Club

Born in Port Glasgow, McDougall played for Port Glasgow Athletic Juniors and Partick Thistle^[2] before George Patterson signed him for Liverpool in April 1928. McDougall made his Liverpool debut on 25 August 1928, in a 3–0 First Division win against Bury at Anfield. He scored his first goal in a match against Aston Villa at Villa Park, this turned out to be a consolation goal as Villa won 3–1.

McDougall was originally signed as a forward, where he played in Scotland, but was moved back into a half-back role a short time after signing for the Reds. He became a regular member of the side for the next decade, averaging 35 matches per season. This was during a time when Liverpool were not amongst the title challengers (5th place in his first season was the highest the club reached) or stringing together a cup run (the best run they achieved was a quarter final appearance in 1932 which Chelsea won 2–0).

McDougall stayed on Merseyside after playing his last game for Liverpool on 15 January 1938, in a 3–0 defeat to Charlton Athletic at The Valley. He amassed 356 appearances, scoring 12 times. Four of the goals came after he was moved back to half-back, where he played 313 times. Before he finally hung his boots up he turned out for local side South Liverpool, thereafter coaching their youth team.^[1]

International

Scotland called up McDougall for a European tour in 1931, leaving most of their established players at home. He made his international debut in a friendly match at the Hohe Warte Stadium, Vienna against Austria on 16 May, as the Scots were resoundingly beaten 5–0. He was given the honour of captaining his country in his second international, which was also to be his last. Four days later the Scots lost 3–0 in the Stadio Nazionale, Rome against Italy.^[3]