Allan Leggat Craig (7 February 1904 – December 26, 1978) 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 ...

who played as a

centre half In the sport of association football, a defender is an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield player whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Defenders fall into four main categ ...

for

Motherwell Motherwell (, ) is a List of towns and cities in Scotland by population, town and former burgh in North Lanarkshire, Scotland, United Kingdom, south east of Glasgow. It has a population of around 32,120. Shires of Scotland, Historically in the p ...

, Chelsea and

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

Career

Club

Craig played junior football for Saltcoats Victoria until he signed for

in 1924. He was a key part of the side that won the

Scottish league championship The Scottish League Championship is the domestic rugby union league system within Scotland. Operated by the Scottish Rugby Union, the championship was founded in 1973 as the first formalised national league system within any home nations country. ...

in the 1931–32 season, having also played in the

1931 Scottish Cup Final The 1930–31 Scottish Cup was the 53rd staging of Scotland's most prestigious football knockout competition. The Cup was won by Celtic who defeated Motherwell in the replayed final. Fourth round Semi-finals ---- Final Replay ---- ...

which Motherwell lost to

Celtic Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to: Language and ethnicity *pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia **Celts (modern) *Celtic languages **Proto-Celtic language *Celtic music *Celtic nations Sports Foot ...

after a replay, Craig scoring an unfortunate last-minute own goal in the first match (this was said to have resulted from a mistake in communication: a teammate shouted for 'Allan' to claim a cross ball and both he and goalkeeper

Allan McClory Allan McClory (11 November 1899 – 9 July 1983) was a Scottish footballer who played as a goalkeeper for Harthill Bluebell, Shotts United, Motherwell, Albion Rovers, Montrose and Brideville. The vast majority of his career was spent with Mothe ...

did so, with the ball ending up in the net). He moved to Chelsea in 1933 and played for the

West London West London is the western part of London, England, north of the River Thames, west of the City of London, and extending to the Greater London boundary. The term is used to differentiate the area from the other parts of London: Central London, N ...

club until the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939, making 211 appearances in the

Football League The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional association football, football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, it is the oldest football league in Association football around the world, the w ...

and

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 ...

International

Craig represented

three times, twice in a 1929 tour and once in 1932. He also appeared twice for the

Scottish Football League XI The Scottish League XI was a representative side of the Scottish Football League. The team regularly played against the (English) Football League and other national league select teams between 1892 and 1980. For a long period the annual fixture be ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Craig, Allan 1904 births 1978 deaths Footballers from Paisley, Renfrewshire Scottish men's footballers Men's association football central defenders Saltcoats Victoria F.C. players Motherwell F.C. players Chelsea F.C. players Scottish Football League players Scottish Junior Football Association players English Football League players Scotland men's international footballers Scottish Football League representative players 20th-century Scottish sportsmen