Derek Dougan

Derek Dougan

Personal information
Full name	Alexander Derek Dougan
Position(s)	Defender / Midfielder / Forward

Alexander Derek Dougan (January 20 1938, Belfast, Northern Ireland – June 24 2007, Wolverhampton, England) was a former professional footballer. Dougan played for several clubs, before he joined Wolves in 1967.

In 18 years in the English League, Dougan scored 222 goals in 546 matches, including 95 in 258 for Wolves. He began his career as a wing-half / central defender before being converted to a centre-forward. During his career, Dougan scored hat-tricks in the First Division, the Second Division, the FA Cup, the League Cup and the UEFA Cup and scored more English League goals than any other Irishman.

On June 24 2007, Dougan died at the age of 69 from a heart attack at his home in Wolverhampton. His funeral was held on the 5 July 2007 at St Peter's Church, Wolverhampton, and the service was transmitted to a crowd of mourners outside the church with loudspeakers.

Club career

Early years

Dougan made 76 appearances and scored 17 goals for Distillery, helping them win the Irish Cup in 1956, before joining Portsmouth for a fee of £4,000 in August 1957. Dougan made 33 league appearances and scored 9 league goals for Portsmouth, playing a further three games for them in the FA Cup. He then moved to Blackburn Rovers in March 1959 for a fee of £15,000 and score in his debut in a 1-1 draw away to Arsenal. 'Doog', went onto to play for Rovers in the 1960 FA Cup final, despite having asked for a transfer on the eve of the match. It was his brace in the semi final against Sheffield Wednesday that secured Rovers passage to Wembley and Dougan famously went on to score four goals in a 6-2 victory over West Ham. After two and a half years at Ewood Park Dougan went to Aston Villa in July 1961. Two years later he moved to Peterborough United before signing for Leicester City in 1966.

Wolves

Dougan joined Wolverhampton Wanderers for £50,000 in March 1967 and in just over eight seasons at Wolves, Dougan made 323 senior appearances and scored 123 goals.

Dougan helped Wolves clinch promotion from the Second Division in 1967. He was then leading marksman at Wolves in 1967-68, 1968-69 and 1971-72. He also netted a hat-trick in the UEFA Cup against Académica, becoming the only Wolves player to date to have scored a hat-trick in a major European competition. Four days before that game Dougan had also netted three goals when Wolves beat Nottingham Forest in a league match.

During his time at Wolves, Dougan formed successful partnerships with Peter Knowles, Hugh Curran, Bobby Gould and then John Richards and in 1974 collected a League Cup winners medal. Dougan also played for Wolves in the United States. In 1967, playing as the Los Angeles Wolves, they won the United Soccer Association title and in 1969, playing as Kansas City Spurs, they won the NASL International Cup. Dougan was a beloved personality of the game and idolized by the Molineux crowd for his sometimes audacious antics and opinionated views on the game and, in paricular, a professional players lot within the Football Association vis a vis their ownership or "free agency" rights. Dougan was known for his traditional center forward heading prowess but was surprisingly adept with his feet despite his gangly height. This was particularly evident during his "de rigueur" move of playing a ball to the corner flag and achieving a very high percentage of corner kicks.

International career

Dougan represented Northern Ireland at schoolboy, U-19, amateur and B level as a wing-half and centre-defender. Dougan won 43 senior caps and scored 8 goals for Northern Ireland. He made his international debut on June 8 1958 in 1-0 win against Czechoslovakia during the 1958 FIFA World Cup. He made his final appearance for Northern Ireland on February 14 1973 in a 1974 FIFA World Cup qualifier against Cyprus.

Together with Pat Jennings and Martin O'Neill, Dougan was also one of seven Northern Ireland internationals to feature in a "Shamrock Rovers" XI against Brazil in an exhibition match in July 1973. Dougan scored one of Rovers goals in the 4-3 defeat. The Rovers XI was actually an All-Ireland team, which also featured Republic of Ireland internationals. The Northern Ireland-based IFA had opposed the staging of the game, with the FAI also having reservations (according to Republic manager Liam Tuohy). Dougan, who had helped organise it, was subsequently to allege that his involvement in this game meant he never played for Northern Ireland again, though at 35 he was in any case near the end of his career. Dougan continued to be an advocate of an All-Ireland soccer team, however.

Later years

During the 1970 FIFA World Cup Dougan was a panelist for ITV. He served as chairman of the Professional Footballers Association from 1970 to 1978 and was instrumental in the establishment of players rights and free agency. Dougan believed passionately that a player should control their own destiny and used his position as Chairman of the PFA to further players rights. Many of football's modern elite have benefited from Dougan's passionate perseverance of this issue and this may well be reflected upon as his lasting, albeit controversial, legacy. In 1983 was later chairman and chief executive of Wolves. He stood as a parliamentary candidate for East Belfast in the 1997 election, but got only 1.4% of the vote. In December 2005, Dougan helped carry the coffin of George Best with a number of other Northern Ireland teammates. On June 14 2006, he appeared on the BBC political show Question Time, as a representative of United Kingdom Independence Party.

Honours

Distillery

• Irish Cup
  • Winners 1955-56: 1

Blackburn Rovers

• FA Cup
  • Runners Up 1960: 1

Wolves

• League Cup
  • Winners 1973-74: 1
• UEFA Cup
  • Runners Up 1971-72: 1
• Texaco Cup
  • Winners 1971-72: 1
• Second Division
  • Runners Up 1966-67: 1

Los Angeles Wolves

• United Soccer Association
  • Winners 1967: 1

Kansas City Spurs

• NASL International Cup
  • Winners 1969: 1

Sources

• Who's Who Of Aston Villa (2004): Tony Matthews [1]
• The Sash He Never Wore (1972): Derek Dougan
• The Sash He Never Wore ... Twenty Five Years On (1997): Derek Dougan

External links

• Sporting Heroes
• Northern Ireland's Footballing Greats
• Dougan at www.bbc.co.uk
• Obituary by The Independent