Charles Stanley Duncan (1889 – after 1927) was a Scottish professional

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 ...

who scored 88 goal from 266 appearances in the Scottish League and 6 goals from 22 appearances in the English

Football League The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, the league is the oldest such competition in the world. It was the top-level football league in Engla ...

. He began his senior career with Dunfermline Athletic, played for English club

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the We ...

ither side of the First World War, and returned to Scotland where he represented

Rangers A Ranger is typically someone in a military/paramilitary or law enforcement role specializing in patrolling a given territory, called “ranging”. The term most often refers to: * Park ranger or forest ranger, a person charged with protecting and ...

, Third Lanark, Clyde, Dundee and

Arbroath Arbroath () or Aberbrothock ( gd, Obar Bhrothaig ) is a former royal burgh and the largest town in the council area of Angus, Scotland, with a population of 23,902. It lies on the North Sea coast some ENE of Dundee and SSW of Aberdeen. ...

. He was capped once for the Scottish League representative team. He played as a

centre forward Forwards (also known as attackers) are outfield positions in an association football team who play the furthest up the pitch and are therefore most responsible for scoring goals as well as assisting them. As with any attacking player, the role ...

Career

Duncan was born in

Kinross Kinross (, gd, Ceann Rois) is a burgh in Perth and Kinross, Scotland, around south of Perth and around northwest of Edinburgh. It is the traditional county town of the historic county of Kinross-shire. History Kinross's origins are connec ...

. He played for Dunfermline Athletic before coming to England to sign for

of the Second Division in 1913. He made his debut in the

on 22 February 1913, scoring the opening goal in a 3–1 home win against

Hull City Hull City Association Football Club is a professional football club based in Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire, England, that compete in the . They have played home games at the MKM Stadium since moving from Boothferry Park in 2002. The club's ...

, and followed up with three more goals in the next five games, but lost his place when Billy Jones returned to fitness. Unable to establish himself in the first team, Duncan scored a remarkable 52 goals in the 1914–15 season for Birmingham's

reserve team In sports, a reserve team is a team composed of players under contract to a club but who do not normally play in matches for the first team. Reserve teams often include back-up players from the first team, young players who need playing time to i ...

as they won the Birmingham & District League title. When the Football League was suspended for the duration of the First World War, Duncan returned to Scotland and signed for Clyde. He joined

for the 1916–17 season, scored twice in the opening game against Dundee and a

hat-trick A hat-trick or hat trick is the achievement of a generally positive feat three times in a match, or another achievement based on the number three. Origin The term first appeared in 1858 in cricket, to describe H. H. Stephenson taking three wi ...

in the third game, against

Dumbarton Dumbarton (; also sco, Dumbairton; ) is a town in West Dunbartonshire, Scotland, on the north bank of the River Clyde where the River Leven flows into the Clyde estuary. In 2006, it had an estimated population of 19,990. Dumbarton was the ca ...

, and finished the season as the club's top scorer, with 15 goals from 25 League games. While a Clyde player, he was selected by the Scottish League XI for a representative match against the

Irish League XI The Irish League representative team was the representative side of the Irish Football League, the national league for football in Northern Ireland from 1922 and, prior to that the league for Ireland. The Irish League was suspended from 1941–42 ...

. The game took place on 26 October 1921 at Clyde's home ground, Shawfield Stadium, and Duncan scored the third goal of a 3–0 win.

References

1889 births Year of death missing Footballers from Perth and Kinross Scottish men's footballers Men's association football forwards Dunfermline Athletic F.C. players Birmingham City F.C. players Clyde F.C. players Rangers F.C. players Third Lanark A.C. players Dundee F.C. players Arbroath F.C. players Scottish Football League players English Football League players Date of birth missing Place of death missing Scottish Football League representative players {{Scotland-footy-forward-1880s-stub