Three Scots

[Bristol Rovers]

Hoping for some information, please:

Andy Penman appears to have made his Scottish League debut for Dundee, aged 15, during the 1958-59 season. Does anyone have his date of birth and the date of his first game?

Likewise, Sam McMillan was 15 when he played for Ayr Utd in 1952-53 - again, does anyone have date of birth or details of first match?

The great Willie Johnston is alleged to have once scored a League hat-trick of penalties - can anyone prove or disprove this, ideally by saying which game it was (or wasn't?)?

Many thanks for any help.

[Rob R]

Willie Johnston scored a hat-trick of penalties at Muirton Park on the 6th of November 1971 final score was 4-1 to Rangers scorers were St Johnstone Pearson 87th. Rangers Johnstone 53rd pen,73rd pen,84th pen and McDonald 55th.

[Rob R]

Oops, spelt Johnston with an E.

[Scottish]

1.Penman's dob was 20/2/43. His debut was 7/2/59 so he'd be 13 days shy of his 16th birthday.

2. No dob for McMillan but the Ayr history confirms he was 15 when making his debut. Debut was 14/3/53

3. Johnston didn't score a hat-trick of penalties. The third came back off the keeper and he scored from the rebound, as confirmed by contemporary match reports

[Rob R]

As you say , one was missed and scored from the rebound. A quick glance at the Rangers Football Companion by David Docherty which gives team lineups scorers etc from the war, credits Johnston with 3 penalties in the game ,which is obviously wrong.

[Bristol Rovers]

Thank you for all these answers. If anyone knows Sam McMillan's date of birth, I would be interested in due course. Thanks again.

[MadMac]

This may be of some help, or may muddy the waters even further:

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/6968 ... ver-player

[Scottish]

This may be of some help, or may muddy the waters even further:

I don't think it muddies the waters. It refers to Shankland as a "signed" player but there's no doubt McMillan played and was younger when he did so.

[ScottishFA]

I looked up Sam McMillan's dob a long time ago, but unfortunately it was in pre-internet days and now can't find the relevant piece of paper. However, if he was aged 15 years 212 days when he played against Queen's Park in 1953 I think that puts his date of birth at 14 August 1937.

I do remember his full name was Samuel John Conchar McMillan, and he was with juvenile club Ballochmyle Thistle at the time of the game.

There is a match report in the Evening Times: http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2 ... page&hl=en

This indicates he was a schoolboy international, and in fact he won three U15 schools caps in 1952.