Andrew Clark Donaldson (8 November 1886 – 14 June 1980) was a Scottish footballer who played as an inside left. His clubs included Motherwell,^[1] Airdrieonians^[2] (three spells, making 337 Scottish Football League and Scottish Cup appearances in total and scoring 95 goals),^[3] Celtic^[4] and Third Lanark.

Career

Donaldson's father died when he was an infant – his mother remarried and at the time of the 1891 census he was known as Andrew Colquhoun.^[5] Soon afterwards his mother also died and his stepfather moved away; he and his brothers reverted to their original surname and were raised by their maternal grandparents in Motherwell.^[6] He began his football career in the juniors at Ashfield, and in March 1906 scored twice for Scotland Juniors against Ireland in March 1906; he was also capped against England a few weeks later.^[7]

Donaldson played regularly in the top division of Scottish football for 14 seasons, but never won a major trophy nor took part in a final^[3] – however, Airdrie won the minor Lanarkshire Cup six times while he was with the club, and he is known to have been involved in the 1914 victory^[8] but likely to have played in most if not all of the other finals. In January 1915 he scored four goals for Airdrie in a 5–0 league victory over Rangers,^[9][10] albeit this was during World War I when the SFL continued but wartime commitments and restrictions often affected the matches.

He later worked as a trainer and scout at Motherwell, including during the club's most successful period in the early 1930s^[11] and then worked as a groundsman until he was 83.

References