A Sandgrounder before a Lion: Jimmy Meadows

Jimmy had signed professional forms for Southport whilst an apprentice fitter playing local football in his hometown of Bolton. Making his debut at 17 in March 1949 away at Oldham. The outside right was to appear in 60 games and scoring 6 goals when Manchester City came in for him. He was sold in March 1952 for £5,000 (£135,000 in current values) the club record receipt for a player at the time.

His career flourished at City and was selected to play for England in April 1955 against Scotland at Wembley. In the England side that day included a young Duncan Edwards, the masters of the game Stanley Matthews and Billy Wright, also Jimmy’s club mate Don Revie. England won 7-2. At the age of 24 his career was in its ascendancy, when a month later he returned to Wembley to play for City in the 1955 Cup Final against Newcastle.

In the 17th minute he made a tackle by his own corner flag and ruptured his cruciate ligaments. With no substitutes at that time City ended up playing the rest of the game with 10 men and losing 3-1, Jimmy receiving a runner up medal.

The injury was so serious that it ended his playing career at the age of 24 , having made 130 appearances for City scoring 30 goals. Manchester City held a benefit match for Jimmy and a crowd of 38,000 raised £6,000 for him. He moved to be part of the backroom staff at Maine Road for the next decade and was head coach of the first team for a period.

In 1966 he took his first managerial role at Stockport County winning the 4th division championship in that season. He remained at Stockport for 2 ½ years. He was to have short lived manager roles at both Blackpool and Bolton Wanderers.

Having previously failed as an applicant for the vacancy of Southport manager he returned back to Haig Avenue in June 1971. In his first season having inherited just 7 players he was to build a side that would be our greatest achievement in our history.

By winning the1972/3 4th division championship for us, he was to emulate Laurie McMenemy by being the only managers to win the 4th division with two different clubs. Having won the league on a shoestring budget and rather than the board backing him to strengthen the team Southport struggled in the 3rd division. He was forced to sell Chris Dunleavy for £12,000 to pay off outstanding debts. At the end of December 1973 one place off the bottom of the 3rd division, Meadows was sacked.

He was to manage back at Stockport and as caretaker manager at Blackpool, with short managerial roles in Sweden and Qatar all unsuccessfully. He assisted Bobby Charlton in the running of his academies in his later years involved in football.

Sport can be cruel and for Jimmy’s playing career it was, within a month of his international debut and a FA Cup final he never played again. For us Port fans he delivered our biggest ever prize.