Alexander McCrae (2 January 1920 – 8 October 2009) was a Scottish

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby ...

, who played for Hearts,

Charlton Athletic Charlton Athletic Football Club is an English professional football club based in Charlton, south-east London, which compete in . Their home ground is The Valley, where the club have played since 1919. They have also played at The Mount in ...

Middlesbrough Middlesbrough ( ) is a town on the southern bank of the River Tees in North Yorkshire, England. It is near the North York Moors national park. It is the namesake and main town of its local borough council area. Until the early 1800s, the a ...

and Falkirk during his career.

Playing career

McCrae began his career at Hearts in 1941. He later moved to

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

to play for Charlton Athletic but was unable to settle and was snapped up by Middlesbrough for £10,000 in October 1948. The versatile frontman could play in any forward position but favoured the inside left role. He began his career with the club in the 1948–49 season in the absence of

Wilf Mannion Wilfrid James Mannion (16 May 1918 – 14 April 2000) was an English professional footballer who played as an inside forward, making over 350 senior appearances for Middlesbrough. He also played international football for England. With his blonde ...

, but his form was poor and soon he was dropped from the side. Eventually, he was recalled alongside Mannion, where he showed his pace, accurate passing and sublime ball skills. After scoring 16 goals in the 1949–50 season, including the winner in a home 1–0 victory over Newcastle United on Boxing Day, he became a fans favourite. He topped the scoring charts the next season, scoring three

hat-tricks A hat-trick or hat trick is the achievement of a generally positive feat three times in a match, or another achievement based on the number three. Origin The term first appeared in 1858 in cricket, to describe H. H. Stephenson taking three wi ...

before

Christmas Christmas is an annual festival commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a religious and cultural celebration among billions of people around the world. A feast central to the Christian liturgical year ...

, but injury robbed him from helping the side finish higher than sixth in the table that season. McCrae then scored 21 goals in the 1950/51 season. As of 2009, he was the last player to score 20 goals in a season for Middlesbrough while playing in the top division of the English football league system. He left the club for Falkirk in 1953, and followed this with a spell in Northern Ireland with Ballymena.http://www.ballymenaunited.co.uk/history/alex_mccrae.html During his stint with Ballymena, McCrae made one appearance for the

Irish League representative team The Irish League representative team was the representative side of the Irish Football League, the national league for football in Northern Ireland from 1922 and, prior to that the league for Ireland. The Irish League was suspended from 1941–42 ...

After football

After retiring from playing, he became Middlesbrough's scout in Scotland, where he recommended future legend

Jim Platt James Archibald Platt (born 26 January 1952) is a former footballer who played as a goalkeeper for Northern Ireland. Playing career During his career, Platt won 23 caps for Northern Ireland, an amount largely restricted due to the presence of ...

to the club.

Honours

;Falkirk *

Stirlingshire Cup The Stirlingshire Cup is an association football cup competition for clubs in the county of Stirlingshire, Scotland. The competition was founded in 1883 and is contested annually by senior member clubs of the Stirlingshire Football Association. Th ...

: 1960–61, 1963–64

References

External links

*
Obituary
in ''The Herald'' {{DEFAULTSORT:McCrae, Alex 1920 births 2009 deaths Charlton Athletic F.C. players Falkirk F.C. managers Falkirk F.C. players Association football inside forwards Heart of Midlothian F.C. players Middlesbrough F.C. players People from Whitburn, West Lothian Footballers from West Lothian Scottish Football League players Scottish footballers Scottish football managers English Football League players NIFL Premiership players Glentoran F.C. managers Stirling Albion F.C. managers Scottish Football League managers Ballymena United F.C. managers Irish League representative players