Parlane: Derek James (Derek)

1980-1983 (Player Details)

Centre Forward

Born: Helensburg, Dunbartonshire: 05-05-1953

Debut: v Southampton (h): 08-03-1980

6’0” 11st 10lb (1981)

Parlane won a clutch of international and domestic honours in Scottish Football before joining Leeds. He began as an amateur midfielder with Queens Park before leaving in April 1970, at the age of sixteen, to join Rangers, the club his father, Jimmy, had played for just after World War Two. Jock Wallace converted him from a midfielder to a striker. He made a dramatic debut with a goal against Bayern Munich in the home Semi-Final of the European Cup-Winners’ Cup in 1972 as a replacement for the injured John Greig. He soon became an established star at Ibrox with his scoring ability, particularly with headed goals, bringing him a dozen Scottish full caps, five at Under-Twenty-three level, one at Under-Twenty-one and two Scottish League XI appearances. In Scotland he won two League Championship medals, two Cup Winners’ medals and three League Cup Winners’ medals before being sold to Leeds for £160,000 in March 1980. While at Ibrox he played two hundred and two League games and scored eighty times and he made three hundred appearances for Rangers, scoring one hundred and eleven goals in all games. Although he scored on his United debut, goals did not come easy and he spent nine months on loan with Hong Kong club, Bulova, ending in June 1983. He went to Hong Kong to try and recover from injury and prove his fitness which saw him make only make thirteen appearances in his last two seasons at Elland Road.Only when he joined Manchester City on a free-transfer in July 1983 did he recapture his scoring form. On 14th July 1983, new Manchester City manager Billy McNeill brought him to Maine Road. There he linked up with another newcomer, fellow Scot Jim Tolmie and on their debut for the Blues on Saturday 27th August 1983, City beat Crystal Palace 2-1 at Selhurst Park in the Second Division. Both new boys each scored one which set a precedent for the rest of the season. However City failed to get promotion and 1984-85 was quite bad for Parlane as City signed David Phillips from Coventry City and Tony Cunningham from Newcastle United to bolster their attack. He got injured in September 1984 and was sold to Swansea City in January, 1985. Parlane finished up scoring twenty times in forty-eight games in his sixteen month stay at Maine Road.He only stayed at Swansea for a four month spell, scoring three times in twenty-one League games, before going to New Zealand with North Shore United. He then joined Racing Jet Belgium for the 1985-86 season but failed to score in either of his two League games. He joined Rochdale in December 1986, but a financial crisis saw Rochdale boss Eddie Gray release his former Leeds colleague in 1988 after he had scored ten times in forty-two appearances, of which seven goals came in nineteen League appearances. Parlane joined another Leeds Old Boy, Gordon McQueen at Airdrie in 1988 and he scored four times in nine games. In summer that year he joined Non-League Macclesfield Town on a free-transfer, scoring twice in twenty-eight games, and then Curzon Ashton. Parlane later became a Director of Macclesfield Town and worked as a sportswear agent in the North-West and lived in Wilmslow. He later moved to Reebok in Manchester and became a Sales Manager and lived to Lytham St Annes.