Jimmy Jones was a Northern Irish footballer. He is the leading goalscorer in the history of Irish League football with a total of 646 goals. In a career spanning almost 20 years, Jones started his career with Belfast Celtic. After having his leg broken by rival supporters, he spent over a year out of the game, before returning at intermediate level with Larne. After a short spell there and a season in English football with Fulham, he joined Glenavon where he help to propel the club to the most successful period in their history. He later represented Portadown, Bangor and Newry Town. He also won 3 caps for Northern Ireland, scoring 1 goal.
Jones signed for Belfast Celtic in 1946 after playing youth football with Shankill Young Men. Jones made an immediate impact, scoring 62 goals in all competitions in the 1947–48 season. Such was his ability that his club rejected a £16,000 offer from Newcastle United. During the following season, Jones had 27 goals from 19 games, prior to an infamous match on Boxing Day 1948 with Linfield. At the end of the match, Linfield supporters invaded the pitch and Jones was chased onto terracing and stamped on until his leg was broken. Such was the outcry over this incident, Belfast Celtic resigned from the league at the end of the season and left football. Jones had surgery to save his leg, but would not play again until March 1950, when he signed for Irish Intermediate League side Larne. After a short spell there, he joined Fulham in the summer of 1950, where he spent one season but made no first-team appearances due to a technicality over his registration which meant he could only play in reserve teammatches.
Glenavon
In 1951, he joined Glenavon where he would spend 11 years and became a club legend. He was the leading Irish League goalscorer for some years in the fifties, and finished as Irish League outright leading goalscorer in 6 seasons, during the most successful period in Glenavon's history where they won the Irish League championship and Irish Cup three times each. Jones also hit a record 74 goals during the 1956–57 Irish League season. He scored 517 goals in total for the Lurgan Blues.
Later career
Jones later represented Portadown, Bangor and Newry City, before retiring in 1965 with a national domestic record of 646 goals. He remains the leading goalscorer in Irish league history.
