William Aitchison Moffat (1900 – 1974) 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 le ...

who played mainly as an inside right. He began his senior career with Hamilton Academical in 1922 and remained with them for almost a decade, becoming club

captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...

.Moffat, William (1922)
Hamilton Academical Memory Bank In October 1931 he was selected for the Scottish Football League XI and also passed the milestone of 300 league appearances for ''Accies''. Within weeks he had moved on to their Lanarkshire derby rivals

Motherwell Motherwell ( sco, Mitherwall, gd, Tobar na Màthar) is a town and former burgh in North Lanarkshire, Scotland, United Kingdom, south east of Glasgow. It has a population of around 32,120. Historically in the parish of Dalziel and part of Lanarks ...

, at that time regularly challenging for the title but yet to win it. Whether Moffat's arrival made a decisive improvement for the ''Steelmen'' is open to debate – their forward line of

Murdoch Murdoch ( , ) is an Irish/Scottish given name, as well as a surname. The name is derived from old Gaelic words ''mur'', meaning "sea" and ''murchadh'', meaning "sea warrior". The following is a list of notable people or entities with the name. ...

, McMenemy,

MacFadyen MacFadyen is a Scotland, Scottish patronymic surname meaning "son of little Patrick". The Celtic languages, Celtic prefix "Mac" means "son of", while "Fadyen" is a derivative of the Scottish Gaelic, Gaelic ''Pháidín'', meaning "little Patrick". ...

Stevenson Stevenson is an English language patronymic surname meaning "son of Steven". Its first historical record is from pre-10th-century England. Another origin of the name is as a toponymic surname related to the place Stevenstone in Devon, England. The ...

and Ferrier was well established and highly effective – but he would have been an experienced and capable deputy, and certainly he scored eight times in eleven matches as Motherwell won the

1931–32 Scottish Division One The 1931–32 Scottish Division One season was won by Motherwell by five points over nearest rival Rangers. Dundee United and Leith Athletic finished 19th and 20th respectively and were relegated to the 1932–33 Scottish Division Two. League ...

championship, which has proved to be the only such success in their history. They finished runners-up the following year, Moffat making 16 appearances with six goals, but he began to fall out of favour and with no substitutes in that era, he did not feature when they reached the

1933 Scottish Cup Final The 1932–33 Scottish Cup was the 55th staging of Scotland's most prestigious football knockout competition. The Cup was won by Celtic who defeated Motherwell in the final. Fourth round Semi-finals ---- Replays ---- Final Tea ...

. A few months later he moved on to Hibernian,(Hibernian player) Moffat, Willie
FitbaStats then became

player-manager A player-coach (also playing coach, captain-coach, or player-manager) is a member of a sports team who simultaneously holds both playing and coaching duties. A player-coach may be a head coach or an assistant coach. They may make changes to the sq ...

of Highland League side

Keith Keith may refer to: People and fictional characters * Keith (given name), includes a list of people and fictional characters * Keith (surname) * Keith (singer), American singer James Keefer (born 1949) * Baron Keith, a line of Scottish barons ...

in 1935. He was relieved of his duties a year later and returned to playing for a swansong campaign with

Airdrieonians Airdrieonians Football Club is a Scottish professional football team in Airdrie, North Lanarkshire, who are members of the Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL) and play in Scottish League One. They were formed in 2002 as Airdrie United ...

(the first time he had played outside the SFL's top division).

References

1900 births Date of birth missing 1974 deaths Date of death missing Scottish men's footballers Men's association football inside forwards Men's association football player-managers Scottish football managers Footballers from West Lothian Scottish Football League players Scottish Junior Football Association players Highland Football League players Scottish Football League representative players Hamilton Academical F.C. players Motherwell F.C. players Hibernian F.C. players Keith F.C. players Airdrieonians F.C. (1878) players {{Scotland-footy-forward-1900s-stub