Tommy Bryceland: Skilful forward whose goals helped St Mirren lift the Scottish Cup and who served Norwich in the 60s
The inside-forward attracted attention from Arsenal, Celtic, Leicester City and Sunderland as he scored 47 League goals in 105 St Mirren appearances
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Your support makes all the difference.Tommy Bryceland was a clever, often unobtrusive, but lastingly potent maker and taker of goals who was a Norwich City mainstay for most of the 1960s. The deliciously skilful schemer, a schoolboy international for whom top senior honours were predicted but never quite materialised, sprung to prominence in his homeland in 1959, when he was a major factor in St Mirren's lifting of the Scottish Cup. In the final at Hampden Park in front of 108,000 fans, Bryceland bagged the Buddies' opening goal against Aberdeen, then pulled most of the Paisley side's attacking strings in a 3-1 victory.
Having entered the professional ranks at Love Street in 1956, the slim, diminutive inside-forward attracted attention from the likes of Arsenal, Celtic, Leicester City and Sunderland as he scored 47 League goals in 105 St Mirren appearances. But when he crossed the border it was to Norwich he headed, joining the Canaries for £20,000 in September 1962.
Impressing instantly at Carrow Road with his guile and intelligence, he proved a lethal finisher, too, often passing the ball into the opposition's net with deft precision. Bryceland shone as Norwich reached the League Cup quarter-finals in his first two East Anglian campaigns and performed consistently for the remainder of the decade as the team remained solid mid-table members of the second tier, with a high spot of sixth place in 1964-65.
Having scored 55 goals in nearly 300 games, he departed for Oldham Athletic in March 1970, and was hugely influential in their rise from the basement division in 1970-71. In 1972 he began a brief stint as St Mirren's player-manager before doing well in business.
Thomas Bryceland, footballer and businessman; born Greenock, Renfrewshire 1 March 1939; died 22 January 2016
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