John Fitzpatrick Profile

John Fitzpatrick

John Her­bert Norton Fitz­patrick, born Ab­er­deen, Scot­land, Au­gust 18, 1946. Born and bred in the city of Ab­er­deen, John Fitz­patrick star­ted his play­ing days at Thistle Lads Club be­fore he sig­ned his fir­st pro­fes­sion­al con­tract wi­th Man­chester Uni­ted in Septem­ber 1963. A product of the Man­chester Uni­ted Youth Academy, the ded­ic­ated mid­fielder went on to win a FA Youth plaque medal the fol­low­ing year.

John Fitz­patrick made his Foot­ball Lea­gue de­but for Matt Busby´s Man­chester Uni­ted te­am in a 1-0 de­feat to Sun­der­land at Roker Park on the 24th of Feb­ruary 1965. The long haired foot­baller be­came United´s fir­st ever sub­sti­tute when he re­placed Scot­land in­ter­na­tion­al De­nis Law in a 5-1 Fir­st Di­vi­sion de­feat ag­ainst Tot­ten­ham Hot­spur at White Hart Lane on the 16th of Oct­ober 1965. At the com­par­at­ively young age of 26, how­ever, the hard work­ing mid­field com­batant was for­ced in­to an early re­tire­ment due to an arth­rit­ic con­di­tion in his knee joints and would make his fi­nal Foot­ball Lea­gue ap­pear­ance for Uni­ted in a 2-0 de­feat ag­ainst Wolver­hampton Wan­derers at Mo­lineux Sta­dium on the 16th of Septem­ber 1972. Un­for­tu­nately, Fitz­patrick suf­fered a ser­i­ous in­jury when he was fouled by Johnny Giles dur­ing an en­counter wi­th long­time rivals Leeds Uni­ted, but he nev­er ac­cused him of ru­in­ing his pro­fes­sion­al ca­reer. The Re­pub­lic of Ire­land in­ter­na­tion­al la­ter poin­ted out that he took full re­spons­ib­il­ity for the chal­lenge it­self, but not for the end­ing of Fitzpatrick­’s foot­balling ca­reer. A dir­ect and strong run­ning play­er wi­th en­ergy in abund­ance, Fitz­patrick ma­naged to ac­cu­mu­late 117 Foot­ball Lea­gue ap­pear­ances for Man­chester Uni­ted dur­ing his in­jury ham­pered eight-year ca­reer at Old Traf­ford. As things ev­entually turned out, the Scot re­turned to the Gran­ite City where he went in­to busi­ness as an im­port­er of fine wine. John Fitz­patrick Play­ing Ca­reer: Man­chester Uni­ted. Man­aging Ca­reer: None.

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