A legend

A WINNER . . . Frizzell punches the air in delight after Oldham Athletic claim the Third Division title in 1974

TRIBUTES have been paid to Jimmy Frizzell after the town's most famous adopted son died at the age of 79.

A true Oldham Athletic legend, the Scot spent over 22 years with the Boundary Park club, first as a player and then as a hugely successful manager.

Club officials, ex-players and supporters have marked the passing of a warm-hearted gentleman, known and loved by so many.

"He was a diamond of a man. Honest with it, too, and a hard player on the field," said Athletic's former secretary Bernard Halford, who joined the club three months after Frizzell's arrival as a player in 1960.

"We shared an absolutely fantastic friendship and for 20 years, lived in each other's pockets with our homes together on Broadway.

"He did so much to build Oldham Athletic up and had such respect within the dressing room.

"I have terrific memories of Jimmy, having shared some of the best days of my life with him.

"I can't put him on a pedestal high enough."

Athletic's former chief executive Alan Hardy, who joined Athletic while Frizzell was still there in 1981, saluted one of the town's most iconic figures.

"He was a true great, a wonderful player and then manager whose achievements are etched in the history of Oldham Athletic," he said.

"He was one of the main figures in the whole of the town, having brought so much success."

Signed from his his home-town club Greenock Morton in 1970, Frizzell went on to score 56 goals in 318 appearances for Athletic.

He then took the club from the doldrums to promotion from Division Four in 1970 in his first season in charge, amid difficult circumstances following the exit of former chairman Ken Bates.

Succeeding Jack Rowley in the hot-seat, the full-back ­- renowned as one of the most tenacious players going ­- made it two promotions in only four years by winning the Division Three title in 1973-74.

That campaign featured a run of 10 straight victories ­- still a club record ­- sending Athletic back into English football's second tier for the first time in two decades.

His era featured some of the finest players in the club's history. Frizzell was responsible for signing the likes of Alan Groves, Les Chapman and Roger Palmer.

He was sacked in 1982 and succeeded by another all-time great in Joe Royle. Frizzell, who lived within a stone's throw of Boundary Park on Broadway, went on to join Manchester City where he had a short spell as manager after Billy McNeil left to join Aston Villa in 1986.

And he returned to City to spend four years as chief scout from 1994.