The Football League loan window is well and truly open, and borrowing players is part and parcel of the modern game.
But the practice didn’t catch on immediately after its introduction in 1967.
It was a full seven years before Town fielded a loan player in a first-team game.
It’s coming up to 40 years since Southampton striker Ally MacLeod turned out for Town at Grimsby in what was then Division III (now League I) on October 5, 1974.
The 23-year-old Glaswegian (not to be confused with the late former Scotland manager) was brought in by boss Bobby Collins in the wake of three straight defeats, and made an instant impact.
He scored the winner as Town came from behind to triumph 2-1 at Blundell Park.
It proved to be his only goal in four outings while at Leeds Road, but Town didn’t lose any of the games in which he was involved.
A prolific scorer for St Mirren for three years (he once notched all the Paisley side’s goals in a 4-1 League Cup win over Rangers at Ibrox), he signed for Southampton in the close-season of 1973, but found his chances limited by the presence of Mick Channon and Peter Osgood.
He managed only three appearances in his 18 months with the Saints, who transferred him for £30,000 to Hibernian, where he again hit the net with regularity, notching 99 times in 276 games.
MacLeod saw out his career with stints at Stenhousemuir, Hamilton Academical and Queen of the South.
Writing in Edinburgh’s Scotsman newspaper, Glenn Gibbons described him as “possibly the least emotive player in the history of the game”.
Gibbons explained: “On scoring a goal, MacLeod gave the impression somebody had just stolen his sweeties.
“Not so much as one arm would be raised as he turned and walked stoically away from his latest piece of magic, leaving his teammates to celebrate.
“The question of his apparent dourness elicited the response that he didn’t see the reason for any fuss, as if scoring was as peremptory an exercise as a clerk entering an item in a ledger.”
