in the Final. Thompson kept Clyde in the top-flight of Scottish Football until he left the club in 1934.

Thompson took the managerial job at Ayr United in January 1935 and helped them narrowly avoid relegation from the First Division in his first season. The club did succumb to the drop the following year but once again Thompson proved the bounce-back king, leading The Honest Men to the Division Two title in glorious fashion. Ayr made steady progress back in top-tier football, but on the suspension of the Scottish League at the outbreak of World War Two they temporarily folded and Thompson was out of a job. He returned to Ireland to become manager at Glentoran in December 1945, a position he held until 1947. He then moved back to Ayr where he died in October 1950.

Ireland Cap Details:
12-02-1910 England. H D 1-1 BC 1 Goal
19-03-1910 Scotland H W 1-0 BC 1 Goal
11-04-1910 Wales... A L 1-4 BC
28-01-1911 Wales... H L 1-2 BC
11-02-1911 England. A L 1-2 BC
10-02-1912 England. H L 1-6 BC
13-04-1912 Wales... A W 3-2 BC
18-01-1913 Wales... H L 0-1 BC
15-02-1913 England. H W 2-1 BC
15-03-1913 Scotland H L 1-2 BC
14-02-1914 England. A W 3-0 BC
14-03-1914 Scotland H D 1-1 BC

Summary: 12/2. Won 4, Drew 2, Lost 6.

Jack Taggart

Name: John Taggart
Born: 3 February 1872, Belfast
Died: 12 May 1927, Walsall (England)
Position: Left-Half


Representative Honours: Ireland: 1 Full Cap (1899).
Club Honours: (with West Brom) FA Cup Runner-Up 1894/95.


Club Career:

Clubs	Seasons	Signed	Fee	League	FA Cup	Play-Off
Distillery	89/90-91/92	Jul-89	-	-	-	-
Middlesbrough	92/93	Apr-92	-	(Northern League)
West Bromwich Alb	92/93-95/96	Mar-93	£150	68/4	11/0	4/0
Walsall	96/97-02/03	May-96	Free	113/1	10/0	-
TOTALS			£150	281/5	21/0	4/0

Biography:
Jack 'Mit' Taggart played football for Dundonald & Belmont County Schools and briefly in the Irish League with Distillery before transferring to Middlesbrough in 1892. Still just twenty years-old, his methodical defensive play earned the attentions of one of the giants of the English game, West Bromwich Albion. Noted for his ability to hit a ball into space, rather than hoof it upfield as was more normal for the backs of the day, Taggart played in West Brom's 1895 FA Cup Final defeat by Aston Villa. The Villa side contained a "former" Irish international, Jack Reynolds.



In 1896, West Brom survived relegation to Division Two by virtue of a test-match series. Wholesale changes were required and Taggart was released. He moved to midland neighbours Walsall, who had just been elected to Division Two of the Football League. It was while with the Saddlers that he earned his only Ireland cap, in a 1-0 win over Wales in 1899. That match marked the first selection of "Anglos" in an Irish eleven, with Taggart joined by Archie Goodall of Derby County, Tom Morrison of Burnley and John Hanna of the Royal Artillery.



In 1901 Walsall failed to gain re-election to the Football League and instead re-joined the Midland League for the following campaign. Taggart lasted two seasons in "non-league" football before he was forced to retire in March 1903 due to ill-health. He remained in the Midlands until his death, aged 55, in 1927.



Ireland Cap Details:
04-03-1899 Wales... H W 1-0 BC


Summary: 1/0. Won 1, Drew 0, Lost 0.

Joe Toner

Name: Joseph Samuel Toner
Born: 30 March 1894, Castlewellan
Died: November 1954, Castlewellan
Height: 5.07 ft
Position: Outside-Left

Representative Honours: Ireland: 8 Full Caps (1922-1927).

Club Career:

Clubs	Seasons	Signed	Fee	League	FA Cup	Other
Castlewellan Stars		-	-	-	-	-
Whitehaven Athletic		-	-	-	-	-
Whitehaven Recreation		-	-	-	-	-
Annsborough	-	-	-	-	-	-
St Peter’s Swifts		-	-	-	-	-
Belfast United	16/17-18/19	Jan-17	-	-	-	-
Arsenal	19/20-25/26	Aug-19	-	89/6	11/0	-
St Johnstone	25/26-26/27	Jan-26	-	29/2	-	-
Coleraine	28/29	-	-	*1/0	-	-
Castlewellan Stars		-	-	-	-	-
Annsborough	-	-	-	-	-	-
Castlewellan Stars		-	-	-	-	-
TOTALS		-		119/8	11/10	-

* all games.

Biography:
Joe Toner had been a star of Gaelic games from an early age. He represented Down at hurling and played Gaelic football for Castlewellan GAC. He emerged as a talented soccer player in Irish War-Time football with Belfast United. The club had played at the top level for the duration of hostilities but were to return to junior circles with the resumption of the Irish League-proper for the 1919/20 season. This made their players ripe pickings and cash-strapped Arsenal stepped in to take Toner to Highbury.

Arsenal had been promoted to an enlarged First Division under dubious circumstances, after finishing fifth in the Second Division at the end of the last pre-War season. Still, faced with a battle to maintain the position they found themselves in, new manager Leslie Knighton set about building a top-flight side on a shoe-string budget. Toner made his debut for the Gunners at Everton in October 1919. He put in an astounding performance for a novice, the Londoners defeating the Merseysiders 3-2. From there he retained his place in the first-eleven for a ten game sequence but soon found himself sidelined.

Toner shared his duties on Arsenal’s left-wing with the likes of Jimmy Paterson and Samson Haden over the following few seasons. In 1921/22 he managed thirty League and FA Cup appearances and was rewarded with his first cap for Ireland in a 1-1 draw with Wales. The following season he played just seven times for Arsenal, but was again capped against Wales. 1923/24 brought only three League appearances but two Ireland caps, including in a famous 2-1 win over England.

It was 1924/25 before Toner again managed a good run in First Division football, playing 26 times as Arsenal flirted with relegation. Herbert Chapman was appointed Arsenal manager during the summer of 1925 and he set about building the side that would come to dominate English football. Toner played in Chapman’s first two matches in charge, but was dropped and sold to St Johnstone mid-season. He became the first Saints player to win international recognition when capped against England in October 1926.

A broken leg ended Toner’s playing career. In the late-1920s he was on the coaching staff at Coleraine. He played once for the Bannsiders, deputising during an injury crisis. With his footballing days behind him, Toner settled back in Castlewellan, where he died in 1954.

Ireland Cap Details:

01-04-1922 Wales... H D 1-1 BC
14-04-1923 Wales... A W 3-0 BC
20-10-1923 England. H W 2-1 BC
15-03-1924 Wales... H L 0-1 BC
22-10-1924 England. A L 1-3 BC
28-02-1925 Scotland H L 0-3 BC
20-10-1926 England. A D 3-3 BC
26-02-1927 Scotland H L 0-2 BC

Summary: 8/0. Won 2, Drew 2, Lost 4.

Early club career details courtesy of Martin O'Connor.