Ian James Muir is an English former professional football striker who scored 146 goals from 330 appearances in the Football League

The Football League

The Football League, also known as the npower Football League for sponsorship reasons, is a league competition featuring professional association football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888, it is the oldest such competition in world football...

 playing for Queens Park Rangers

Queens Park Rangers F.C.

Queens Park Rangers Football Club is an English professional football club, based in White City, Hammersmith and Fulham, west London. As the 2010-11 Football League Championship champions, they now play in the top tier of English football the Premier League, for the first time in 15 years...

, Burnley

Burnley F.C.

Burnley Football Club are a professional English Football League club based in Burnley, Lancashire. Nicknamed the Clarets, due to the dominant colour of their home shirts, they were founder members of the Football League in 1888...

, Birmingham City

Birmingham City F.C.

Birmingham City Football Club is a professional association football club based in the city of Birmingham, England. Formed in 1875 as Small Heath Alliance, they became Small Heath in 1888, then Birmingham in 1905, finally becoming Birmingham City in 1943.They were relegated at the end of the...

, Brighton & Hove Albion

Brighton & Hove Albion F.C.

Brighton & Hove Albion Football Club are an English association football club based in the coastal city of Brighton & Hove, East Sussex. They currently play in the Football League Championship, the second tier of the English football league system....

, Swindon Town

Swindon Town F.C.

Swindon Town Football Club are a team based in Swindon, Wiltshire. Currently in League Two, Swindon have been managed by Paolo Di Canio since 23 May 2011...

, Tranmere Rovers

Tranmere Rovers F.C.

Tranmere Rovers Football Club are an English team based in Birkenhead, Wirral. The club currently compete in League One, the third tier of the English football league system...

 and Darlington

Darlington F.C.

Darlington Football Club is a professional association football club based in Darlington, County Durham, currently playing in the Conference National. The club was founded in 1883, and originally played its games at Feethams, before moving to the Darlington Arena in 2003...

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He also played in the Hong Kong First Division League

Hong Kong First Division League

Hong Kong First Division League is the top division football league in Hong Kong which was established in 1908, the oldest in Asia. It does not affiliate to any football leagues in the People's Republic of China.-Competition format:...

 for Sing Tao

Sing Tao (football)

Sing Tao Sports Club is a now defunct Hong Kong football club which was dissolved after the 1998-99 season. The team was established by Aw Hoe in 1940 and made their first appearance in Hong Kong First Division League in 1940-41 season. The team reglated to Hong Kong Second Division League twice...

and
Happy Valley,
before returning to non-league football

Non-league football

Non-League football is football in England played at a level below that of the Premier League and The Football League. The term non-League was commonly used well before 1992 when the top football clubs in England all belonged to The Football League; all clubs who were not a part of The Football...

 in England with Nuneaton Borough and Stratford Town

Stratford Town F.C.

Stratford Town Football Club is a football club based in Stratford upon Avon, Warwickshire, England, currently playing in the Midland Football Alliance.-History:The club was formed in 1941 as Stratford Rangers, changing their name in 1949...

.
He is Tranmere's all-time record goalscorer, with 180 goals in all competitions.

Tranmere Rovers

Muir's playing style could be likened to that of Kenny Dalglish, albeit operating at the lower tier. He had fine ball control with his relatively low centre of gravity and demonstrated excellent awareneness of his team-mates' positioning. He was also a ruthless finisher.
Muir was signed to Tranmere Rovers by player-manager, Frank Worthington, who was his striking partner in his first season at the club. Despite his evident promise, he spent his early career at Rovers immersed in struggle, as the club languished in the basement of the league and Muir was part of the side that beat Exeter City 1-0 to save Rovers from automatic relegation from Division Four in 1987. He set up the crucial goal, headed in by Gary Williams in the 77th minute of the last game of that season. Muir prospered when new manager, John King, signed a big target-man, Jim Steel

Jim Steel (footballer)

William James "Jim" Steel is a Scottish former professional association footballer. A big, aggressive player, his position was centre forward....

, as his strike partner in late 1987. Within four years, Rovers had been promoted twice and appeared at Wembley five times, with Muir scoring in the FA's centenary celebrations in 1988 and in Tranmere's Leyland DAF Trophy victory over Bristol Rovers in 1990.
Injury prevented Muir partaking in the final strait of Rovers' promotion run in 1991 when they reached the second tier of English football for only the second time in their history. That summer, the signing of John Aldridge at Tranmere led to the marginalisation of Ian Muir, who remained a regular goalscorer when called upon for the remainder of his Tranmere career.
To a generation of Tranmere Rovers fans, Ian Muir is remembered as a legendary player, who played the starring role in the greatest period of the club's history and also the finest centre forward not to have played in the top tier of english football.

External links

• League career stats at Neil Brown's site