Ernest Hannigan, born 23 January 1943, Glasgow, Scotland.
PART ONE
Ernie Hannigan was still only a teenager when Queen of the South noticed him and brought him to Palmerston Park in 1961, with Jimmy McKinnell Junior then managing a Dumfries club which had fallen out of Scotland’s First Division but retained the ambition, support and standing to believe that it should not remain below the leading level for long, and the move offered Hannigan the chance to exchange Glasgow amateur football for the senior game without being asked to abandon the adventurous instincts that had caught the eye in the first place. He was given his debut in a 4-1 triumph over against Albion Rovers at Cliftonhill in Coatbridge on 5 April 1961 and that appearance began an association with the club which would come in two separate spells and eventually produce 147 competitive appearances and eight goals.
The summer of 1961 brought an important change at Palmerston Park because George Farm, the former Scotland goalkeeper who had been in Blackpool’s side when the Tangerines defeated Bolton Wanderers 4-3 in the FA Cup final in 1953, arrived as manager and set about building a team capable of returning Queen of the South to the First Division, while one of his most significant signings was Neil Martin, a powerful young centre-forward who would later represent Scotland and score heavily in England. Hannigan and Martin were different in build and method but naturally suited one another, for the winger wanted the ball early and had the acceleration to get beyond a full-back before delivering from the flank, whereas Martin gave him a clear target through the middle and possessed the movement and strength to turn that service into goals, and their growing understanding became an important part of a side in which the experienced Jim Patterson still provided another formidable attacking presence.
Queens pushed through the 1961–62 Second Division season with promotion firmly in sight, and Hannigan’s willingness to receive possession under pressure, face an opponent and run at him helped stretch defences which might otherwise have crowded around Martin or Patterson, so his importance could not be measured simply by looking along a goals column. Promotion duly took Queen of the South back into the top division, and for a young man who had been playing amateur football only a short time earlier, there could have been no better education than gaining a place in a successful side and then discovering whether the same direct football could survive against Scotland’s strongest clubs.
Hannigan spent the next two seasons in the Scottish First Division, where Queens were required to deal with sides of greater depth and sharper attacking quality every week, but he did not retreat into safety or become a winger who merely protected his full-back, for his value remained bound to his speed, close control and readiness to carry the ball into areas where defenders could not relax. Among the results which showed what the Dumfries club could do was a 1–0 League victory over Celtic at Parkhead, a notable away success in any period and one which underlined that Queens, though operating without the wealth or playing resources of the Glasgow powers, were capable of defending stubbornly and then making their attacking moments count, while Hannigan’s work along the flank offered precisely the sort of outlet required on such an afternoon.
Iain McChesney, who served Queen of the South for two decades and saw many players pass through Palmerston, later placed Hannigan among the finest teammates with whom he had played, and that judgement carried rather more meaning than an easy compliment because McChesney had observed him at close quarters, knew the standard of the opposition and understood how much courage was required of a winger who repeatedly asked for the ball after being tackled. Queens were relegated at the end of 1963–64, but Hannigan’s own progress had already attracted English attention, and in June 1964, with 99 League appearances and six League goals behind him, he was sold to Preston North End for £15,000.
PART TWO
Preston had lost the 1964 FA Cup final to West Ham United only weeks before Hannigan arrived, and although Deepdale was still a famous old ground carrying memories of Tom Finney and the club’s distant Invincibles, North End were now a Second Division side attempting to return to the leading level, with a squad containing proven forwards and a manager in Jimmy Milne who could not offer a newcomer the number seven shirt merely because a transfer fee had been paid. Hannigan made his debut in Preston’s fourth League match of 1964–65, a 1–1 draw with Cardiff City at Deepdale on 31 August 1964, but Dave Wilson established himself on the right for most of the campaign, leaving the Scot with only eleven first-team appearances during a season in which there were no substitutes available to rescue a man from the bench once the side had been selected.
That rule mattered, because a player who was not named in the starting eleven could contribute nothing at all, and Hannigan therefore had to train, wait and remain ready while adjusting to the heavier pitches and relentless programme of English football, where a winger was expected not only to beat a defender and supply the centre but also to track back, contest loose balls and withstand repeated physical treatment. His first year was frustrating rather than wasted, for he learned the requirements of the division and became familiar with teammates such as Alan Kelly, George Ross, Tony Singleton, Alan Spavin, Brian Godfrey and Alex Dawson, and when his chance widened in the following campaign, he was better prepared to take it.
The change became clear during 1965–66 as Hannigan made 29 League appearances and began to add goals to the speed and crossing which had first brought him into senior football, although his opening League strike for Preston came in an afternoon which otherwise offered little pleasure, a 5–2 defeat at Southampton in November 1965. Yet one goal loosened something in him, and he scored again in each of the next two matches, against Derby County and Cardiff City, so that a player who had been made to wait throughout his first year was suddenly influencing games in the most obvious way, while Preston also discovered that their right-winger could move inside and finish instead of remaining tied to the touchline.
His FA Cup form was equally telling: Hannigan scored twice when North End defeated Charlton Athletic 3–2 in the third round, and after Preston progressed again, he was on target in a fifth-round victory over Tottenham Hotspur at Deepdale, where the Second Division side won 2–1 against opponents packed with top-level experience. Manchester United stood between Preston and a semi-final place, and the first quarter-final meeting at Deepdale finished 1–1 before Matt Busby’s side won the Old Trafford replay 3–1, ending a fine run which had nevertheless shown that Hannigan could produce his attacking football against First Division defenders as well as those he met every week in the League.
Although the Cup brought excitement, Hannigan’s finish to the League programme supplied the most extraordinary run of his Preston years, for he scored six of his eleven League goals across the final four matches and reached the last day in the sort of form that made every forward movement dangerous. Cardiff City arrived at Deepdale on 7 May 1966 and were overwhelmed 9–0 as Brian Godfrey scored three goals, Hannigan and Alex Dawson netted two each, and Willie Irvine and Nobby Lawton supplied the others. Hannigan´s two goals against the Bluebirds completed an excellent personal sequence and left him with eleven in 29 League appearances, while Godfrey’s treble made him Preston’s leading League scorer for the season with 20. North End finished 17th in the Second Division, far below the promotion places, and their inconsistency explained why a side capable of beating Tottenham and demolishing Cardiff could still spend so much of the campaign in the lower half.
Hannigan carried that form into 1966–67 and played in all 42 League matches, an achievement requiring durability as well as ability in an age of crowded winter programmes, rutted pitches and uncompromising challenges, and his return of 12 League goals placed him only one behind Dawson, who led Preston with 13. He scored twice in a victory over Birmingham City and repeated the feat in a 5–1 win away to Northampton Town, but equally significant was the consistency with which he held his place, because an outside-right who began every League fixture had to offer the manager more than occasional flashes of excitement and Hannigan was now contributing across the full course of matches.
North End improved to 14th without coming close to promotion, and the frustration surrounding a side with several capable footballers may partly explain why Coventry City’s interest became attractive, yet Hannigan continued to give Preston productive service at the beginning of the 1967–68 campaign, scoring twice in a 3–1 victory at Norwich City and twice more when Cardiff City were beaten 3–0 at Deepdale. Hannigan´s last North End appearance came on 4 November 1967, and by the time he left he had played 108 matches in all competitions, 98 of them in the League, and scored 31 goals overall, including 28 in League football, figures which were especially impressive considering that he had barely played in his opening season. Preston had given him a difficult beginning and then a broad stage, but Coventry were offering the First Division and paying £55,000 to secure him.
PART THREE
Coventry City were experiencing top-flight football for the first time after Jimmy Hill had driven the club through the divisions, transformed its image and carried it to the Second Division championship in 1966–67, but Hill’s resignation early in the new campaign removed the manager most closely identified with that rise, and former Manchester United captain Noel Cantwell inherited a side struggling at the bottom. Ernie Hannigan became Cantwell’s first signing in November 1967 and entered a difficult situation rather than a settled one, because Coventry had discovered that the pace and punishment of the First Division allowed little time for celebration, while a run without victory placed immediate strain upon every new arrival.
His debut ended in a 3–0 home defeat, but a week later at Elland Road he struck a splendid volley to earn a 1–1 draw against Leeds United, providing an early demonstration that the leap from the Second Division had not dulled either his confidence or his finishing, and his willingness to attack a leading side on its own ground was precisely why Coventry had invested such a large fee. Soon afterwards a car accident interrupted his start and cost him matches, which was particularly damaging when he was still learning the habits of new teammates and attempting to establish himself in a side fighting for survival, but he returned to play an important part in the effort to keep Coventry among England’s strongest clubs.
By February 1968 the Sky Blues had begun to find the results that had eluded them, winning three consecutive League matches and moving out of the relegation places, and during the same month Cantwell paid Sunderland £90,000 for Neil Martin, reuniting Hannigan with the centre-forward whose goals and movement had complemented him so effectively at Queen of the South. It was an obvious pairing to revive because Hannigan understood where Martin wanted the service and Martin knew when the winger was likely to cross or cut inside, but Coventry’s attack also contained the powerful Tony Hateley, and Cantwell increasingly wanted his outside-right to deliver the ball early towards the two big forwards rather than dribble at the opposing full-back.
Hannigan later recalled that he frequently argued with the manager over those instructions, not because he refused to serve the team but because his football had been built upon committing a defender, beating him and then deciding whether to cross or shoot, whereas Cantwell often demanded that the first touch should send the ball into the penalty area. The disagreement captured a broader change in English football, with some managers seeking quicker and more direct routes towards strong centre-forwards, but Hannigan remained productive and scored five League goals during the campaign, making him Coventry’s leading scorer in their survival season despite joining in November and missing matches after the accident.
Coventry eventually finished 20th in 1967–68, third from bottom and one point above relegated Sheffield United, while Fulham went down with them, and survival was secured only after a tense programme in which every point carried weight and every mistake threatened to undo the work of promotion. Hannigan had therefore left a mid-table Second Division side and stepped directly into a First Division struggle, but he contributed goals, width and moments of invention under pressure, and the outcome justified the transfer even if his relationship with Cantwell never became entirely comfortable.
The 1968–69 campaign followed a disturbingly similar course as Coventry again finished 20th and again remained up by a single point, this time with Leicester City falling below them and Queens Park Rangers finishing at the bottom, although Hannigan’s personal return dropped to one League goal as the tactical argument over his role continued. He was a winger who wanted space in front of him and a defender to attack, but Coventry’s urgent need for points encouraged a more rigid method, and when a player’s natural strengths no longer fit neatly with a manager’s demands, appearances can disappear rapidly even when neither man lacks conviction. Hannigan slipped towards the edge of the side during 1969–70, and although Coventry themselves were improving sufficiently to finish sixth, the club’s best League position at that time, he was no longer central to Cantwell’s plans.
A loan move to Torquay United in December 1969 offered the prospect of regular football, though it brought only two Fourth Division appearances, both at Plainmoor and both drawn, first against Reading and then against Bournemouth, before Hannigan returned to Coventry. The contrast was marked, for within two years he had gone from a £55,000 First Division signing to a brief loan in the lowest tier of the Football League, but the ability which had made him such a threat had not simply vanished, and at 27 he still possessed both experience and the desire to play rather than sit in reserve football. His Coventry record closed at 47 League appearances and six goals, and in 1970 he returned to Scotland to join Morton, where he found a top-division club with a reputation for attacking football and the opportunity to recover a more regular place.
Hannigan played 32 League matches and scored six times during 1970–71, helping Morton finish eighth in the Scottish First Division, and although the stay lasted only one season, it restored the rhythm of weekly competition after his Coventry opportunities had narrowed. Yet his life in football was now about to widen far beyond Britain, because the early 1970s offered British players opportunities in countries where the game was growing and where experience from the Scottish and English Leagues carried considerable value.
PART FOUR
Ernie Hannigan first had a short spell in South Africa and then crossed the Atlantic in 1971 to join the newly formed New York Cosmos during their first North American Soccer League season, arriving before the name became associated with Pelé, packed stadiums and worldwide attention. These were much leaner beginnings, with the Cosmos attempting to establish an audience and a team in a sporting city where football still had to fight for notice, and Hannigan brought the direct wing play, fitness and professional habits acquired through a decade at Queen of the South, Preston, Coventry and Morton.
He made ten NASL appearances without scoring as New York finished second in the Northern Division and reached the play-offs, where Atlanta Chiefs ended their championship hopes, but the experience placed him at the opening of a club story that would become vastly more glamorous only a few years later. The 1971 Cosmos were not yet a gathering of international stars, and there was little of the luxury later associated with the name, so Hannigan was part of the hard early work of creating the side rather than a passenger in its famous period. He remained in the United States during the summer of 1972 with the New Jersey Brewers, after which he returned to his native Scotland and to the club where his senior football had begun.
Queen of the South were back in the second level when Hannigan reappeared at Palmerston Park in 1972, and although he was now 29 rather than the fearless teenager who had once supplied Neil Martin during a promotion campaign, his control and knowledge of the flank allowed him to contribute in a different way. He made another 13 League appearances, taking his Queen of the South League total across the two spells to 112, while his overall competitive tally for the club reached 147 matches and eight goals, and his final Queens appearance came away to Montrose on 23 September 1972.
There was no attempt to stretch the return into a sentimental imitation of the earlier years, because Hannigan was still looking for football and still prepared to move in order to find it, and after leaving Dumfries he joined Raith Rovers, for whom he scored twice in five League appearances. Those goals showed that he could still make an immediate attacking contribution, but his British League years were drawing to a close, and another move abroad took him to Eastern in Hong Kong for a season before he settled in Perth, Western Australia. By then Hannigan had played in several sharply different football cultures, yet the essential qualities remained recognisable: he wanted the ball on the right, preferred to engage the defender rather than surrender possession cheaply and could create or score when he reached the final third.
Western Australia became the lasting centre of Hannigan’s football and his life, beginning with Stirling City before he joined Morley Windmills as player-coach in 1974, and the change from full-time British League player to a man combining leadership with performance did not reduce his influence. He made the first of his 12 appearances for the Western Australian state side in May 1974 against Aberdeen, a fitting opponent given his Scottish upbringing, and later represented the state team which won the Mara Halim Cup in Indonesia, adding another country and another form of competition to an already unusually wide football experience.
Hannigan’s finest season with Morley came in 1975, when the club won the D’Orsogna Cup and he received the competition’s Fairest and Best Medal, while he also finished runner-up in the Rothmans Fairest and Best award, recognition which confirmed that local admiration rested on sustained quality rather than the reputation of a former British professional. Australian spectators saw the same quick and elusive outside-right who had troubled defenders at Palmerston, Deepdale and Highfield Road, but they also saw a seasoned player able to organise others, explain the game and take responsibility, and he came to be regarded as one of the finest right-wingers to have appeared in Western Australian football.
In 1979 Hannigan moved to Stirling Macedonia as player-coach, carrying his knowledge into another dressing room while continuing to compete on the pitch, and three years later he joined Spearwood Dalmatinacs, where he completed his playing days in 1983 at the age of 40. That longevity was striking for a footballer whose early game had depended so heavily upon acceleration, because speed is usually the first weapon age takes from a winger, but Hannigan adjusted through experience, control and anticipation, knowing when to release the ball and how to create the small advantage that once had been supplied by sheer pace.
Retirement from playing did not remove him from the touchline, as he coached Galeb from 1985 until 1986 and later took charge of Yugal between 1991 and 1992, contributing to the Western Australian game not as a visiting name but as a settled member of its football community. His place among the state’s leading players was formally recognised in July 2004 when he was included among 28 footballers from the 1970s in the Century of Champions, part of a selection honouring 100 outstanding Western Australian players across a century, and it was a fitting acknowledgement of a man whose finest years there had combined flair, competitive discipline and the willingness to teach.
Away from the field Hannigan made his home in Perth and ran an industrial cleaning business with Derek McKay, another Scot who had known major football occasions and had scored both Aberdeen goals in their 3–1 Scottish Cup final victory over Celtic in 1970, and the partnership linked two men whose playing lives had begun thousands of miles away but whose futures became rooted in Western Australia. McKay died while on a family holiday in Thailand in April 2008, yet Hannigan continued to remain involved in football, and in 2011, half a century after his Queen of the South debut, he accepted the coaching position at the newly formed amateur club Perth Celtic. He guided the side to the championship and promotion to Division Two in its first season, an achievement which showed that his appetite for the practical business of building a team had survived long after the cheers for his wing play had faded.