Ally Maxwell - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Alistair Espie "Ally" Maxwell (born 16 February 1965 in Hamilton

Hamilton, South Lanarkshire

Hamilton is a town in South Lanarkshire, in the west-central Lowlands of Scotland. It serves as the main administrative centre of the South Lanarkshire council area. It is the fifth-biggest town in Scotland after Paisley, East Kilbride, Livingston and Cumbernauld...

) is a Scottish

Scotland

Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

football

Football (soccer)

Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a sport played between two teams of eleven players with a spherical ball...

coach

Coach (sport)

In sports, a coach is an individual involved in the direction, instruction and training of the operations of a sports team or of individual sportspeople.-Staff:...

and former professional footballer. He is currently a youth coach for SC Del Sol Soccer Club in the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

, having previously played for Motherwell

Motherwell F.C.

Motherwell Football & Athletic Club are a Scottish professional football club based in Motherwell, North Lanarkshire. The club compete in the Scottish Premier League and are one of only seven teams to have remained in this league since it was founded in 1998...

, Rangers

Rangers F.C.

Rangers Football Club are an association football club based in Glasgow, Scotland, who play in the Scottish Premier League. The club are nicknamed the Gers, Teddy Bears and the Light Blues, and the fans are known to each other as bluenoses...

and Dundee United

Dundee United F.C.

Dundee United Football Club is a Scottish professional football club located in the city of Dundee. Formed in 1909, originally as Dundee Hibernian, the club changed to the present name in 1923...

, and coached Greenock Morton

Greenock Morton F.C.

Greenock Morton Football Club are a Scottish professional football club, who currently play in the Scottish Football League First Division. The club was founded as Morton Football Club in 1874, making it one of the oldest senior Scottish clubs....

and US side Sereno Golden Eagles.

Club career

Maxwell famously won the Scottish Cup

Scottish Cup

The Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup,, commonly known as the Scottish Cup or the William Hill Scottish Cup for sponsorship purposes, is the main national cup competition in Scottish football. It is a knockout cup competition run by and named after the Scottish Football Association.The...

with Motherwell, playing for most of the second half plus thirty minutes of extra time with broken ribs, a ruptured spleen and intermittent double vision sustained in a collision with Dundee United

Dundee United F.C.

Dundee United Football Club is a Scottish professional football club located in the city of Dundee. Formed in 1909, originally as Dundee Hibernian, the club changed to the present name in 1923...

defender John Clark

John Clark (footballer born 1964)

John Clark is a Scottish former footballer who played most prominently for Dundee United. He scored for the club in the 1987 UEFA Cup Final, but was unable to prevent their defeat to IFK Goteborg of Sweden in that game....

. Despite his injuries, Maxwell stretched to tip a fierce goal bound shot from Dundee United defender (and future Motherwell manager) Maurice Malpas

Maurice Malpas

Maurice Daniel Robert Malpas is an ex-footballer and the assistant manager at Inverness Caledonian Thistle having joined the club on 27 January 2009 along with their new manager Terry Butcher...

over the bar with two minutes of extra time remaining, to ensure Motherwell ran out 4-3 winners.

After a playing loan spell in England

Football in England

Association football is a national sport in England, where the first modern set of rules for the code were established in 1863, which were a major influence on the development of the modern Laws of the Game...

with Bolton Wanderers

Bolton Wanderers F.C.

Bolton Wanderers Football Club is an English professional association football club based in the area of Horwich in the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton, Greater Manchester. They began their current spell in the Premier League in 2001....

, and one in Scotland with Clydebank

Clydebank F.C.

Clydebank Football Club are a Scottish football club based in the town of Clydebank, West Dunbartonshire, near Yoker. The present club, formed in 2003, is a member of the Scottish Junior Football Association, and currently plays in West Super League Premier Division...

, Maxwell moved to Rangers, where he picked up a Scottish League Cup

Scottish League Cup

The Scottish League Cup is a football competition open to all Scottish Football League and Scottish Premier League clubs. At present it is also known as the Scottish Communities League Cup owing to the sponsorship deal in place with the Scottish Government. In the past it has been sponsored by...

winners' medal and a Scottish Cup runners-up medal, as Dundee United gained revenge for Maxwell's heroics three years previously.

Maxwell then moved to Dundee United and spent three seasons at Tannadice

Tannadice Park

Tannadice Park, usually referred to as Tannadice, is a football stadium located on Tannadice Street in the Scottish city of Dundee. The stadium is home of Dundee United F.C. and has a capacity of 14,209.-Early days :...

, although the majority of his games came in his first season. A move to Greenock Morton

Greenock Morton F.C.

followed.

International career

Although present in several Scotland

Scotland national football team

The Scotland national football team represents Scotland in international football and is controlled by the Scottish Football Association. Scotland are the joint oldest national football team in the world, alongside England, whom they played in the world's first international football match in 1872...

squads, Maxwell never received a cap. He did, however, play in the first half of a Scotland B international

Scotland B national football team

The Scotland B national football team, controlled by the Scottish Football Association, is a secondary football team of Scotland, run occasionally as support for the Scotland national football team as a second string side to the first team....

against Wales at Wrexham

Wrexham

Wrexham is a town in Wales. It is the administrative centre of the wider Wrexham County Borough, and the largest town in North Wales, located in the east of the region. It is situated between the Welsh mountains and the lower Dee Valley close to the border with Cheshire, England...

in 1994.

Coaching

He was briefly a goalkeeping coach at Hamilton Academical

Hamilton Academical F.C.

Hamilton Academical Football Club, often known as Hamilton Academical, or Accies, are a Scottish football club from Hamilton in South Lanarkshire. They were established in 1874 from the school football team at Hamilton Academy. They remain the only professional club in British football to have...

.

A UEFA 'A' licensed professional coach, he now resides in the United States