Jimmy Jones: Rumbustious striker whose goals made him one of the most prolific scorers in the history of Irish football

Jones: he helped Glenavon win the Irish League title three times in the 1950s

Many footballers have been labelled as goal machines, but few anywhere in the world have justified the tag more comprehensively than the Ulsterman Jimmy Jones. The leading scorer in the history of the Irish League, he scored 517 times for Glenavon, topping their goal charts for 10 successive seasons between 1952-53 and 1961-62, and returned a career tally of 646 for his various clubs.

Jones was the League's most prolific marksmen in six campaigns, including 1956-57, when he hit the target a record 74 times as the Lurgan Blues lifted the League and Cup double. There was nothing subtle or complicated about his method and he didn't stand on ceremony. He was an archetypally burly, rumbustious centre-forward who could hammer the ball with either foot and was equally lethal with his head.

Jones began his senior career with Belfast Celtic in 1946 and had scored 43 goals in 33 games when his leg was broken in a riot at the end of a game with local rivals Linfield in 1948. As a result of the turmoil Celtic withdrew from the League and Jones, whose injury was so serious that doctors told him he might never play again, recovered to join Larne before crossing the Irish Sea to enlist with Fulham in 1950.

However, a registration technicality restricted him to reserve-team football. He said later: "It was frustrating. I would love to have found out what I could have achieved in English football." Instead, in 1951 he returned to his homeland with Glenavon, forming a deadly partnership with Jackie Denver – arguably the finest uncapped player Northern Ireland has produced – and ran amok for more than a decade, helping to win League Championships in 1952 (the club's first), 1957 and 1960 and the Irish Cup in 1957, 1959 and 1961.

Jones collected three full caps, scoring on his debut in a 1-1 draw with Wales in Cardiff in April 1956, then featuring in Belfast draws with England in the autumn and Wales in the spring of 1957. In 1962, by then at the veteran stage, he moved to Portadown, then served Bangor and Newry Town before laying aside his boots in 1965. He returned to his beloved Glenavon as manager for three years from 1969 and he remains a hero at Mourneview Park, where the Jimmy Jones Suite was named in his memory in 2013. A gifted all-round sportsman, he was also a talented motorcycle racer in his youth, regularly competing in the Ulster Grand Prix.

IVAN PONTING

James Jones, footballer and manager: born Keady, County Armagh 25 July 1928; played for Belfast Celtic 1946-49, Glenavon 1951-62, Portadown 1962-63, Bangor 1963-64, Newry Town 1964-65; capped three times by Northern Ireland 1956-57; managed Glenavon 1969-72; died 13 February 2014.