David Scott McNiven (born 9 September 1955) is a Scottish former professional

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 le ...

who played as a

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People * Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Sm ...

Club career

Born in Stonehouse, McNiven played for

Leeds United Leeds United Football Club is a professional football club based in Leeds, West Yorkshire in England. The club competes in the Premier League, the highest level of England's football league system, and plays its home matches at Elland Road S ...

Bradford City Bradford City Association Football Club is an English professional football club in Bradford, West Yorkshire. The team competes in League Two, the fourth tier of the English football league system and are currently managed by Mark Hughes. Th ...

Blackpool Blackpool is a seaside resort in Lancashire, England. Located on the North West England, northwest coast of England, it is the main settlement within the Borough of Blackpool, borough also called Blackpool. The town is by the Irish Sea, betw ...

, Pittsburgh Spirit,

Halifax Town FC Halifax Town is a professional association football club based in Halifax, West Yorkshire, England. They currently compete in and play at the Shay. They replaced Halifax Town A.F.C., which went into administration in the 2007–08 season. ...

and

Morecambe Morecambe ( ) is a seaside town and civil parish in the City of Lancaster district in Lancashire, England. It is in Morecambe Bay on the Irish Sea. Name The first use of the name was by John Whitaker in his ''History of Manchester'' (1771), w ...

. McNiven signed for Bradford City in February 1978 from Leeds, leaving in February 1983 to join Blackpool. He scored 66 goals in 245 appearances for the club in all competitions - 64 goals in 212 league appearances, 2 goals in 11 FA Cup appearances, and no goals in 22 FL Trophy appearances. He made his debut for Blackpool in 1983, scoring the only goal in a victory over

Rochdale Rochdale ( ) is a large town in Greater Manchester, England, at the foothills of the South Pennines in the dale on the River Roch, northwest of Oldham and northeast of Manchester. It is the administrative centre of the Metropolitan Borough ...

home A home, or domicile, is a space used as a permanent or semi-permanent residence for one or many humans, and sometimes various companion animals. It is a fully or semi sheltered space and can have both interior and exterior aspects to it. H ...

. He started every subsequent game in the 1982–83 campaign, scoring four more goals as the club finished fourth-bottom of

Division 4 ''Division 4'' is an Australian television police drama series made by Crawford Productions for the Nine Network between 1969 and 1975 for 301 episodes. Synopsis The series was one of the first dramas to follow up on the enormous success o ...

and had to seek re-election. The following season saw McNiven make 32 League appearances and score six goals. He also scored one of the two goals that put Blackpool into the Fourth Round of the

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual knockout football competition in men's domestic English football. First played during the 1871–72 season, it is the oldest national football competi ...

at the expense of

Manchester City Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The tw ...

.Calley, pp. 341–342

International career

He earned three caps for the Scotland under-21 team.

Family

His sons

David David (; , "beloved one") (traditional spelling), , ''Dāwūd''; grc-koi, Δαυΐδ, Dauíd; la, Davidus, David; gez , ዳዊት, ''Dawit''; xcl, Դաւիթ, ''Dawitʿ''; cu, Давíдъ, ''Davidŭ''; possibly meaning "beloved one". w ...

and Scott are both footballers as well, while his uncle Tom was a coach.

Sources

* *

References

1955 births Living people Scottish footballers Leeds United F.C. players Bradford City A.F.C. players Blackpool F.C. players Pittsburgh Spirit players Halifax Town A.F.C. players Morecambe F.C. players English Football League players Men's association football forwards Scotland under-21 international footballers Scottish expatriate footballers Scottish expatriate sportspeople in the United States Expatriate soccer players in the United States {{Scotland-footy-forward-1950s-stub