Scoring in consecutive SPL/top-flight matches

[Scottish]

I'm pretty sure he did score against Airdrieonians. But his career did overlap with Gretna's time in the league. Grant played until 2003-04 and Gretna joined in 2002-03. Maybe I'm nitpicking but there was a team that played in the SFL at the same time as Roddy Grant that he didn't score against.

Mind you, that's nothing compared to some of the questions that have been received wisdom over the years. For many years in the 1970s and 1980s quiz nights routinely posed the query about the player involved in the Munich disaster who was still playing league football and gave the answer as John Lukic. His mother was supposedly a stewardess on the fateful flight and pregnant with the future goalkeeper. In reality Lukic was born in England almost three years later.

Then there was the one about "which team won the FA Cup and never scored a goal?" Reputedly there was a player named Never. The only problem was that Never never existed.

But my all-time favourite came from a pub quiz in Middlesbrough many, many years back when in answer to the old standard about the first two teams to contest a Wembley FA Cup Final, the quizmaster gave the answer as Bolton Wanderers and Tottenham Hotspur. When regaled with cries that it was West Ham, not Spurs, his answer was so incredible that after an initial gasp of breath the place just erupted with laughter when he proclaimed "it couldn't have been West Ham because it was definitely a London club."

[Skyline Drifter]

I'm pretty sure he did score against Airdrieonians. But his career did overlap with Gretna's time in the league. Grant played until 2003-04 and Gretna joined in 2002-03. Maybe I'm nitpicking but there was a team that played in the SFL at the same time as Roddy Grant that he didn't score against.

Mind you, that's nothing compared to some of the questions that have been received wisdom over the years. For many years in the 1970s and 1980s quiz nights routinely posed the query about the player involved in the Munich disaster who was still playing league football and gave the answer as John Lukic. His mother was supposedly a stewardess on the fateful flight and pregnant with the future goalkeeper. In reality Lukic was born in England almost three years later.

I'm not arguing with you. I would agree actually. Presuming it's correct that he never scored against Gretna, and presuming that the point at which he "completed the set" was after their League entry then I don't see how it could possibly be a valid claim. Of course if he had the "42" before Gretna's entry then it would have been valid for a period. I don't know the timing of the events.

As for the Lukic one, yes, a well known urban myth which came about because a pregnant woman named Vera Lukic did indeed survive the Munich Air Disaster (because Harry Gregg pulled her out of the plane). No relation at all to John Lukic though. Her unborn son was apparently called Zoran when he eventually appeared. She was just a passenger though, not a stewardess.

[bungle1979]

Apologies for dredging up an old thread, but with Niall McGinn currently on 7, who would have been the last player to score in 8?

Have seen that Craig Dargo did it, but I make that 8 successive SPL apps rather than 8 successive SPL matches (splitting hairs there I suppose!).

Would Mark Viduka's 10 in a row be the only previous SPL occurrence of a player scoring in 8 successive SPL matches?

Thanks as always

[Scottish]

Would Mark Viduka's 10 in a row be the only previous SPL occurrence of a player scoring in 8 successive SPL matches?

Thanks as always

I reckon so. BTW in answering your query of Sep 27, 2010 I omitted to mention Kris Boyd as another who had scored in seven successive SPL games when he did so in his last seven matches for Kilmarnock Oct-Dec 2005. He was then left out of the next game, pending his move to Rangers, even though it was six days before the transfer window opened. In any case Boyd failed to score on his league debut for Rangers.

[cowdenbeather]

It may be of interest to know that Evelyn Morrison was almost 25 before he made his senior debut for Stenhouemuir - at that time he was running the family business GEM Briquettes and playing for Moorpark Amateurs. Evelyn Morrison was the son of George Morrison and his wife Mary. Mary’s father Robert Sneddon was a coalmaster who owned a number of pits in the Shotts area. Evelyn it seems was born on 1 August 1902. His parents at that time were in South Africa and Evelyn was born in Natal. The family though were back living in Hamilton by 1911.

His career went awry at Sunderland as he just travelled down to play matches not for training as he was still involved in the family business. After leaving Partick in 1932 his 5 year senior career was over after scoring an amazing 117 goals in just 96 SFL matches - an average of 1.22 goals per game - has anyone ever surpassed that average?

In 1934, Evelyn did a bit of coaching with the Motherwell & Wishaw Police football team and then the following year began a two year course of teacher training at Jordanhill. In 1937, Evelyn Morrison became the woodwork master at St. Joseph RC School in Blantyre. He married Lily Ashenhurst just before the War.

In 1944 he went to teach at Bellshill Academy and began a special course of football coaching for all members of the Academy’s football club. That led on to him being appointed as chief coach to the Council for the Development of Sport (Lanarkshire Area). Evelyn and his wife moved to live in Uddingston and tragedy struck in 1960 when Lily was returning from playing a round of golf and she and her friend were struck by a van and killed - the driver was charged with homicide. Evelyn did remarry in 1965 but died aged just 66 in Hamilton in November 1968.

[BMCCOLL]

And trust Allan to post such a comprehensive account of Evlyn's career. What a phenonemal scoring record surely worthy of an entry in the HOF?

[Partick Thistle]

Delighted to hear about the life stats discovered for Evelyn Morrison; thanks indeed, cowdenbeather.

South Africa missed a trick methinks; had they made the call they'd have been surefire winners at Uruguay '30!

The bold Evelyn was prolific at Firhill too, with 19 in 20 between 1931 and 1932, a ratio of 0.95 per game. Of all the players who've played 20 games or more, he's second only to John Blackwood, 29 in 23 in season 1899-00, a ratio of 1.26 per game.

I should pont out, however, that these are the "all games" figures and that Blackwood falls to 1.13 (competitive) and 1.00 (league) during his time, so Evelyn's overall League stats have no challenger from Glasgow North West.

[Angusfifer]

Slightly off topic, but I recently carried out some research to find out who had the top goals per game ratio in senior Scottish football. Because of the difficulty in accessing pre- 1939 records I restricted this to post-war and set the bar at 150 career goals in competitive club games.
The top ten were:

Henry Morris (East Fife, Dundee United - although Morris did not score for Dundee United)
Alan Gilzean (Dundee)
Peter McKay (Dundee United, St Mirren)
Johnny Coyle (Dundee United, Brechin City, Clyde)
Peter Price (St Mirren, Ayr United, Raith Rovers, Albion Rovers)
Henrik Larsson (Celtic)
Joe Baker (Hibernian, Raith Rovers)
George Henderson (Stirling Albion, Dundee United, Dunfermline Athletic, St Mirren, Albion Rovers, Alloa Athletic, Stranraer)
Hugh Gallacher (Arbroath, Dumbarton, Clyde, QOS)
Charlie Fleming (East Fife)