John Fraser

Name: John Watson Fraser
Born: 15 September 1938, Belfast
Died: 13 March 2011, Waterford (Republic of Ireland)
Height: 5.08 ft
Weight: 11.00 st
Position: Outside-Left

Representative Honours: Northern Ireland: 1 'B' Cap (1959), Youth.
Club Honours: (with Durban City) NFL Cup Winner 1964; UTC Bowl Winner 1965.

Club Career:

Clubs	Seasons	Signed	Fee	League	FA Cup	FL Cup	Other
Distillery	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Glentoran	56/57-58/59	-	-	*29/16	-	-	-
Sunderland	58/59-59/60	Feb-59	£3,500	22/ 1	-	-	-
Portsmouth	60/61	Jun-60	£1,500	1/ 0	-	-	-
Margate	61/62	c/s-61	-	28/13	(Southern League)		19/7
Watford	62/63-63/64	Jul-62	-	24/ 3	4/0	1/1	-
Durban City	-	1964	-	(South Africa – National Football League)
Westview Apollon	-	1966	-	(South Africa – National Football League)
Germiston Callies	-	1967	-	(South Africa – National Football League)
Corinthians	-	1969	-	(South Africa – National Football League)
TOTALS		£5,000		104/33	4/0	1/1	19/7

* all games
 

Biography:
John Fraser came to prominence with Glentoran in the mid-1950s having begun his career with Distillery. A goalscoring outside-left, he found the net a total of 18 times in 29 games for the Glens, including 12 in 11 appearances during the 1958/59 season. It was this form that tempted Sunderland to spend £3,500 for his signature in February 1959. Within 24 hours Fraser had made an impressive Football League debut against Huddersfield Town in front of 27,000 people, and was being hailed as the "new Billy Bingham", a player who had made the same journey eight years earlier. On the 4th April he scored his first goal for the Black Cats, in a 2-0 win at Barnsley. That turned out to be his only goal for the club.

The following season proved to be a disappointing one for the young Fraser as he played just twelve games, failing to find the net in any of them. One bright spot came as he was selected for the 'B' International against France in November 1959, a match which finished 1-1 thanks to a goal from Hubert Barr.

A move to Portsmouth for the 1960/61 season brought just one League appearance and after a year Fraser moved to Southern League Margate. In just one season with Margate Fraser developed into something of a legend. 20 goals in 47 competitive games included a hattrick in a 5-1 win over Hartsdown, and a great strike in a 3-0 FA Cup First Round victory over Third Division Bournemouth. An earlier FA Cup performance (against Guildford in the Fourth Qualifying Round) saw Frazer score two and set-up three in a 6-2 win, with the local paper describing it as a "Fraser Classic" and proclaiming that he "seemingly had glue on the toe of his boots!" so adept was his dribbling and ball control. Fraser might have achieved even more with Margate had he not been ruled out for several weeks after slipping on one of his daughter's toys whilst fitting curtains in February 1962!

Watford offered Fraser the chance to return to the Football League for the 1962/63 season. In all he played 24 games for the Vicarage Road club, featuring mainly in a new role of inside-right.

In 1964 Fraser emigrated to South Africa. He picked up winners' medals with Durban City in the NFL Cup (1964) and UTC Bowl (1965), before playing out his career with spells at Westview Apollon, Germiston Callies and Corinthians. He was assistant manager back at Durban City between 1971 and 1974 (winning the National Football League and Coca Cola Shield in 1972) and after a spell out of football he took charge of Borea FC in 1977.

A welder by trade, Fraser returned to that field when footballing times were lean. He later settled in Waterford where he ran a plumbing business. After a battle with Alzheimer's disease, John Fraser passed away in 2011.

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Northern Ireland B Cap Details:
11-11-1959 France D 1-1 FR

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