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Ted MacDougall

Ted MacDougall

Edward John MacDougall, born Inverness, Scotland, January 8, 1947. Ted MacDougall was on the books of Liverpool, York City, and Bournemouth and Boscombe Athletic before he was bought by Manchester United head coach Frank O´Farrell for a transfer fee of 200,000 pounds on the 27th of September 1972. 

Born and growing up in the Scottish Highland town of Inverness, Ted MacDougall started his playing career as a trainee with Liverpool at the age of 17 before the somewhat restless youngster made a move to lowly Fourth Division club York City where he quickly became an automatic selection. After contributing an amazing 34 hits in 84 outings for The Minstermen, he was sold to Third Division Bournemouth and Boscombe for a comparatively modest transfer fee of £10,000 in the summer of 1969. After settling down in Bournemouth, the attacking spearhead continued his good goal scoring form under first Freddie Cox, and then ex-West Ham United and Torquay United defender John Bond, and he rightfully made the headlines of all the national newspapers when he notched up a record breaking nine goals for the high-riding South Coasters in a staggering 11-0 FA Cup First Round triumph against the Non-League minnows of Margate at Dean Court on the 20th of November 1971. While with Bournemouth and Boscombe Athletic, MacDougall would become something of a living footballing legend in the eyes of the success starving Dean Court supporters and the popular crowd puller accelerated his goal plundering career further when he managed to develop a dynamic and innovative striking partnership with former Bootham Crescent teammate Phil Boyer which almost helped The Cherries to clinch promotion to the Second Division in 1971-72. The Dorset outfit were seriously involved in the race for promotion for virtually the whole of the season, but in the end Bond´s gifted team were frustratingly pipped at the post by fellow South Coast club Brighton and Hove Albion who ended the campaign as runners-up to eventual Third Division Champions Aston Villa. MacDougall, for his part, finished the season as top scorer in the Football League with a stunning 35 goals to his name and was now on the radar of a string of leading clubs.

Greatly impressed by the Bournemouth forward, Manchester United gaffer Frank O´Farrell eventually brought the then twenty-five-year-old player to Old Trafford for a transfer fee of £200,000 at the front end of the difficult 1972-73 campaign. A number of candidates had been closely linked with United, but in the end O´Farrell had opted for the Dean Court ace who had notched up 103 Football League goals in 146 outings for Boscombe. Eager to make a decent first impression, MacDougall managed to find the net on his debut for Manchester United in a 1-0 victory at home to First Division newcomers Birmingham City on the 14th of October 1972, and he followed up by scoring the second goal in a 2-0 home win against title chasers Liverpool four weeks later. Following the retirement of legendary Manchester United supremo Sir Matt Busby, O´Farrell had been offered the position as the manager of the club by chairman Louis Edwards at the start of the 1971-72 season, and the experienced Irishman, who was never the one to back out of a major challenge, accepted the post immediately, despite the overwhelming task of turning the sinking Manchester registered ship around. After a weak beginning to the 1972-73 term, though, the previous Leicester City boss was desperate for more firepower to bolster his ageing side of star players. But although Manchester United, who had won the coveted European Cup only four years earlier, were fighting relegation early on in the campaign, O´Farrell´s newly constructed United side finally started to get their act together after a poor start, and as the Football League season progressed, the red shirted men improved their playing form slightly, and there was an air of anticipation as the home players took the field against Bill Shankly´s Liverpool at Old Trafford in the 11th of November.

In front of a boisterous audience of more than 54,000 spectators, MacDougall set up Ronald “Wyn” Davies, a £60,000 acquisition from Manchester City, for the first goal of the tie, and the former Bournemouth favourite then proceeded to produce the second goal of the afternoon himself to make the score 2-0 in favour of Manchester United. Ex-England international Bobby Charlton also enjoyed an excellent game for The Manchester Reds as the evergreen veteran completely dominated the battle in the middle of the park throughout the whole of the match. Liverpool tried hard to rescue a point, but the home side held firm to collect a well deserved 2-0 home win against the Merseysiders. MacDougall nevertheless failed to live up to his obvious potential at Manchester United and following the appointment of Tommy Docherty as the new manager of the once mighty football club in December 1972, his days at Old Trafford were effectively numbered. And as events turned out, he was transferred to fellow Division One team West Ham United for a fee of £130,000 at the back end of the 1972-73 season after having scored only a mere five goals in 18 First Division matches for Manchester United. The Scot made his first Division One appearance for West Ham in a 0-0 draw away to Sheffield United on the 10th of March 1973 and recorded his first top-flight goal for The Hammers in a 2-1 win at home to Manchester City a week later, but unfortunately he also failed to make it at Upton Park. Following a 4-1 loss to First Division leaders Leeds United at Elland Road on the 3rd of November 1973, he had a full-on fight with teammate Billy Bonds in the dressing room bath and subsequently moved on to Norwich City, managed by Ron Saunders replacement John Bond, for a fee of £145,000 shortly before Christmas 1973. MacDougall´s spells at Manchester United and West Ham United may very well have been disappointingly unsuccessful, but he would enjoy a productive time at Carrow Road where he once again linked up with Boyer.

Norwich City, head coached by Saunders at the time, had gained promotion to League Division One for the first time in their history by winning the Second Division in 1971-72 and had only just avoided relegation the next campaign. Norwich continued to struggle the following season and Saunders had been replaced by Bond after a 3-1 defeat to Everton at Carrow Road on the 17th of November 1973. MacDougall received his First Division debut for Norwich in a 1-0 loss against Burnley at Turf Moor on the 8th of the following month and clocked up his first goal for The Canaries in a 2-1 defeat to East Anglia rivals Ipswich Town at Carrow Road on Boxing Day. His next goal came in a 1-1 home draw with Manchester City on the 29th of December and he followed up by netting a brace in 4-2 defeat against his former side West Ham United at Boleyn Ground on New Year´s Day. He then scored the opening goal for Norwich in a 1-1 draw at home to Wolverhampton Wanderers on the 19th of January and hit the winner in a 2-1 home win over Sheffield United on the 9th of February. MacDougall kept up his good goal scoring form and grabbed one of the goals in a 2-2 draw at home against Chelsea on the 9th of March and bagged the opener in a 4-0 home victory over Stoke City two weeks later. As the 1973-74 campaign kept going on, he netted a consolation for City in a 4-1 defeat against Everton at Goodison Park on the 13th of April and found the net again in a 1-1 home draw to Newcastle United on the 17th of the same month before scoring the winning goal in a narrow 1-0 triumph at home to Burnley three days later. But despite notching up eleven goals in 22 First Division appearances for City, his new club found themselves relegated to the Second Division at the end of the season alongside Southampton and Manchester United.

With renewed backing from the Board of Directors, Bond set out to restore pride and bring Norwich City back to Division One at the first attempt. Continuing his magnificent net-finding form of the latter part of the previous season, MacDougall registered a second-half winner in a 2-1 success against Blackpool at Carrow Road on the opening Saturday of the 1974-75 campaign, in a match which gave City supporters a glimpse of things to come. He maintained his scoring pace and grabbed one of the goals in a 3-0 victory at home to Jimmy Sirrel´s Notts County on the 14th of September and then bagged himself a brace, including a penalty, in a 2-0 home win over table-topping Manchester United a fortnight later. He converted another penalty in a 2-0 triumph against Millwall at Carrow Road on the 5th of October and he also netted from the spot in a dominant 3-0 victory over Orient at Brisbane Road on the 26th of the same month. He kept on scoring at a prolific rate and finished the season having hit 17 goals, including six penalties, in 42 Division Two games as Norwich clinched promotion to the First Division. The East Anglians also reached the League Cup Final, where they suffered a close 1-0 loss against fellow promotion contenders Aston Villa with Saunders at the helm.

MacDougall relished being back in the First Division and opened his scoring account for the 1975-76 campaign with a treble, including a penalty, in a 5-3 revenge win over Aston Villa at Carrow Road on the 23rd of August. A week later, he scored Norwich´s second goal in a 2-2 draw with Tottenham Hotspur in front of an alarmingly small crowd of 23,000 at White Hart Lane and then went on to net his second hat-trick in a fortnight as City ran out 4-2 winners against Everton at Carrow Road. On the 13th of September, he produced a brace, including a penalty, as Norwich managed to earn an entertaining 4-4 draw against Burnley at Turf Moor. Peter Noble fired Burnley into an early 1-0 lead within the first minute before the former Swindon Town man added a second goal from the penalty spot in the 26th minute to make it 2-0 to the hosts. MacDougall reduced the arrears for Norwich with a spot-kick shortly afterwards, but Noble scored a second penalty goal for The Clarets in the 43rd minute to give them a 3-1 lead at the break. With some twenty minutes left on the clock, MacDougall managed to pull one back for City and moments later ex-Tottenham midfielder Martin Peters levelled the score to make it 3-3. Then, as time ticked down to zero, the irrepressible Noble notched his fourth goal of the contest with an unstoppable header to put Burnley in the driving seat again, only for Boyer to equalise for Norwich as he headed home in the dying seconds of the fixture. “Super Mac” hit another double, including a converted penalty, in a workmanlike 2-0 victory over Leicester City at Carrow Road seven days later and then registered the winner in a professional 1-0 win against bottom-of-the-table Sheffield United at Bramall Lane the following week. MacDougall carried on finding the back of the net and totalled 23 First Division goals, including four from the penalty spot, in 42 outings during a season that ended with Norwich tenth in the table.

The footballing journeyman then tried out his luck at ambitious Second Division outfit Southampton whom he joined for a bargain transfer fee of £50,000 at the front end of the 1976-77 campaign. During his time at The Dell, MacDougall would team up with none other than Boyer, who was also brought in from Norwich City, and the inextricably linked duo assisted the South Coast side to clinch promotion back to the First Division in 1977-78 following a four-year stay in Division Two. After a short loan spell with Southern Football League club Weymouth, his services were remarkably deemed surplus to requirements by Southampton manager Lawrie McMenemy partly into the 1978-79 season and he left Soton for a second spell at Bournemouth, now head coached by his ex-teammate John Benson at Dean Court and Carrow Road, on a free transfer in November 1978 following 42 goals in 86 League appearances for The Saints. The Scottish bread and butter striker would later appear for a number of teams around the country, including Third Division Blackpool and Non-League outfits Salisbury City and Poole Town. The much travelled player also had spells in Australia, North America, and South Africa before he decided to end his goal poaching career in 1984, at the age of 37.

A senior international for Scotland, Ted MacDougall played seven times for the country of his birth after being given his full debut for the country of his birth by former St Johnstone supremo Willie Ormond in a 1-1 friendly fixture draw with Sweden at the Ullevi Stadium in Gothenburg on the 16th of April 1975, producing the equalising goal with less than five minutes remaining of normal time after the Swedes initially had taken the lead thanks to Thomas Sjoberg who found the net a minute before the half-time break. With several talented players knocking on the door, his final international appearance came in a 1-1 European Championship Qualifier draw to Romania at Hampden Park on the 17th of December the same year. Ted MacDougall Playing Career: Liverpool, York City, AFC Bournemouth, Manchester United, West Ham United, Norwich City, Jewish Guild, Southampton, Weymouth, AFC Bournemouth, Detroit Express, Blackpool, Salisbury, Poole Town, Totton, Gosport Borough, Floreat Athena, St George-Budapest, Totton, Andover. Playing Honours: None.