John Love

John Thomson Love DFC (18 March 1924 – 14 June 2007) was a Scottish football player and manager. He scored 47 goals in 146 league games in the Scottish and English leagues, playing for Leith Athletic, Albion Rovers, Nottingham Forest, and Walsall. He later managed Llanelli, Walsall, and Wrexham. He was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for his service during World War II. Football career Love, "a hard inside forward with a strong shot", won a Distinguished Flying Cross after being wounded by shrapnel whilst serving in the Royal Air Force in 1944. He started his career at Leith Athletic, and scored five goals in nineteen games during the 1947–48 Second Division, after which Leigh were relegated. He moved on to Albion Rovers of the First Division, and scored eleven goals in 28 league games in 1948–49. He won a move to Nottingham Forest in February 1949, just as the club suffered relegation at the end of 1948–49. He scored 21 goals in 62 league and cup games for Forest, helping the club win promotion into the Second Division as champions of the Third Division South in 1950–51. The club missed out on a second successive promotion in 1951–52 by just two points, after which Love moved on to Welsh side Llanelli, where he was appointed player-manager.