Murdoch McKenzie (footballer)

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Murdoch McKenzie
Personal information
Full name Murdoch McKenzie[1]
Date of birth 29 November 1889[2][a]
Place of birth Ayr, Scotland
Date of death 26 March 1941(1941-03-26) (aged 41)[6]
Place of death Ayr, Scotland
Height 5 ft 10+12 in (1.79 m)[5]
Position(s)
Inside left
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1917–1925 Ayr United 132 (56)
1925–1926 Darlington 37 (17)
1926–1927 Portsmouth 4 (1)
1927–1928 Hamilton Academical 10 (1)
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Murdoch McKenzie (29 November 1889 – 26 March 1941) was a Scottish

centre forward for Darlington and Portsmouth in the 1920s.[1][7] He also played in the Scottish League for Ayr United and Hamilton Academical
.

Football career

McKenzie was born in

Derby Daily Telegraph as "quite the best player that club have sent to England since they allowed Johnny Crosbie to go to Birmingham".[4]

He signed for

centre forward ahead of Darlington's first ever league meeting with Derby County in an attempt to remedy the team's goal drought.[12] He produced two goals in a 3–1 win,[13] went on to lead the line brilliantly when scoring four in a 6–0 defeat of Clapton Orient in February,[14] and attracted attention from First Division clubs. According to the Derby Daily Telegraph, he "has the build and weight for the position, and he adds to a nice turn of speed and dash a cleverness in ball distribution which enables him to keep both his wings going."[15] He finished the season with 17 goals from his 39 appearances in all competitions.[3]

His performances earned him a transfer to the ambitious Portsmouth club, where the local newspaper, the

London Combination,[19] but those four matches were his last for the first team.[1]

McKenzie returned to Scotland and joined

Hamilton Academical;[1][8][9] he played ten Division One matches in the first half of the 1927–28 season and scored once, a penalty in a 6–3 defeat of Dunfermline Athletic.[20]
Although still in his 20s, it appears he made no further appearances in senior football after this.

At the start of the

Second World War he was with the Royal Pioneer Corps and was promoted to corporal, but returned to his hometown suffering from tuberculosis and died there aged 41.[6]

Notes

  1. ^ No birth date is listed in Joyce's Football League Players' Records or Tweddle's Definitive Darlington.[1][3] In contemporary sources, the Derby Daily Telegraph of December 1925 describes him as "not so young as some of the Scots that have crossed the border this past six or seven months, for he is now almost 27 years of age",[4] implying a birth year of 1899, whereas the Portsmouth Evening News of July 1926 has him "barely 24 years of age", implying 1902.[5]
  2. ^ Birthplace stated as Benhar (West Lothian) in some sources.[1][8]

References

  1. ^ .
  2. ^ a b 1899 | Deaths in the District of Ayr [birth certificate], scan via Ancestry. Retrieved 22 September 2022 (subscription required)
  3. ^ .
  4. ^ a b "Promotion points. Not so young". Derby Daily Telegraph. 26 December 1925. p. 4 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  5. ^ a b c d "Pompey capture. Darlington's best forward engaged". Evening News. Portsmouth. 19 July 1926. p. 3 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  6. ^ a b 1941 | Deaths in the District of Ayr [death certificate], scan via Ancestry. Retrieved 22 September 2022 (subscription required)
  7. ^ a b Tweddle, Definitive Darlington, p. 27.
  8. ^ a b c McKenzie, Murdoch (1927), Hamilton Academical Memory Bank. Retrieved 22 September 2022
  9. ^ a b John Litster (October 2012). "A Record of pre-war Scottish League Players". Scottish Football Historian magazine. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  10. ^ "Sporting items". Derby Daily Telegraph. 28 August 1925. p. 4 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  11. ^ "Results, goal scorers and tables. Division II". Western Daily Press. Bristol. 26 October 1925. p. 4.
    "The League. Scores and goal scorers. Division II". Western Daily Press. Bristol. 21 December 1925. p. 3 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  12. ^ "Derby at Darlington. Drastic changes in the home team". Derby Daily Telegraph. 15 January 1926. p. 3 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  13. ^ "Derby at Darlington. First visit in the history of football". Derby Daily Telegraph. 16 January 1926. p. 6 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  14. ^ "Orient go through the hoop". Daily Express. London. 15 February 1926. p. 13.
  15. ^ "Promotion points. Not surprising". Derby Daily Telegraph. 27 February 1926. p. 4 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  16. ^ "Pompey superior to old rivals. Saints fritter away their chances". Daily Express. London. 30 August 1926. p. 10.
  17. ^ "Mid-week football. Portsmouth fail at Manchester". Evening News. Portsmouth. 2 September 1926. p. 8.
    "Football fare. Fulham's visit to Fratton Park". Evening News. Portsmouth. 10 September 1926. p. 9.
    Citizen (13 September 1926). "The football field. Pompey and the Saints defeat London clubs". Evening News. Portsmouth. p. 2 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  18. ^ "Rugby football to resume. Pompey brings back Watson". Evening News. Portsmouth. 17 September 1926. p. 11 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  19. ^ "Southern League. Portsmouth Reserves v. Dartford". Evening News. Portsmouth. 22 September 1926. p. 12.
    "Association and rugby games. London Combination. Leicester Reserves at Fratton Park". Evening News. Portsmouth. 27 October 1926. p. 14 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  20. ^ "1927/28 Overview". Archived from the original on 21 November 2015. Retrieved 20 November 2015 and "Team sheets: 1927/28". Hamilton Academical Memory Bank. Retrieved 19 November 2015.

External links