Player Profile

Alex Linwood made his St Mirren debut against Hamilton on 3rd January 1939. In October he scored twice when played at centre forward in a 5-3 Renfrewshire Cup win against Moorpark. An intelligent player and excellent header of the ball, Linwood was the club's leading scorer in every wartime season scoring a total of 162 goals. The highlight of his career in Paisley was scoring the only goal against Rangers in the 1943 Scottish Summer Cup Final (a goal described by many as the greatest ever at the National Stadium).
He played on several occasions for Scotland during this period, but they are all classed as war time internationals and no caps were awarded.
He was later to play for Middlesborough, Hibernian and Clyde, where he gained his only peace time international cap- scoring in a 2-0 victory over Wales. He also helped Clyde to the 1949 Scottish Cup Final. He then signed for local rivals Greenock Morton. In 1951 he scored the only goal in Morton's Renfrewshire Cup Final win over St Mirren.
A former miner, a pair of his pit boots are on display in the Hampden museum to illustrate the link between football and mining during the war, when Alex became one of the Bevan Boys keeping the coal industry going for the war effort.