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| Alex Stott |
 Alexander Gair Stott was born on Sunday, 19th April, 1925, in Monifieth, Angus. The 5' 10 (12st 4lbs) forward signed for David Meiklejohn's Thistle on Friday, 4th November, 1949, having most recently been with Dundee. Aged 24, he made his debut appearance on Saturday, 5th November, 1949, in a 1-0 defeat at home to Heart of Midlothian in the SFL First Division. Amazingly, Alex scored his first 3 goals for Thistle in the same match! His account-opening hat-trick was registered on Saturday, 19th November, 1949, in a 4-0 win at home to St Mirren in the SFL First Division. He scored the last of his 87 goals on Tuesday, 12th May, 1953, in a 3-1 neutral-venue win against Heart of Midlothian in a Benefit match. That turned out to be his last game for the club, having clocked up 126 appearances as a Jag. His club-list included Portsmouth, Dundee, Partick Thistle and Hamilton Academical. Alex died on Saturday, 19th December, 1998, in East Renfrewshire, aged 73. |
 ALEX STOTT was a formidable centre forward with Dundee and Partick Thistle who may be remembered for just one failure at the height of a great period of personal success. Tall, rangy, and well-equipped to handle the attentions of defences at a time when football was a much more physical game, Alex Stott reminded one in build of Tommy Lawton and, perhaps significantly, it was from an English club, Portsmouth, that he joined Dundee in 1947. He had a quiet first season but made up for it in 1948-49 when in all matches he scored an imposing 39 goals and did more than any Dens Park player to take Dundee into the last day of the season needing only a win to take the championship for the first time ever. On April 30, 1949, Dundee had a fairly straightforward match against Falkirk at Brockville while Rangers had an almost guaranteed win against Albion Rovers at Cliftonhill. In an excess of zeal, the ebullient Dundee manager, George Anderson, locked his players in the dressing-room for half an hour before kick-off and on the players' own admission reduced them to nervous wrecks. Possibly traces of this accounted for Alex Stott's missing a penalty with the scores level, although George Nicol's save was an outstanding one. Falkirk went on to win 4-1 and, on regaining the dressing-room, the Dundee players learned that Rangers had won by the same score. Early in the following season Alex Stott was transferred to Partick Thistle for the then considerable sum of £6,000 and stayed for the next four seasons in the course of which he scored 80+ goals in all matches. He was part of a Firhill side which won nothing but certainly knew how to lose attractively and could occasionally be devastating. Alex Stott was well supported in the Thistle forward line with the craft of Alex Wright and Willie Sharp complementing the blinding pace of Jimmy Walker and the striker's instinct of Stott himself. Scores were higher in those days because defences were less coached. It was almost a requirement for any first division side - relegation strugglers as well as champion aspirants - that their centre forward should deliver 18 goals or more per season. By season 1953-54 Alex Stott was still on Partick Thistle's books but was beginning to find it difficult to hold his place. Sharp and Wright would between them score 53 goals that season. His time at Firhill was drawing to a close and in January 1954 he moved to Hamilton Academical where his sojourn was brief, despite having started off with two goals in a Scottish Cup tie. Alex Stott was a dangerous player who always needed marking and his legacy to Scottish football was to have been part of the Partick Thistle team which not infrequently drew 20,000 people to Queens Cross in the dreary, austere days immediately following the Second World War. |
26-Dec-1998, The Herald  |
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