Place of birth Falkirk, Scotland Name George Mulhall Years Team Role Footballer | 1953–1962 Aberdeen 1962–1969 Sunderland | |
Date of birth (1936-05-08) 8 May 1936 (age 79) 1967 → Vancouver Royal Canadians (loan) | ||
George Mulhall (born 8 May 1936) is a Scottish former football player and manager. Born in Falkirk, Mulhall played as an outside left for Aberdeen and Sunderland. He was capped three times for Scotland. He became the manager of Bradford City, Bolton Wanderers and Halifax Town.
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Playing career
Two of George Mulhall's elder brothers had forged professional careers with Falkirk and Albion Rovers by the time he signed for Aberdeen on his 17th birthday. He had played at Denny YMCA and Kilsyth Rangers before moving to Pittodrie. He was limited to 110 games for Aberdeen, scoring 30 goals, but he helped the club to become Scottish League Division One runners-up in 1955–56 and to win the Scottish League Cup the same season.
In October 1959 he earned his first international cap when he scored in a 4–0 win over Northern Ireland. In September 1962 he signed for Sunderland for £25,000. Mulhall made more than 250 appearances for Sunderland, where he still holds the record for the most consecutive appearances for the club (125), and scored 55 goals. He won another two caps, also against Northern Ireland, before moving to South Africa to play for Cape Town City. He stayed for three seasons before playing one final game for Greenock Morton.
Managerial career
Mulhall moved into coaching upon his playing retirement first becoming trainer-coach at Halifax Town where he was promoted to first team manager in 1972. He was in charge until September 1974. A month later he moved to Bolton Wanderers where he spent four years as coach and assistant manager.
In November 1978 he moved to Bradford City to replace John Napier as manager. In his first full season he guided the club to 5th in Division Four before he was tempted back to Bolton in March 1981. He managed Bolton for one year until he was fired among rumours that he was to be replaced by Pelé. He served as scout at Ipswich Town and assistant manager at Tranmere Rovers. He later returned to Halifax Town as joint manager with Kieran O'Regan and got them promoted back into the Football League in 1998, at which point Mulhall retired.