Derek Dougan

Preceded by	Northern Ireland Captain	Succeeded by
Terry Neill	1972 – 1973	Terry Neill

The word "controversial" would not do justice to Derek Dougan's footballing career, and his antics in the thirty-odd years after he retired from playing...

Name: Alexander Derek Dougan
Born: 20 January 1938, Belfast
Died: 24 June 2007, Wolverhampton (England)
Height: 6.03 ft
Weight: 12.06 st
Position: Forward

Representative Honours: Northern Ireland: 43 Full Caps/8 Goals (1958-1973), 2 B Caps/3 Goals (1957-1959), 2 Amateur Caps (1956-1957), Youth Caps, 3 Schoolboy Caps (1952).
Club Honours: (with Distillery) Irish Cup Winner 1955/56; (with Blackburn) FA Cup Runner-Up 1959/60; (with Wolves) Football League Division Two Runner-Up (promoted) 1966/67; Football League Cup Winner 1973/74; UEFA Cup Runner-Up 1971/72; Texaco Cup Winner 1971/72; (with L.A. Wolves) US Soccer Association Champion 1967; (with Kansas City Spurs) NASL International Cup Winner 1969.


Club Career:

Clubs	Seasons	Signed	Fee	League	FA Cup	FL Cup	Europe	Other
Cregagh Boys	-	-	Youth	-	-	-	-	-
Linfield	-	-	Youth	0 (0)/  0	-	-	-	-
Distillery	-	-	Amateur	*76 (0)/ 17	-	-	-	-
Portsmouth	57/58-58/59	Aug-57	£4k	33 (0)/  9	3(0)/ 0	-	-	-
Blackburn Rovers	59/60-60/61	Mar-59	£15k	59 (0)/ 26	14(0)/ 4	3(0)/ 4	-	-
Aston Villa	61/62-62/63	Jul-61	£20k	51 (0)/ 19	5(0)/ 2	4(0)/ 5	-	-
Peterborough Utd	63/64-64/65	Jun-63	£25k	77 (0)/ 38	10(0)/ 7	3(0)/ 1	-	-
Leicester City	65/66-66/67	May-65	£25k	68 (0)/ 35	5(0)/ 1	3(0)/ 5	-	-
Wolverhampton.W.	66/67-74/75	Mar-67	£50k	244(14)/ 95	12(0)/ 4	22(0)/ 7	18(0)/12	11(2)/5
L.A. Wolves	1967	-	Guest	11 (-)/  3	(United Soccer Association)
Kansas City Spurs	1969	-	Guest	6 (-)/  4	(NASL)
Kettering Town	75/76-76/77	-	Free	-	(Southern League)
TOTALS			£139k	625(14)/246	49(0)/18	35(0)/22	18(0)/12	11(2)/5

* all games.

Biography:

It was as an amateur with Distillery that Derek Dougan made his name, featuring more often at left-half or on the left-wing than in the centre-forward role that would make him famous.  With the Whites he won an Irish Cup winner’s medal in 1956, scoring in an initial 2-2 draw with Glentoran before the match was settled after a second replay.  By the time he left Belfast in August 1957, aged just nineteen, Dougan had added Northern Ireland Youth and Amateur caps to those he won as a Schoolboy.  He had captained his club and featured in virtually every out-field position, and earned them a £4,000 fee from English giants, Portsmouth.

Despite preferring life in the half-back line, Portsmouth had signed Dougan as a forward.  Within months he was leading the line in the First Division and coming to the attention of Peter Doherty.  Doherty awarded Dougan a ‘B’ Cap against Rumania – he scored a hattrick in a 6-0 win and at the end of that season took him to the World Cup Finals.  Dougan had just 28 League appearances behind him.

Still just twenty years-old, Dougan’s inclusion in Northern Ireland’s World Cup squad was meant to be for experience only. But when regular number nine, Billy Simpson picked-up an injury in training Doherty called on the raw six-footer to lead the line for the opening match against Czechoslovakia.  Although the game resulted in a 1-0 win, Doherty felt that Dougan wasn’t quite ready for the Big Stage and it was his only game in Sweden – he was however assured that he had a bright future in the green shirt.

Transferred for £15,000 to Blackburn in March 1959, Dougan had already gained a reputation for speaking his mind.  He further cemented that reputation when he handed in a transfer request on the eve of the 1960 FA Cup Final – one of the few regrets he held from his long career.  That that match ended in a 3-0 defeat by Wolves is often pointed to as illustrating Dougan’s single-mindedness at the expense of the team.  While few would argue that he was strong-willed, he was held in high-regard by his fellow players for his work as Chairman of the PFA in the 1970s and in his role as spokesman for injured ex-players right up to his death.

Dougan left Ewood Park for Aston Villa in July 1961.  His time at Villa Park got off to a bad start when a car-crash ruled him out for three months.  Later he would become popular with the Villa faithful, earning the nickname ‘Cheyenne’, courtesy of his shaved head.  Further injuries caused Dougan to lose form and he fell out of favour with Joe Mercer and became frustrated with the game in general. In June 1963 he took the bold step of transferring to Third Division Peterborough.

The move down the divisions put Dougan’s international career on hiatus.  He had become a regular in the Northern Ireland team in the early sixties, scoring three times in nine games up to 1963.  When he returned to the side in 1965 he scored in a memorable 3-2 win over Scotland. However, the one criticism of the remainder of his international career was that, for a prolific marksman in the Football League, his goals on the world stage were rare, and he was guilty of missing a few sitters too.  Still, his fancy flicks and sheer enthusiasm have been long remembered at Windsor Park, and most would forgive his fairly average return of eight goals in 43 games.

His two seasons in the lower-league allowed Dougan to regain his form and fitness, and more importantly his love of the game.  He returned to the top-flight with Leicester in 1965, and moved on to Wolves for £50,000 in March 1967.  It was at Molineaux that he enjoyed the game the most and he became known as ‘The Crown Prince of Football’.  Nine goals in his first eleven games helped Wolves to promotion back to the First Division and over eight years he helped the club to the UEFA Cup Final in 1972 (where they lost to Spurs) and a League Cup Final success over Man City in 1974.

In July 1973 Dougan was instrumental in organising a match between a Shamrock Rovers XI (aka an All-Ireland XI) and Brazil. The match, with Dougan among the scorers in a 4-3 defeat for the Irish, was  opposed by the hierarchy of the Irish FA and the FAI also reportedly had reservations. Dougan alleged that the IFA President, Harry Cavan, instructed Northern Ireland manager Terry Neill not to select him again for the international team as way of punishment for his involvement. This allegation overlooks the fact that Dougan was in the twilight of his career anyway, had not scored in his previous ten international appearances, and had in any case not featured in the previous five Northern Ireland teams. Further, international careers of the other six Northern Ireland players included in the Shamrock Rovers XI team all continued unabated.

Dougan retired from full-time football in 1975.  His goalscoring feats included 222 League goals (a record for an Ulsterman) from 546 games and hattricks in the First and Second Divisions, the FA Cup, League Cup and UEFA Cup. He became player/manager/chief-executive at Kettering Town and was quickly on the wrong side of the FA again as he introduced sponsorship to the team’s shirts.  Later he briefly returned for an ill-fated spell on the Wolves board.  For 25 years Dougan was seldom out of the spot-light, appearing on TV and standing for political office.  One of his final public appearances was as pall bearer at the funeral of one of old friends, George Best.

Blackburn Rovers-Vital Football Bio

Wolves-Stats
The Wolves Site Bio
Sporting Heroes - Wolves Pt 1, Pt2
Wikipedia Article
BBC Bio
Wolves legend Dougan dies aged 69
SoccerHistory Obituary
Nigel's Webspace - Dougan's Career in Cards

Northern Ireland Cap Details:
08/06/1958 Czechoslovakia N W 1-0 WCF
03/10/1959 Scotland...... H L 0-4 BC
08/10/1960 England....... H L 2-5 BC
12/04/1961 Wales......... H L 1-5 BC. 1 Goal
25/04/1961 Italy......... A L 2-3 FR. 1 Goal
03/05/1961 Greece........ A L 1-2 WCQ
10/10/1962 Poland........ A W 2-0 ENC 1 Goal
07/11/1962 Scotland...... A L 1-5 BC
28/11/1962 Poland........ H W 2-0 ENC
02/10/1965 Scotland...... H W 3-2 BC. 1 Goal
10/11/1965 England....... A L 1-2 BC
24/11/1965 Albania....... A D 1-1 WCQ
30/03/1966 Wales......... A W 4-1 BC
07/05/1966 West Germany.. H L 0-2 FR
22/06/1966 Mexico........ H W 4-1 FR
22/10/1966 England....... H L 0-2 ECQ
16/11/1966 Scotland...... A L 1-2 ECQ
12/04/1967 Wales......... H D 0-0 ECQ
21/10/1967 Scotland...... H W 1-0 ECQ
28/02/1968 Wales......... A L 0-2 ECQ
10/09/1968 Israel........ A W 3-2 FR. 1 Goal
23/10/1968 Turkey........ H W 4-1 WCQ 1 Goal
11/12/1968 Turkey........ A W 3-0 WCQ
03/05/1969 England....... H L 1-3 BC
06/05/1969 Scotland...... A D 1-1 BC
10/05/1969 Wales......... H D 0-0 BC
10/09/1969 USSR.......... H D 0-0 WCQ
22/10/1969 USSR.......... A L 0-2 WCQ
18/04/1970 Scotland...... H L 0-1 BC
21/04/1970 England....... A L 1-3 BC
11/11/1970 Spain......... A L 0-3 ECQ
03/02/1971 Cyprus........ A W 3-0 ECQ 1 Goal
21/04/1971 Cyprus........ H W 5-0 ECQ 1 Goal
15/05/1971 England....... H L 0-1 BC
18/05/1971 Scotland...... A W 1-0 BC
22/05/1971 Wales......... H W 1-0 BC
22/09/1971 USSR.......... A L 0-1 ECQ
13/10/1971 USSR.......... H D 1-1 ECQ
20/05/1972 Scotland...... H L 0-2 BC
23/05/1972 England....... A W 1-0 BC
27/05/1972 Wales......... A D 0-0 BC
18/10/1972 Bulgaria...... A L 0-3 WCQ
14/02/1973 Cyprus........ A L 0-1 WCQ

Summary: 43/8. Won 15, Drew 7, Lost 21.

Northern Ireland B Cap Details:
23/10/1957 Romania H W 6-0 FR 3 goals
11/11/1959 France. H D 1-1 FR

Summary: 2/3. Won 1, Drew 1, Lost 0.

Northern Ireland Amateur Cap Details:

15/09/1956 England. A L 2-5 BC

19/01/1957 Wales... A L 1-3 BC

Summary: 2/0. Won 0, Drew 0, Lost 2.

Northern Ireland Schoolboy Cap Details:

19/04/1952 Wales... A L 1-5

02/05/1952 Scotland H L 2-5

10/05/1952 England. A L 0-5 

Summary: 3/0. Won 0, Drew 0, Lost 3.

Northern Ireland's Derek Dougan and England's Jack Charlton in action during a European qualifier at Windsor Park (1966) 💚

Posted by Irish Football Memories on Saturday, 11 July 2020