- George McLachlan
George Herbert McLachlan (b.
September 21 1902 - d. 19??) was anF.A. Cup winning Scottish footballer and manager. He was born inGlasgow and played asleft wing andwing half .Early years
Born in Glasgow, George McLachlan began his football career at Crosshill Amateurs before joining Celtic as a junior but stayed for only two weeks before joining Clyde.
Clyde
George McLachlan was at Clyde for three years interrupted by a short loan spell and King's Park Strollers."The Queens" by Iain McCartney on Creedon Publications, 2004]
Cardiff City
Speedy outside left McLachlan was transferred in November 1925 for a fee of £2,000. He joined the strongest Cardiff City side in the club's history. Promoted to the top division in 1921, they had finished runners up in the 1923-24 League Championship (a late penalty miss in the last game of the season cost the Welsh side the title) and in the 1924-25 F.A. Cup. Fellow Scot
Hughie Ferguson also joined in 1925. Many Football League clubs were interested in signing McLachlan but he was persuaded to join City as his father was captain of a ship that regularly called at Cardiff docks. [http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/low/football/7328650.stm]Much to McLachlan's disappointment he missed out on an international cap in 1926 with a broken leg against
Leicester City .The high point of McLachlan's career came with Cardiff City when he was part of the Welsh side's
FA Cup victory in the 1927. McLachlan recovered from the broken leg in 1926 to star in Cardiff's FA Cup triumph. [http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/low/football/7328650.stm] The winner in the final was scored by the prolific Ferguson. Cardiff's results on the way to the trophy were:-*8 January 1927, FA Cup 3rd Round, Cardiff City 2-1
Aston Villa . Cardiff Goals - L Davies, Curtis, Villa Goal - Dorrell*29 January 1927, FA Cup 4th Round, Darlington 0-2 Cardiff City. Cardiff Goals - McLachlan, Ferguson
*19 February 1927, FA Cup 5th Round,
Bolton Wanderers 0-3 Cardiff City. Cardiff Goals - Ferguson (penalty), L Davies*5 March 1927, FA Cup 6th Round, Chelsea 0-0 Cardiff City
*9 March 1927, FA Cup 6th Round Replay, Cardiff City 3-2 Chelsea. Cardiff Goals - Irving, L Davies, Ferguson (penalty), Chelsea Goals - Priestley, Turnbull
*26 March 1927, FA Cup Semi-Final at
Molineux , Cardiff City 3-0 Reading. Cardiff Goals - Ferguson (2), Wake*23 April 1927, FA Cup Final at
Wembley Stadium , Cardiff City 1-0 Arsenal. Cardiff Goal - Ferguson [http://www.sportingchronicle.com/2008/03/cardiff-city-fa-cup-run-1927.html]Others in the Cardiff City cup final side included Jimmy Nelson later of the
Wembley Wizards , fearless tackling captainFred Keenor and the club's all time top goal scorer,Len Davies .The season after Cardiff won the
Charity Shield beating the Corinthians 2-1 at Stamford Bridge. Having led the Championship for a brief spell during mid-season, Cardiff finished 6th in England's top division. However Cardiff's finest decade ended with the disappointment of relegation from the top division in 1929.At Cardiff McLachlan moved from outside-left to wing half. He played 139 league games hitting 22 goals. While at Cardiff in 1928 he played for the Anglo-Scots against the Home-Scots in an international trial match at
Firhill .Manchester United
He left the Bluebirds in December 1929 for top division Manchester United where he captained the side during his three and a half years at
Old Trafford . Mclachlan scored four goals in 116 games for the red devils.Chester City
Chester City had joined the English Football League in August 1931. In June 1933 Mclachlan joined
Chester F.C. as player coach. Throughout the 1930s Chester never finished outside of the top ten in Division Three North. In 1933-34 it was in 10th place that they finished in the division.Le Havre
McLachlan had a spell with French side
Le Havre AC in season 1934-35 and was offered a further contract with the club. However his ambition was to manage aScottish First Division side.Queen of the South
George McLachlan in 1935 was the successful applicant out of almost one hundred who applied for the job as manager of top division
Dumfries side, Queen of the South (from 1933 to 1959 Queens spent only 1950-51 outside the top division). His appointment was announced on 29th June.George McLachlan was manager of one of the landmark events in the history of Queen of the South; the 11 game 1936 overseas tour and the Algiers invitational tournament. Queens returned with the trophy after beating
Racing de Santander in the final.Players at the club during this time included
Willie Savage ,Willie Culbert ,Willie Ferguson ,Joe Tulip and Irish internationalLaurie Cumming .George McLachlan's time at Queens was part of a long spell the club spent in Scotland's top division. It was under McLachlan that
Jackie Oakes first joined Queens.On Monday March 22nd with five games remaining of season 1936-37 the Queens board announced that McLachlan would be leaving the club on Tuesday of the following week. The week was intended to allow the out-going manager to offer advice on team building for the next season. His successor was announced as Willie Ferguson.
When George McLachlan left Queens in 1937 he had no further involvement in football. [http://www.qosfc.com/qosaz.htm]
Honours
with Cardiff City
*FA Cup winner - 1927
*FA Charity Shield winner - 1927References
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