A brief history of Tranent Juniors
In an ideal world any young lad who has it in him to make the grade as a professional footballer will be noticed by club scouts, enjoy a visit to the family home by a club representative and, all being well, join that club in order to learn his trade. That same young lad might be fortunate enough to join a club like Hibs where state of the art training facilities exist and youth coaches have a good reputation for bringing players on. That youngster may further benefit from the fact that young players are not judged on their age alone but on their ability and so first team football at seventeen years of age is achievable if the player has the talent and temperament to play at that level. That might well be the ideal scenario in these modern times and any youngster following such a path should consider themselves very fortunate indeed because life has not always been that way.
As a youngster growing up in Tranent, Neil Martin was football daft and those that encouraged him to play for their boys club and for his school did so in the sure and certain knowledge that Neil had talent enough to make it in the game. As a Hibs fan it was Neil’s dream to be spotted by a Hibs scout and whisked off to Easter Road to play for the team he dearly wanted to join but life didn’t quite work out that way for the player.
A scout was indeed watching Neil but he was not a Hibs scout. Instead he represented Alloa Athletic and as quite a raw youngster Neil was invited along for a trial. Impressing the manager a contract was soon signed and so began his professional career and it wasn’t long before he was banging in goals for the Recreation Park club and in the 1960/61 season he notched up a very creditable 25 in both league and cup matches, helping Alloa to the Quarter Finals of the Scottish Cup for the first time in the history of the club. They lost 4-0 at that stage but their conquerors, Dunfermline went on to lift the trophy.
Scoring goals with head or foot soon had other clubs sitting up and taking notice so it was no surprise when Neil moved on but it was perhaps surprising where he moved on too. George Farm, once a goalkeeper of some repute, was the manager of Queen of the South and he persuaded Neil to join up at Palmerston, paying Alloa £2,000 for his services.
At Palmerston, Martin teamed up with strike partner Ernie Hannigan and together they fired the goals that won the Doonhamers promotion to Division One. That was season 1961/62 and Neil bagged 30 cup and league goals but these were scored against a background of the player struggling to cope with living in Dumfries but still having his home in Tranent where his wife and family remained. During the following close season Neil strongly considered giving up the game and taking a job as a lorry driver so that he would have more time at home but he started the new season with his club and was soon banging in the goals again, helping Queen of the South to remain in the Division.
Still not really settled Martin was delighted when Hibs manager Walter Galbraith tabled an offer of £7,500 for his services and although reluctant to lose him the Queens board felt they could not stand in the way of a player that had served them so well. At long last Neil was with the club he had always wanted to join.
When Neil Martin joined Hibs the club was struggling at the wrong end of the league table and the support was fast losing patience with the efforts of Walter Galbraith to improve things. In the summer of 1964 Galbraith called it a day and the Hibs board immediately moved to replace him with Dunfermline manager Jock Stein. Almost immediately things started to go a whole lot better for Hibernian and Neil Martin was in there doing his bit to help the club back to the upper reaches of the league. In his first full season he scored 29 league and cup goals as Hibs finished fourth in the table and reached the Semi Finals of the Scottish Cup. Interestingly, the table that year had Kilmarnock, Hearts and Dunfermline ahead of Hibs and in the Cup Hibs had beaten Rangers but lost in the Semi to Dunfermline. Always one for bringing positive attention upon the club, Jock Stein persuaded the board to agree a friendly match against Real Madrid at Easter Road and Neil Martin played his part in Hibs winning 2-0.
It should come as no surprise that Martin’s goalscoring exploits were being noticed and it wasn’t long before he was being touted for a place in the full Scotland squad, having already been capped at Under 23 level as well as having played for the Scottish League, scoring in a 2-2 draw with England at Sunderland’s Roker Park. The national team was trying hard to qualify for the 1966 World Cup Finals in England but were in a really difficult qualifying group. When the 1965 season ended, Scotland set off to play two vital qualification matches in Poland and Finland with Neil making his full debut against the Poles and helping set up a goal for strike partner Dennis Law that earned the Scots a 1-1 draw. In the Finland game Neil retained his place and although he didn’t score he played well and helped the Scots win 2-1.
This article is kindly supplied by Hibs net