Isaac McCandlish McDowell was a Scottish

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby lea ...

and football

manager Management (or managing) is the administration of organizations, whether businesses, nonprofit organizations, or a government bodies through business administration, nonprofit management, or the political science sub-field of public administra ...

who played as an

inside-right In the sport of association football, a forward (attacker or striker) is an outfield position which primarily plays further up the pitch than midfielders and defenders. As with any attacking player, the role of the forward relies heavily on bein ...

for Dunoon Athletic, Glasgow Perthshire, Airdrieonians,

Dumbarton Dumbarton (; , or ; or , meaning 'fort of the Britons (historical), Britons') is a town in West Dunbartonshire, Scotland, on the north bank of the River Clyde where the River Leven, Dunbartonshire, River Leven flows into the Clyde estuary. ...

, King's Park,

Cowdenbeath Cowdenbeath () is a town and burgh in west Fife, Scotland. It is north-east of Dunfermline and north of the capital, Edinburgh. The town grew up around the extensive coalfields of the area and became a police burgh in 1890. According to a 20 ...

, Port Vale,

Coleraine Coleraine ( ; from , 'nook of the ferns'Flanaghan, Deirdre & Laurence; ''Irish Place Names'', page 194. Gill & Macmillan, 2002. ) is a town and Civil parishes in Ireland, civil parish near the mouth of the River Bann in County Londonderry, No ...

, Linfield, and

Ards Ards (or ARDS, ARDs) may refer to: Medical * ARDS, Acute respiratory distress syndrome * ARDs, age-related diseases Places * Ards Peninsula, Northern Ireland ** Ards (territory), several historical territorial divisions on the Ards Peninsula ...

. He later managed Ards, Linfield and

Glentoran Glentoran Football Club is a professional football club based in East Belfast, Northern Ireland, that plays in the NIFL Premiership. The club was founded in 1882 and has since won more than 130 major honours. They are one of three Northern Iris ...

Playing career

McDowell played for Dunoon Athletic, Glasgow Perthshire, Airdrieonians,

, King's Park, and

, before he joined English club Port Vale – initially as a guest player during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

– in October 1944. He made his debut in a 4–1 defeat to

Leicester City Leicester ( ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city, Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area, and the county town of Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England. It is the largest city in the East Midlands with a popula ...

Filbert Street Filbert Street was a football stadium in Leicester, England, which served as the home of Leicester City F.C. from 1891 until 2002. Although officially titled the City Business Stadium in the early 1990s, it remained known almost exclusively b ...

in a Football League North match on 21 October. He became a regular in the first team and scored eight goals in 36 wartime matches and three goals in four

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual Single-elimination tournament, knockout association football, football competition in domestic Football in England, English football. First played during ...

games before he departed in January 1946 after being "directed to undertake essential work in Scotland".

Management career

McDowell managed Ards from 1951 to 1953. He managed Linfield from 1960 to 1962. He led the club to seven trophies in the 1961–62 season: the Irish League championship,

Irish Cup The Irish Football Association Challenge Cup, commonly referred to as the Irish Cup (currently known as the Clearer Water Irish Cup for sponsorship purposes) is the primary Association football, football single elimination, knockout cup compet ...

County Antrim Shield The County Antrim & District Football Association Senior Shield (more commonly known as the County Antrim Shield) is a football competition in Northern Ireland. The competition is open to senior teams who are members of the North East Ulster F ...

, Gold Cup, City Cup,

Ulster Cup The Ulster Cup was an annual football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football' ...

, and the

North-South Cup The North-South Cup was a short-lived football tournament featuring clubs from Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. It was played for two seasons in the 1960s and on both occasions won by teams from Northern Ireland Northern Irel ...

. They could have won an eighth trophy, but failed to win the

Irish Intermediate Cup The Irish Intermediate Cup is a Northern Irish football competition for teams of intermediate status, including NIFL Premiership reserve sides. It is a straight knock-out tournament and is currently sponsored by McCombs Coach Travel. The cu ...

. They had finished level on points with

Portadown Portadown ( ) is a town in County Armagh, Northern Ireland. The town is based on the River Bann in the north of the county, about southwest of Belfast. It is in the Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon Borough Council area and had a population ...

in the league. Still, they beat Portadown 3–1 in a play-off match to claim the title. Forward Bobby Braithwaite later recalled that "Isaac McDowell kept us focused on each game and I recall that it was only after Portadown drew with the Glens lentoranto set up a play-off match for the title that we realised what we could possibly achieve". They won the County Antrim Shield by beating

5–0 in the final. McDowell went on to manage Glentoran from 1962 to 1964. In December 2006, the ''

Belfast Telegraph The ''Belfast Telegraph'' is a daily newspaper published in Belfast, Northern Ireland, by Independent News & Media, which also publishes the Irish Independent, the Sunday Independent and various other newspapers and magazines in Ireland. Its e ...

'' reported that he died in South Africa "a few years ago".

Career statistics

Honours

Linfield * Irish League: 1961–62 *

: 1961–62 *

: 1961–62 * Gold Cup: 1961–62 *City Cup: 1961–62 *

: 1961–62 *

: 1961–62

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:McDowell, Isaac Footballers from Glasgow Scottish men's footballers Men's association football inside forwards Glasgow Perthshire F.C. players Airdrieonians F.C. players Dumbarton F.C. players King's Park F.C. players Cowdenbeath F.C. players Port Vale F.C. wartime guest players Port Vale F.C. players Coleraine F.C. players Linfield F.C. players Ards F.C. players Scottish Football League players Scottish Junior Football Association players Scottish football managers Ards F.C. managers Linfield F.C. managers Glentoran F.C. managers NIFL Premiership players NIFL Premiership managers Men's association football player-managers