Hugh McDonald (footballer)

Infobox Football biography
playername = Hugh McDonald
fullname = Hugh Lachlan McDonald
dateofbirth = 1884
cityofbirth = Kilwinning, Ayrshire
countryofbirth = Scotland
dateofdeath = August 27 1920
cityofdeath =
countryofdeath =
height =
position = Goalkeeper
youthyears =
youthclubs = Ayr Westerlea
Maybole
Ayr Academical
Beith
years = 1905-06
1906-08 1908-10
1910-11
1911-12
1912-13
1913-14
1914-15
clubs = Woolwich Arsenal
Brighton & Hove Albion
Woolwich Arsenal
Oldham Athletic
Bradford (Park Avenue)
Woolwich Arsenal Fulham
Bristol Rovers
caps(goals) = 02 (0)
74 (0)
18 (0)

Hugh Lachlan McDonald (1884 – August 27 1920) was a Scottish football goalkeeper.

McDonald was born in Kilwinning, Ayrshire and played for a variety of local junior clubs including Ayr Westerlea, Maybole, Ayr Academical and Beith, before moving south to London to join Woolwich Arsenal in January 1906. McDonald was understudy to Arsenal's regular goalkeeper, England international Jimmy Ashcroft, and played only two league games in what was to be his first spell at Arsenal, his debut coming against Blackburn Rovers on February 17 1906. At the end of the 1905-06 season he moved to Southern League Brighton & Hove Albion and spent two years there.

In May 1908 he returned to Woolwich Arsenal after they sold Ashcroft to make ends meet, and McDonald was an ever-present for the entire 1908-09 season, and only missed two games of 1909-10. He left Arsenal in July 1910 for Oldham Athletic, spending one season there before moving to Bradford Park Avenue.

In December 1912 he returned to Arsenal for a third time (making him one of the few, if not the only, players to have played for the club in three separate spells). He took over from Harold Crawford and played 18 of the last 21 league games of the 1912-13 season, in which Arsenal were relegated to the Second Division.

McDonald left Arsenal for a third and final time in November 1913, having been ousted from the team by Joe Lievesley. He saw out his career with first Fulham and then Bristol Rovers, before World War I intervened and ended competitive league football. He died, aged 36, in 1920.