Dougal Jimmy Image 1 Preston North End 1937

Description

Denny, Stirlingshire born inside forward Jimmy Dougal began his football career with Kilsyth Rangers before joining local Scottish League First Division club Falkirk in 1932, scoring 15 goals in 38 appearances for The Bairns in 1932 and 1933 before being signed by Second Division club Preston North End in January 1934, where he made his Football League debut against West Ham United the following month playing at outside right. He scored twice in 12 appearances before the season end to help The Lambs to promotion as Second Division runners up, but didn’t get back into the Preston team until December the following season, after which he was a regular in the team, although he played all across the forward line in the following seasons with stints at centre forward, inside left and right and even outside left on occasion.

In 1936-37 he scored 4 goals in Preston’s FA Cup run, including two in their FA Cup semi final win over West Bromwich Albion at Highbury, and played in the 1937 FA Cup Final, where they were beaten by Sunderland. The following season he scored a career best to date 14 goals as Preston finished third in the League Championship, but he was injured in the 1938 FA Cup semi final win over Aston Villa at Bramall Lane, and missed their 1938 Cup Final victory over Huddersfield Town at Wembley.

He did however play in their FA Charity Shield defeat to Arsenal that September, and 1938-39 saw the best goalscoring year of his career as he returned 19 goals, and was Preston North End’s leading goalscorer in the final season before the Second World War forced the abandonment of peacetime football in September 1939. Indeed such was his form that Dougal won his only cap for Scotland when he scored Scotland’s goal in a defeat to England at Hampden Park in April 1939.

His career was then severely interrupted by the outbreak of the War, although he also scored in an unofficial wartime international, also against England, in a 1-1 draw at Hampden Park in May 1940. After the War he returned to Deepdale and played for Preston in their 1946 FA Cup campaign, scoring once in 5 early season appearances for Preston in the first peacetime League season of 1946-47 before being sold to Third Division (North) club Carlisle United in November 1946 after 56 goals in 202 appearances for Preston North End over a 12 year period. He had two years with The Cumbrians, scoring 14 goals in 74 appearances, before signing for Halifax Town in October 1948, where he scored twice in 23 appearances for The Shaymen before the end of the 1948-49 season, after which he joined non league Chorley in the 1949 close season, his last club before his eventual retirement.