Burnett: James J. (Jimmy)

1908-1910 (Leeds City Player Details)

Inside Forward

Born: Aberdeen: Unknown

Debut: v Barnsley (h): 14-09-1908

5’10” 12st 0lb (1904)

Burnett’s first football team was Victoria United in his native Aberdeen, who he joined in August 1895. He then joined Aberdeen, in August 1897, before moving to Portsmouth in 1903 and then back to Scotland with Dundee in 1904. The first Football League club he played for was Grimsby Town, who he joined in May 1905. He stayed there for two seasons, scoring thirteen goals in fifty-one League games. He then left for the South Coast in May 1907, where he joined Non-League Brighton and Hove Albion, who were then members of the Southern League. Their Manager was Frank Scott-Walford, who became the Leeds City Manager in 1909. Brighton had great success including several upset victories against Football League opposition, not to mention the beating of Football League Championship-winners Aston Villa in the Charity Shield of 1910 by one goal to nil. When Scott-Walford moved to Leeds he brought several Brighton players with him and Jimmy Burnett was one of the players to join Leeds in May 1908. He struggled to make the team initially and had to be content to play second fiddle to Jimmy Gemmell and Tom Rodger, as well as strikers Andy Bowman and Billy McLeod, who often operated at Inside Forward. However, he persevered and had found himself a regular spot by the end of the season. It was different in the following season when there was Irish imports Billy Halligan and Tom Mulholland to compete with and, although Bowman and Rodger had left, he was no longer a regular. Leeds City were his final football team and he retired after the 1910-1911 season.