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Full name Ernest Hannigan
Date of birth 1 November 1943(1943-11-01)
Place of birth Glasgow, Scotland
Playing position Outside right
Senior clubs1
Years Club App (Gls)*
1961–1964 Queen of the South
1964–1967 Preston North End
1967–1969 Coventry City
1969– Coventry City
1970-1971 Torquay United
1972–1972 Morton
New York Cosmos
Queen of the South
Raith Rovers
Stirling City
Morley Windmills
Ernie Hannigan (born 23 January 1943) is a former Scottish football player from the 1960s and 1970s. Hannigan was a fast, tricky, right winger. He is perhaps best known for his games at 3 clubs and the partnership he forged with Scotland international centre forward Neil Martin at 2 of them; 147 games at Queen of the South and 47 at Coventry City (he played with Martin at both) and also for 98 games in between at Preston North End.
Queen of the South
Ernie Hannigan kicked off his professional career joining Jimmy McKinnell Junior's Queen of the South in 1961, the Dumfries based club having spotted him playing amateur football in Glasgow with St. Roch's. As Hannigan later said, "Going to Queen of the South turned out to be a great move".Fast and tricky, he made his debut there at 17 on April 5th 1961 away to Albion Rovers. George Farm – Blackpool goalkeeper when winning the 1953 F.A. Cup final – became manager in the close season. Farm signed future Scotland international centre forward Neil Martin. Hannigan and Martin formed a great pairing that helped Queen of the South gain promotion back to the Scottish First Division (then Scotland's top flight).. Also still at Queens at this time was Jim Patterson (251 strikes for the club make Jim Patterson the all time goals king of Queens).
Hannigan's two remaining seasons at Queens were spent playing top division football. In this spell Queens recorded a 1-0 league victory away to Celtic that featured an early career appearance for young goalkeeper Allan Ball.
Ernie Hannigan stayed with Queens at Palmerston Park making 99 league appearances scoring 6 league goals until he was 20 when Preston signed him for £15,000 in June 1966 He would return to the club for a short spell in 1972 to make a further 13 league appearances. In total he would make 147 appearances scoring 8 goals for Queens.
Preston North End
Ernie Hannigan's debut was in the fourth match of the season in a 1-1 draw against Cardiff City at Deepdale on 31 August 1964. But appearances for Hannigan were limited in his first season in England, making just 11 first team appearances, as the number seven shirt was held for the remainder of the season by Dave Wilson, the 1964/65 season was the last before substitutes were allowed in the game.[10]
The following season saw Ernie Hannigan make 29 league appearances and scored his first goal in a 5-2 defeat at Southampton in November 1965. Hannigan then scored in the next two matches against Derby County and Cardiff . Hannigan scored a brace in the FA Cup Third Round 3-2 victory against Charlton Athletic. Hannigan scored a further goal in the Fifth Round as PNE beat Tottenham Hotspur 2-1, before losing in the Quarter Finals against Manchester United in a replay.
Ernie Hannigan ended the season in great form scoring six of his eleven league goals in the last four matches of the season, culminating in a hat-trick on the last day of the season when Cardiff were beaten 9-0 at Deepdale.
The 1966/67 season saw Ernie Hannigan as an ever-present and finished with 12 goals one behind leading scorer Alex Dawson. Hannigan scored twice in a match on two occasions in a win over Birmingham City and a 5-1 victory at Northampton Town.
The following season saw Ernie Hannigan again score twice in a match on two occasions in a 3-1 victory at Norwich City and a 3-0 home win against Cardiff . His last appearance for PNE was on 4 November 1967 in a 1-1 home draw against. Hannigan had scored 28 goals from 98 appearances for Preston.
Coventry City & Torquay United
Ernie Hannigan joined Coventry for a fee of £55,000, who was playing in their first season in the top division. It had been a difficult start for Coventry as Noel Cantwell had replaced Jimmy Hill as manager in October 1967 and then took ten games before the new manager had got a win with the Sky Blues bottom of the table. In February 1968 saw Coventry win three games in a row as they got them out of the relegation zone and for Hannigan to be joined by his old Queens partner Neil Martin who had signed from Sunderland for £90,000.
Ernie Hannigan said: "Cantwell was a nice guy but I used to argue with him all the time about the way he wanted me to play. I was a winger who wanted to take players on, but he wanted my first touch to be a cross into the box to aim for Tony Hateley and Neil Martin who were our two big centre-forwards.
Ernie Hannigan contributed to five league goals during the 1967/68 season for Coventry as they just avoided relegation finishing third from bottom, one point above Sheffield United.
Ernie Hannigan scored one goal in the 1968/69 season as Coventry again finished third from bottom, this time one point above Leicester City.
Ernie Hannigan joined Torquay United on loan in December 1969 making two appearances. After his spell with Coventry making, 47 appearances and scoring 6 goals, Hannigan returned to Scotland.
Morton
Ernie Hannigan had a year back in Scotland in season 1970/71 with Morton. In 32 league games Hannigan scored 6 goals.
Later career
Ernie Hannigan then moved abroad by having a short spell in South Africa and USA by joining New York Cosmos in 1971. In Hannigan's second spell at Queen of the South in 1972he would play his last game for the club away to Montrose on September 23rd, 1972. His last spell in the UK was with Raith Rovers where he found the net twice in five league games.
Hannigan finished his career in Australia. First he landed in Perth to join Stirling City . In 1975 he won a D'Orsogna Cup with Morley Windmills. Hannigan was also the recipient of the D'Orsogna 'Fairest and Best' Medal and runners-up in the Rothmans 'Fairest and Best' Medal. Hannigan made the first of twelve appearances for the Western Australian State in May 1974 against the Scottish side Aberdeen.
Hannigan gained the reputation as one of the best outside-right's Western Australian fans had seen. He was inducted into the Western Australian Hall of Fame when the Hall of Fame Committee selected the top one hundred players over the past Century. Hannigan was one of the 28 1970's players selected in the 'Century of Champions' when the ceremony took place in July 2004.
Later life
Ernie Hannigan still lives in Perth and owns an industrial cleaning business. His business partner was the late Derek McKay (who died 20/04/08 in his sleep whilst on holiday with family in Thailand) who played for Aberdeen and scored a brace in the Scottish Cup Final against Celtic in 1970.
An old friend from his teenage years is regular visitor to Australia to see Ernie,that being the legendary boss Sir Alex Ferguson
while at Preston – referred to by Sir Tom Finney as “the most gifted player he had seen at his age”
