David Prophet McLean - Celtic's youngest goalscorer

Thought i'd make a thread on him since he's never really mentioned in in a lot of stuff or anything. He scored 325 League goals in the UK.

He made his Celtic debut on 26th October 1907 aged 16 years 317 days in
the Glasgow Cup Final against Rangers and scored in a 2-1 win.

Then made his "official" debut a week later in the League aged 16 years 324 days against Port Glasgow, where he scored a hat-trick. He went on to score another 8 goals in 9 games that season as Celtic won the League to end the season with 11 goals in 10 League games and 1 goal in 1 Glasgow Cup game. He only played 14 games the following season, scoring 8 goals as Celtic won the League again and in his final season scored 2 goals in 4 games before being sold just after the season started for £400.

He was only 18 when he left with a record of 22 goals in 29 games. He never broke into the team as Jimmy Quinn was the main striker and a great goalscorer too but left with a record of the youngest goalscorer, youngest goalscorer against Rangers and youngest hat-trick scorer.

He joined Preston aged 18 who where in the Premier League in England then, scoring 25 goals in 49 League games for them, finishing top scorer in both seasons he played there even though he left half way through his 2nd season to join Sheffield Wednesday who were also in the Premier.

He played 4 and a half seasons for Wednesday all in the EPL and scored 88 goals in 133 League games and 12 goals in 12 FA Cup games, 100 goals in 145 games in total. His best season being 1912-13 where he scored 38 goals in 40 games, he finished the top scorer in the EPL in 1912 and 1913 his first two full seasons for Wednesday in the EPL.

He came back to Scotland and played for Rangers in 1918-19 season where he scored 29 goals in 25 games. After them he went back to the EPL with Bradford Park Avenue where he scored 49 goals in 85 games leaving after they were relegated to the 2nd Division. He joined Dundee aged 31, back in the SPL he scored 43 League goals in 114 games, also scored in the 1925 "Patsy Gallagher Cup Final" against Celtic for Dundee when he was 34, then left them aged 35 to join Forfar in the 2nd tier in Scotland where he retired aged 40 after scoring 76 goals in 153 games for them. He ended his career with over 350 goals in the Scottish and English top 2 Divisions and the FA Cups, over 240 of his goals were in the Scottish and English top Divisions. He got 1 Cap for Scotland against England in 1912 but didnt score.

Celtic 29 games 22 goals (All comps)
Preston 49 games 25 goals (League only)
Sheffield Wednesday 148 games 100 goals (All comps)
Rangers 25 games 29 goals (All comps)
Bradford PA 85 games 49 goals (League only)
Dundee 114 games 43 goals (League only)
Forfar 153 games 76 goals (All comps)



You wonder how many he'd have scored for us if we never sold him. Considering he scored 113 goals in 197 EPL games in the 6 years after leaving us then scored 29 goals in 25 games for the Huns when he returned to Scotland.

 

Played for the huns ..


Diddy ..

 

Great bit of writing man love to see threads like this. Wish he had stayed with us though looks like he could have challenged mcgrory given enough time here.