Malcolm Macdonald
In 1950 one of Arsenals most unlucky attackers was born who would later help The Gunners for goals during the late 1970s, his name is Malcolm Macdonald.
Macdonald commenced his playing days as a centre back before moving into the position of attacker. After turning out for non-league team Tonbridge, his schoolboy idol Bobby Robson signed him for £1,000 for Fulham in 1968 after having just been relegated from the First Division.
Fast track a year and Macdonald had been let go at The Cottagers transferring to Luton Town where he grabbed 58 goals in 101 games.
By 1971 Newcastle United came calling for the young attacker, when in the summer of 1971 he was brought for £180,000. After pulling on the black and white shirt he embraced his debut netting a hat-trick against Liverpool, earning him the fan name of “Supermac”.
In his first campaign Newcastle United sat at the foot of the First Division on 30 October 1971 following Everton presenting them with their fifth defeat on the trot. The fixture witnessed Tony Green make his first appearance on Tyneside. This set up a tag team between MacDonald and Green watching the side increase it’s form, after a streak of five victories and two draws Newcastle United jumped up the table. This saw The Magpies finish 11th, seeing Macdonald grabbing a jaw dropping 30 strikes in 52 matches in his first campaign becoming Newcastle United’s top talisman for 1972. He then led the tally board for goals for the next four years till 1976, a year which marked him out as the Firs Division top goalscorer.
At The Magpies, Macdonald missed out on the chance of silverware very narrowly after Liverpool got the better of Newcastle United in the 1974 FA Cup final, and being overturned by Manchester City in the 1976 League Cup Final.
In 1976 Arsenal secured a deal for Macdonald worth £333,333.34. December of that year saw Macdonald grab a hat-trick for The Gunners versus his old side Newcastle United in a 5-3 victory at Highbury. For two years he was Arsenals top goalscorer and yet again netted the most strikes in the First Division in 1977. Unfortunately the centre forward missed out on a 1978 FA Cup Final winner’s medal after Arsenal eventually lost to Ipswich, despite having helped The Gunners reach the final after scoring two goals in the semi-final versus Orient. At the beginning of the 1978/79 campaign MacDonald was victim to a serious knee injury in a League Cup toss up against Rotherham which he would never completely heal from.
After finishing the season with The Gunners, MacDonald was persuaded to go to South Melbourne Hellas in 1977 in the National Soccer League.
In total he participated in three matched during the halfway point of the 1977 National Soccer League campaign, grabbing a goal on his debut versus West Adelaide, featuring at home against Brisbane Lions and most well known for scoring two times versus St George, which attracted a full attendance crowd to Middle Park. This was due to Arsenal legend Charlie George playing for the opposition. Apart from that Hells had a poor season.
Macdonald then enjoyed a couple of months at Swedish side Djurgarden where he declared his retirement from playing whilst only 29 in August 1979.
After 11 years in football Macdonald amassed 193 goals.
During his time at Newcastle United he received his first England call up versus Wales. Macdonald scored for the first time in a 2-0 friendly victory against at the time World Champions West Germany.
In April 1975 in a European Championship qualifier played at Wembley Macdonald grabbed every single goal in a 5-0 thrashing of Cyprus meeting the achievement of the most goals scored in a match by an English player.
Overall he ran out 14 times for his country and scored six goals.
Once Macdonald had stepped down from playing he restarted his love affair with Fulham managing them in 1980, where his spell proved to be successful securing promotion to the Second Division in 1982.
Throughout the 1982/83 campaign, they looked as if they were First Division promotion material however a lacklustre second half of the season saw their position at the top of the table drop down to fourth. The next year they started as league strugglers before changing this poor form around to save their position in the table. In April 1984 Macdonald departed Fulham.
After three years out of the game Macdonald went back into management in 1987 with Huddersfield Town, however his time unlike at Fulham proved to be unsuccessful where his team were obliterated 10-1 by Manchester City in the Second Division.
Now age 74 Macdonald is currently president of non-league side North Shields
Liam Harding
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Super Mac was so fast, he qualified for the Olympics over 100 metres if my memory serves me right (Herr Drier?).
He was faster than Henry – can you imagine that?
The bandiest football player I have ever seen, he was / is one of my favourite all time Arsenal players.
Such a shame that injuries forced him out of top class football so early.