Jim McAlister (Scottish footballer): Wikis

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Categories: Scottish Premier League players > Association football midfielders > Greenock Morton F.C. players > Livingston F.C. players > Scottish Football League players

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Jim McAlister
Personal information
Full name	James Duncan McAlister
Date of birth	2 November 1985 (1985-11-02) (age 24)
Place of birth	Rothesay, Scotland
Height	5 ft 11 in (1.80 m)
Playing position	Left Midfielder
Club information
Current club	Greenock Morton
Youth career
	Livingston
	Rothesay Brandanes
–2002	Linwood Rangers
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps^†	(Gls)^†
2002–	Greenock Morton	219	(15)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 23:51, 17 March 2010 (UTC). † Appearances (Goals).

Jim McAlister (born 2 November 1985 in Rothesay) is a Scottish footballer. He is currently playing for Greenock Morton.

McAlister, although predominantly right footed plays on the left hand side of midfield. He is considered a skilful and hard-working player.

1 Career
2 Honours
- 2.1 Greenock Morton
3 External links
4 See also
5 References

Career

McAlister made his Morton debut as a substitute against Peterhead at Cappielow Park on 28 December 2002 at 17 years old.^[1] His first start was made a few months later on 15 February 2003 away at Elgin City - as an attacker. At the time McAlister was very raw and extremely thin.

Over the next couple of seasons McAlister flirted with the first team while playing regularly for Morton's reserve side. Morton manager John McCormack introduced McAlister to the Morton first team as a result of his performances in the reserve team.

By season 2004/05 McAlister had forced his way into Morton's first team and such were his performances that he went on to start in every league match that season; barring one in which he appeared as a substitute. As a result he was offered a new three year contract which he signed in July 2004. He has continued to feature for the first team ever since.

There were rumours of interest from Rangers in one Sunday tabloid newspaper but this never came to anything.

Some of his performances led to comparisons with Barcelona player Ronaldinho and resulted in a number of fans giving him the, tongue-in-cheek, nickname 'Jimaldinho'.^[2]

McAlister started 107 consecutive league (including the two playoff games against Peterhead in 2006) matches for Morton, with the last game he missed being the meaningless game against Forfar Athletic at the end of the 2005–2006 season.^[3] However, this run came to an end as he missed the game on 2 May 2009, due to suspension for accumulating five yellow cards.

On 21 July 2009, after a friendly loss with Romania's champions Unirea Urziceni, Jim was approached by head coach Dan Petrescu to join Unirea, also offering him the chance to play in the UEFA Champions League.^[4]

McAlister went on trial to Football League Championship side Watford in August 2009.^[5]

Watford manager Malky Mackay told the club that they intended to keep an eye on McAlister over the weeks following the trial.^[6]

He has also attracted interest from Morton's rivals St. Mirren, as claimed by the Greenock Telegraph towards the end of the January 2010 transfer window.^[7]