Malcolm MacDonald Scores Five Goals - Ee-ay, ee-ay-oh

“I don’t want you here. I wouldn’t have picked you, but the media has made it impossible so here you are.  If you don’t score in this match I won’t be picking you again”

Malcolm MacDonald, for some, was the archetypal English centre-forward.  Big, strong, and good in the air.  Unlike other “big number nines” he was extremely quick on the ground as viewers of the iconic 1970’s Superstars series will confirm.

He first began his career at Fulham, the club he was born just down the road from.  He was one of the kids who used to hang around the ground looking for autographs from players such as Bobby Robson.  It was Robson who signed him at Craven Cottage.  He moved to Luton Town in 1969 and then onto Newastle United in the summer of 1971.  That season he scored twenty-three goals as Newcastle finished mid-table.  He endeared himself to the home supporters by scoring a hat-trick against Liverpool on his home debut.

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January 1972 saw him win England honours for the first time as he was picked for the under-23 side which took on Wales at Swindon.  He lined up alongside Mick Channon, Phil Parkes, Colin Todd, Ray Kennedy and Tony Currie.  He opened the scoring too, in a 2-0 victory.  Two further appearances against Scotland and East Germany were enough to persuade Alf Ramsey to add him to the full squad for the British Home International Championships.  The now defunct competition was between England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland and took place during May at the end of every season.  Each team played each other once to determine the British champions, with England versus Scotland always being the final fixture.  

Ramsey put MacDonald straight into the starting line-up as England took on Wales at Ninian Park, Cardiff.  England had just been knocked out of the European Championships losing the two-legged Quarter-Final to the eventual winners, West Germany.  MacDonald lined up alongside players such as Gordon Banks, Bobby Moore, Colin Bell, Emlyn Hughes, Norman Hunter and Rodney Marsh.  Hughes, Marsh and Bell scored in a 3-0 win.  A surprise defeat at Wembley to Northern Ireland when future Arsenal manager, and the man who would sign MacDonald to the club, Terry Neill scored the only goal of the game, was then forgotten about when Alan Ball did likewise in a 1-0 win at Hampden against Scotland.

MacDonald seemed to have done enough to impress England’s World Cup winning manager and when he scored a hat-trick against Wales for the under-23’s in November.  But England had plenty of strikers to choose from then with Allan Clarke, Martin Chivers, Mick Channon and Joe Royle being selected ahead of Supermac.  MaDonald didn’t put on another England shirt until he lined up in Moscow for a friendly against Soviet Union where Bobby Moore equalled Bobby Charlton’s appearances world record.  England had just lost a crucial World Cup qualifier in Poland just four days before and were pleased to bounce back with a 2-1 win.

That June appearance was his only cap in 1973 but the summer of 1974 saw him have another run in the team.  England had just suffered the ignominy of failing to qualify for the 1974 World Cup and then lost at home to Italy when Fabio Capello scored.  In April MacDonald was selected for the friendly in Lisbon against Portugal.  Playing up front alongside Mick Channon he was unable to get his first full international goal as the game ended 0-0.  Soon after that Alf Ramsey was sacked.

Ramsey had been a fan of MacDonald and had spoken to him encouraging him to remain patient but assuring him he had a place at this level.

Joe Mercer was the stop-gap caretaker manager for the Home Internationals and ignored MacDonald for the wins over Wales and Northern Ireland but brought him on as a sub for Frank Worthington at Hampden Park where England lost 0-2.  A month later MacDonald was again a replacement for Worthington and goals from Keegan and Channon helped England to a 2-2 draw in Yugoslavia.  Then Don Revie was named as new England manager.

MacDonald never knew why Revie didn’t like him but wondered if it was because he often scored against Leeds when Revie was in charge.

He wasn’t called up for the first two games of Revie’s reign but got the call when World Champions West Germany were to visit Wembley.  MacDonald was in the middle of another twenty-goal season but when he reported for duty he was greeted by the England manager with a terse

“I don’t want you here. I wouldn’t have picked you, but the media has made it impossible so here you are.  If you don’t score in this match I won’t be picking you again”

Not known for his Shanklyesque powers of motivation so MacDonald had every reason to believe Revie was serious.  Lining up alongside Channon and Keegan, MacDonald finally broke his duck midway through the second half. Mick Channon took a quick free-kick on the right wing to Alan Ball and his accurate cross to the far post saw MacDonald head the ball home for his first ever England goal in his eighth appearance.  A 2-0 win had everyone smiling.  But in the dressing room afterwards, if Supermac was to imagine his manager’s sullen exterior was to be relaxed, he was disappointed.  Revie came in and shook all the players by the hand but when he came to MacDonald he completely blanked him and walked out.

A month later and Cyprus came to Wembley for the European Championship qualifiers.  When MacDonald met up with the squad again he was greeted with the same ‘welcome’ from his manager.

“I don’t want you here. I wouldn’t have picked you, but again the media has made it impossible so here you are.  If you don’t score in this match I won’t be picking you again”.

During the build up to the game Revie was similarly cold towards the Newcastle striker who was convinced he was like this rather than Revie trying some reverse psychology on him.  The day before the match MacDonald was so bothered by this treatment he spoke to the captain, Alan Ball and explained how things were.  Initially Bally dismissed it but when MacDonald told him about Revie’s behaviour in the dressing room afterwards he decided this was not on.  So Ball gathered Colin Bell, Alan Hudson and Kevin Keegan and explained how they were going to make sure MacDonald scored.  Ball said the record number of goals scored in one match for England was five, with Willie Hall in 1938 being the last player to do it.  But no player had done it in a competitive match.  So the plan was to make sure Malcolm beat the record and scored six goals.  MacDonald was stunned at the camaraderie but excited at what the team might be able to create for him.

Just two minutes into the game and Kevin Keegan was brought down on the left wing.  Alan Hudson took the free-kick and MacDonald got his head to the ball just ahead of Dave Watson and England were 1-0 up.  One.   






During the celebration Ball came up to MacDonald and reminded him that was goal number one and five more to go.  Ten minutes before half-time and Colin Bell burst forward to the right edge of the area but his ball into the box missed everyone.  Keegan picked it up on the left, turned a defender and pulled it back from the bye-line where MacDonald scuffed his shot but with enough power to beat the keeper.  Two

Just before the break MacDonald hit a shot against the post and could easily have a first half hat-trick.  2-0 at the break and it wasn’t long before they added to their tally in the second half.  Paul Madeley brought the ball into the Cypriot half and exchanged passes with Bell before floating a ball to the far post where Keegan nodded it down for MacDonald to complete his hat-trick.  Three

Revie then shuffled his pack but instead of taking off MacDonald he chose to take off Channon and replace him with QPR’s Dave Thomas.  Commentator David Coleman informed viewers how Thomas was “one of the best crossers of a ball in the First Division” and immediately we had evidence of this as Ball played him in down the right and his cross to the edge of the six-yard area was powered home by the head of MacDonald.  Four.

Again Ball can be seen encouraging MacDonald to keep going with thirty-five minutes still on the clock.

Within minutes England had the ball in the net again but this was ruled out as Beattie was adjudged to have kicked the ball out of the keeper’s hands after chesting it down in the area.  The challenge was enough to force the visitors to bring on a substitute keeper.  With just three minutes remaining Thomas played a one-two with Ball on the right and his cross into the six-yard box was headed in by MacDonald and he’d become the first England player to score five goals in a competitive international and the first since the War to do it in any match.  Five.

MacDonald did get the ball in the net after his fourth goal but it was ruled out for offside.  He was ecstatic with his performance and especially grateful to Keegan and Ball who’d played such a part in the success.  At the end of the game the electronic scoreboard at Wembley flashed up

“Congratulations – Supermac 5 Cyprus 0”

As MacDonald was leaving the pitch he saw Revie over by the touchline, head down and he shouted over to him 

“Read that and weep, you bastard. Read that and weep”

But Revie didn’t hear him and as everyone was high on the euphoria of it all the manager repeated his performance in the dressing room by not even shaking hands with a player who’d scored five goals in one game.  The only time the manager spoke to the player the whole country was talking about was when he ordered him out of the bath to speak to the press.  

Later in his autobiography MacDonald would explain how the press seemed strangely cool towards him afterwards and he couldn’t understand why.  Back then players or their agents received £25 for post-match interviews and a year later when MacDonald met the BBC football producer and gently suggested his agent hadn’t received the fee, he was abruptly told Revie had demanded £200.  It appeared this was raised via a collection from some of the production staff, camera, sound and lighting engineers and yet Revie had trousered the lot.

MacDonald kept his place in the team for the return against Cyprus where Keegan scored the only goal of the game and then in the goalless draw in Belfast against Northern Ireland.  But he was dropped for the Wales and Scotland matches as his replacement, David Johnson scored in both games.

Supermac would win just three more caps with just two more starting appearances as his international career ended in Lisbon in November 1975.  Six goals from fourteen appearances was a decent return but he only scored in two games and after the Cyprus success he never played at Wembley for England again.  Revie certainly wasn’t interested in him despite his big money move (£333,333) to Arsenal in 1976.

A serious knee injury forced the early termination of MacDonald’s playing career at the age of 29 in 1979 and although he perhaps didn’t achieve the success at international level that his fame at club level suggested, he can at least claim a record which may stand for a while yet.

What is Going on Out There?

This season has been different right from kick-off.  Up to the halfway point there is no runaway leader and the previous big four are now spread throughout the table.  Chelsea’s awful season has opened up opportunities for other clubs, but also Leicester City’s emergence has thrown the form book out the window.  Right from the early part of the season Crystal Palace and West Ham have occupied top seven places, and Watford’s recent run has seen them move into that once longed for esteemed group.

The big clubs have struggled to put consistent runs together as what was thought just a strange start to a season has become a constant source of frustration for those who believed they knew the script.  For some this is a welcome alternative to believing you could predict the top four or top six before a ball has been kicked.  For others, the trend of each team beating each other has created the sense that despite losing a few matches, a club can still climb several places with a few wins.  My own club, Liverpool are a case in point.  Despite taking just one point from games against Newcastle, West Brom and Watford, we are only five points off a top four place.

So what is it about this season that has made it so close?

I believe there are several important factors which have all contributed.  During this article I will make reference to ‘bigger’ and ‘lesser’ clubs.  This is not to denigrate or disrespect any club, it is merely to demonstrate how some clubs are perceived to be perennial achievers or strugglers and how some clubs performances this season has been very different to how they were expected to perform.

Fancy Dans

First of all the Premier League is a poorer place as far as world class players are concerned.  When you look back a number of stars of the world game have left these shores over the past five years or so.  Players such as Suarez, Modric, Bale, Mascherano, Tevez, van Persie, Drogba, Gerrard and Lampard have all vacated the league and it is poorer for it.  The likes of Aguero, Toure, Hazard, Ozil, Sanchez, Di Maria, Falcao have come in with varying degrees of success but it is difficult to say who is the best player in the league right now.  Hazard was fantastic last season and a deserved player of the year but this season has been a shadow of his former self.  Aguero can’t seem to string more than a couple of games together, Di Maria came in and was a complete failure and Falcao looks as if he’d be better off in another country.  Ozil is beginning to show his class and Sanchez has been excellent since his arrival at Arsenal, but he’s suffering an injury at the moment.

My point is there are some decent players, some very good ones but world class?  Not sure.  But what does seem to have happened is we have gone back to the type of player from abroad who is given the label “he’s good but can he do it on a cold Tuesday night at Stoke?”

When the Premier League began to plunder foreign leagues for new talent this was a common problem.  Often it would take foreign players a season or so to adjust to the pace and physicality of the league.  Which is what made Fernando Torres debut season for Liverpool all the more stunning.  Of course there have been a whole host of players who have come in and hit the ground running, but for those who possess ‘potential’ or maybe just average ability then they can take a while to settle in.  Some of the ‘bigger’ clubs have gone for this type of player, a fancy dan rather than a grafter. 

TV Deal

The new TV deal, a reported £5.14bn, has given many clubs the ability to buy players who once may have been out of reach.  The equality with which the Premier League dishes out the prize money from TV has contributed to many lesser clubs being able to sign players who may only have previously come over here for the bigger clubs.  Yohan Cabaye at Crystal Palace is an example.  He was at Paris St. Germain and with Champions League football almost guaranteed every year, but he chose to return to England to play under Alan Pardew who’d been his boss at Newcastle. 

Stoke City is another example where they have been able to sign the likes of Bojan Krkic and Xherdan Shaqiri.  Bojan was signed from Barcelona, having spent time at Roma, Milan and Ajax, yet he chose Stoke City for his chance to play in the Premier League.  This in no way is to suggest there is anything wrong with Stoke but Bojan is not the type of player they have attracted in the past.  Shaqiri, a Swiss international, was at Basle when there was intense speculation over his next move.  He was reportedly a target for Liverpool but when Bayern Munich came calling he found it too tempting to turn down.  He then moved onto Inter yet Stoke managed to lure him from Serie A. 

The new riches enjoyed by more clubs within the Premier League has enabled players like Cabaye, Bojan and Shaqiri to go to clubs not really considered ‘big’.  The FFP rules have also had an effect on stopping the bigger clubs from just hoovering up all the best talent, and so this talent can now be spread more evenly within the league.

Counter Attack

Many of the lesser clubs no longer just turn up at Old Trafford, Anfield or The Emirates believing they should just lay down and hand over the three points.  They believe if they have a go they might be able to get something from the game.  The other major contributory factor with this is the adoption of the counter attack as a tactic.  Teams are happy to sit back and soak up the pressure and then hit their opponents on the break, at pace.  Leicester City is a prime example of that.  This has been particularly effective in enticing the bigger clubs to keep the ball, knock it around and generally show off but then when they lose it, they’re hit on the break and found to have not left anyone manning the fort at the back.

If you put these two factors together you have a toxic mix, as far as the bigger clubs are concerned, where many league games can be like cup ties with a baying crowd urging their team on as they smell the blood of big names who have spent the past ten to fifteen years lauding it as if it’s some sort of birth right.

It makes for an exciting season and with points seemingly more generously spread throughout the table then few can be sure of where they will finish until we move towards March and April.

Is this a trend or a freak? 

Going back to the point about the type of foreign player who has been recruited by Premier League clubs, many of them are young and come under the ‘potential’ category.  Within a few seasons many of these players should start to realise this potential and become stars.  We may well find those clubs who have recruited more wisely will begin to pull away from the others again, but until this happens we can enjoy a much more equitable competition than we have had to endure for the past five years or so.

Just All Wronga

There are times, and they seem to happen more frequently for me these days, when you just watch something happening in football and you just know – it seems all wrong.  You know it, other people must see it, yet we seem to just watch it unfold like some sort of car-crash.

I’ve written about the Loan System before and things haven’t improved in that regard, in fact they seem to have got worse.  I have long complained about Chelsea having virtually two full squads, one of 25 Premier League registered players and another 25 players loaned out to other clubs.  But recently I’ve come across the ridiculous behaviour of Parma in Italy who has an incredible squad of over 200 players!  Readthis article to get more idea of what’s going on

But the item which is causing me most grief at the moment is the one concerning Glasgow Rangers and Newcastle United.  Two clubs with the kind of support many others envy, yet whose owners appear to ride roughshod over that loyalty.  It’s been well documented what has gone on at both clubs yet the recent episode of Newcastle’s owner, Mike Ashley, buying his way into cash-strapped Rangers, just has all the hallmarks of ‘exploitation’ and underhand tactics.

The football authorities allow a system of clubs going into partnership and many of Europe’s big clubs have gained a number of feeder clubs.  But this is where the system begins to fall apart.  UEFA ruled that two linked clubs cannot compete in the same European competition.  This has lead to clubs bypassing the rules and setting up ‘informal’ arrangements which UEFA seem unable, or unwilling to look into and do something about.

Why is it so obvious to everyone there is a link between Chelsea and Vitesse Arnhem, based on the friendship of the owners of each club, yet the authorities just sit back and watch?  How is it Parma can exploit the rules so blatantly yet UEFA seem powerless to intervene?

In my article on the Loan System I advocated a player should only have on loan contract during his time at a club and then the parent club must decide whether they really want to keep him or let him move somewhere else.  The recent antics at Parma and Rangers only go to stiffen my resolve this is the best solution for football and footballers.

Back to Rangcastle or Newgers.  A few months ago Newcastle owner, Mike Ashley, bought a 8.92 stake in Rangers and then installed Newcastle Director, Derek Llambias, onto the board at Ibrox.  This was a controversial move, yet you could see how Rangers were hardly in a strong position to refuse.  You can argue Ashley has been a financial success at Newcastle, although critics point to the whole process being little more than a marketing campaign for his Sports Direct brand.  Rangers are like the proverbial debt-ridden borrower turned down by all standard forms of lending and having to take the option of a loan-shark.  Of course, as anyone who has become trapped in a spiral of debt will testify, once you accept the offer of further money it becomes almost impossible to turn it down in the future.In amongst all this let’s not forget Newcastle are sponsored by Wonga.  

During the recent transfer window, Newcastle loaned five players to Rangers, Haris Vuckic, Gael Bigirimana, Shane Ferguson, Remie Streete and Kevin Mbabu.  It has since emerged that Rangers manager, Kenny McDowall, has been told he must play these players.  In a recent press conference, McDowall was asked whether he had to play the Newcastle players in each game, “Yes. They’re obviously good players. They’ve played for Newcastle. I’ll carry on and do what I’m told to do”.

What a ridiculous state of affairs.

Firstly, Ashley’s tactic of becoming Rangers’ “banker” is cunning as he will avoid the prospect of UEFA getting interested in him as two clubs owned by the same person cannot play in the same European competition.  Ashley has loaned £10m gaining control of the training ground, registered trademarks and other properties.  The loan also entitled him to nominate Llambias and Barry Leach of Sports Direct onto the Ibrox board.  All the Scottish FA have been able to do is warn Ashley against increasing his stake beyond 30%.

The part which I find utterly unacceptable is the unfair competitive advantage Rangers now enjoys.  We don’t know who is paying these players, presumably either way it will be Ashley, and therefore Rangers are able to benefit from these deals in a way other Scottish clubs were not able to.  When clubs arrange loan deals they negotiate who will cover the player’s wages.  If the parent club is willing to continue paying their employee’s wages then the recipient club gets to use that player for nothing.  But if a clubs such as Celtic, Hearts or even Queen of the South approached Newcastle to loan these players for nothing, they are likely to be told ‘no’.  So therefore Rangers are at an advantage purely because they are spending Ashley’s money.

Unbelievable as it may seem for a club so financially stretched, Rangers already has the biggest squad in Scotland, with many players out on loan.  Clearly they’re unlikely to be in a position financially to be able to afford to loan in more players.  Again this is where they’re at an unfair competitive advantage to other clubs who also may not be able to loan in more players, no matter how much they might need them.

Actions such as pushing boundaries in this way only gets worse unless dealt with.  Unless the authorities step in, further actions will only push on from this position.  We’ll never go back. A journalist recently likened this whole practice by clubs as “shops wanting to trade with other people’s stock”. 

You feel sorry for Rangers fans who are now facing more headlines when all they want to do is continue to make their way back to the Scottish Premier League and back into Europe, and forget about the disaster of the past few years.

It just seems wholly wrong to me.  This is where football continually struggles with itself in the question of whether it is a business or a sport.  All the money in the game would point to it being considered a business, yet the practice of how it treats footballers means it remains a sport.