John was born in Kilmarnock, Ayrshire. His father, Danny, died when he was five, so John and seven siblings were raised by their mother, Catherine. He attended St Joseph's School in Kilmarnock, and started work as a messenger boy for a local draper's shop when he left school. His shop work stopped him playing football on Saturdays, but he was able to play some midweek football for Junior club Hurlford United. When he was taken on at the local bus garage as an apprentice motor mechanic, he became available on Saturdays as well. Hurlford paid him ten shillings a game, nearly as much as his apprentice's wages. During the Second World War, John was called up to the Fleet Air Arm as a mechanic, but was able to play friendly matches for Inverness-based club Clachnacuddin. Because of the number of professional players stationed around the country, such matches were played at a fairly high standard.
On his Chelsea debut away at Manchester United, he found himself playing at right back after ten minutes when Sid Tickridge sustained an injury. Once restored to the forward line, his goals helped Chelsea avoid relegation to the Second Division at the end of his first season. A "dramatic last-minute goal ... enabled Chelsea to snatch a lucky victory at West Bromwich" with three games left, and he scored the third goal of Chelsea's 3–1 defeat of Manchester City in their last fixture of the season which confirmed their escape from the relegation positions.
Two seasons later, Chelsea won the First Division title for the first time. As they beat Charlton Athletic in March 1955 to "maintain their challenging position in the Championship", The Times' reporter described how "McNichol filled the role of general, and was instigator of many dangerous movements". Two weeks later, John, "the most effective of their forwards", scored twice as a Chelsea team displaying "a propensity to play the man in preference to the ball" beat Tottenham Hotspur 4–2 and the title was confirmed with one game still to play. John had missed only two games in the 42-game season, and scored 14 goals, a good return for a player in his position; an inside forward was normally more a creator than a scorer of goals, but his profile on Chelsea's website describes him as "clever, astute and most of all a clinical finisher".
He stayed at the club for three more seasons, but later lost his place in the side to the young Jimmy Greaves: "There was no disgrace in losing my place to him. I couldn't grumble about that. We used to get on very well, and he would listen to the instructions I gave him. Then he became world famous!" The respect was mutual: though Greaves described the Chelsea title-winning side as "almost certainly one of the least talented teams ever to win the title", he made an exception for John, "the ball player of the team". In all competitions, he made 202 appearances for Chelsea and scored 66 goals.
While at Brighton, he had worked in a local garage, wanting to keep up his skills in case injury put an early end to his football career. When he joined Chelsea, his decision to remain living in the area had upset Drake. In addition, he bought a newsagent's shop in Hove so not only did he have to travel by train from the south coast – as did teammates Stan Willemse and Eric Parsons – he further annoyed the Chelsea management by getting up even earlier each morning to open the shop before coming in to training. His wife Connie, whom he had known since childhood, ran the business in his absence. He claimed to have "earned more working in that shop than playing for Chelsea. Even in that championship season."
On his Chelsea debut away at Manchester United, he found himself playing at right back after ten minutes when Sid Tickridge sustained an injury. Once restored to the forward line, his goals helped Chelsea avoid relegation to the Second Division at the end of his first season. A "dramatic last-minute goal ... enabled Chelsea to snatch a lucky victory at West Bromwich" with three games left, and he scored the third goal of Chelsea's 3–1 defeat of Manchester City in their last fixture of the season which confirmed their escape from the relegation positions.
Two seasons later, Chelsea won the First Division title for the first time. As they beat Charlton Athletic in March 1955 to "maintain their challenging position in the Championship", The Times' reporter described how "McNichol filled the role of general, and was instigator of many dangerous movements". Two weeks later, John, "the most effective of their forwards", scored twice as a Chelsea team displaying "a propensity to play the man in preference to the ball" beat Tottenham Hotspur 4–2 and the title was confirmed with one game still to play. John had missed only two games in the 42-game season, and scored 14 goals, a good return for a player in his position; an inside forward was normally more a creator than a scorer of goals, but his profile on Chelsea's website describes him as "clever, astute and most of all a clinical finisher".
He stayed at the club for three more seasons, but later lost his place in the side to the young Jimmy Greaves: "There was no disgrace in losing my place to him. I couldn't grumble about that. We used to get on very well, and he would listen to the instructions I gave him. Then he became world famous!" The respect was mutual: though Greaves described the Chelsea title-winning side as "almost certainly one of the least talented teams ever to win the title", he made an exception for John, "the ball player of the team". In all competitions, he made 202 appearances for Chelsea and scored 66 goals.
While at Brighton, he had worked in a local garage, wanting to keep up his skills in case injury put an early end to his football career. When he joined Chelsea, his decision to remain living in the area had upset Drake. In addition, he bought a newsagent's shop in Hove so not only did he have to travel by train from the south coast – as did teammates Stan Willemse and Eric Parsons – he further annoyed the Chelsea management by getting up even earlier each morning to open the shop before coming in to training. His wife Connie, whom he had known since childhood, ran the business in his absence. He claimed to have "earned more working in that shop than playing for Chelsea. Even in that championship season."
John was born in Kilmarnock, Ayrshire. His father, Danny, died when he was five, so John and seven siblings were raised by their mother, Catherine. He attended St Joseph's School in Kilmarnock, and started work as a messenger boy for a local draper's shop when he left school. His shop work stopped him playing football on Saturdays, but he was able to play some midweek football for Junior club Hurlford United. When he was taken on at the local bus garage as an apprentice motor mechanic, he became available on Saturdays as well. Hurlford paid him ten shillings a game, nearly as much as his apprentice's wages. During the Second World War, John was called up to the Fleet Air Arm as a mechanic, but was able to play friendly matches for Inverness-based club Clachnacuddin. Because of the number of professional players stationed around the country, such matches were played at a fairly high standard.
On his Chelsea debut away at Manchester United, he found himself playing at right back after ten minutes when Sid Tickridge sustained an injury. Once restored to the forward line, his goals helped Chelsea avoid relegation to the Second Division at the end of his first season. A "dramatic last-minute goal ... enabled Chelsea to snatch a lucky victory at West Bromwich" with three games left, and he scored the third goal of Chelsea's 3–1 defeat of Manchester City in their last fixture of the season which confirmed their escape from the relegation positions.
Two seasons later, Chelsea won the First Division title for the first time. As they beat Charlton Athletic in March 1955 to "maintain their challenging position in the Championship", The Times' reporter described how "McNichol filled the role of general, and was instigator of many dangerous movements". Two weeks later, John, "the most effective of their forwards", scored twice as a Chelsea team displaying "a propensity to play the man in preference to the ball" beat Tottenham Hotspur 4–2 and the title was confirmed with one game still to play. John had missed only two games in the 42-game season, and scored 14 goals, a good return for a player in his position; an inside forward was normally more a creator than a scorer of goals, but his profile on Chelsea's website describes him as "clever, astute and most of all a clinical finisher".
He stayed at the club for three more seasons, but later lost his place in the side to the young Jimmy Greaves: "There was no disgrace in losing my place to him. I couldn't grumble about that. We used to get on very well, and he would listen to the instructions I gave him. Then he became world famous!" The respect was mutual: though Greaves described the Chelsea title-winning side as "almost certainly one of the least talented teams ever to win the title", he made an exception for John, "the ball player of the team". In all competitions, he made 202 appearances for Chelsea and scored 66 goals.
While at Brighton, he had worked in a local garage, wanting to keep up his skills in case injury put an early end to his football career. When he joined Chelsea, his decision to remain living in the area had upset Drake. In addition, he bought a newsagent's shop in Hove so not only did he have to travel by train from the south coast – as did teammates Stan Willemse and Eric Parsons – he further annoyed the Chelsea management by getting up even earlier each morning to open the shop before coming in to training. His wife Connie, whom he had known since childhood, ran the business in his absence. He claimed to have "earned more working in that shop than playing for Chelsea. Even in that championship season."
On his Chelsea debut away at Manchester United, he found himself playing at right back after ten minutes when Sid Tickridge sustained an injury. Once restored to the forward line, his goals helped Chelsea avoid relegation to the Second Division at the end of his first season. A "dramatic last-minute goal ... enabled Chelsea to snatch a lucky victory at West Bromwich" with three games left, and he scored the third goal of Chelsea's 3–1 defeat of Manchester City in their last fixture of the season which confirmed their escape from the relegation positions.
Two seasons later, Chelsea won the First Division title for the first time. As they beat Charlton Athletic in March 1955 to "maintain their challenging position in the Championship", The Times' reporter described how "McNichol filled the role of general, and was instigator of many dangerous movements". Two weeks later, John, "the most effective of their forwards", scored twice as a Chelsea team displaying "a propensity to play the man in preference to the ball" beat Tottenham Hotspur 4–2 and the title was confirmed with one game still to play. John had missed only two games in the 42-game season, and scored 14 goals, a good return for a player in his position; an inside forward was normally more a creator than a scorer of goals, but his profile on Chelsea's website describes him as "clever, astute and most of all a clinical finisher".
He stayed at the club for three more seasons, but later lost his place in the side to the young Jimmy Greaves: "There was no disgrace in losing my place to him. I couldn't grumble about that. We used to get on very well, and he would listen to the instructions I gave him. Then he became world famous!" The respect was mutual: though Greaves described the Chelsea title-winning side as "almost certainly one of the least talented teams ever to win the title", he made an exception for John, "the ball player of the team". In all competitions, he made 202 appearances for Chelsea and scored 66 goals.
While at Brighton, he had worked in a local garage, wanting to keep up his skills in case injury put an early end to his football career. When he joined Chelsea, his decision to remain living in the area had upset Drake. In addition, he bought a newsagent's shop in Hove so not only did he have to travel by train from the south coast – as did teammates Stan Willemse and Eric Parsons – he further annoyed the Chelsea management by getting up even earlier each morning to open the shop before coming in to training. His wife Connie, whom he had known since childhood, ran the business in his absence. He claimed to have "earned more working in that shop than playing for Chelsea. Even in that championship season."
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