Occasionally in football, a player floating around in the wilderness looking to be heading nowhere fast suddenly emerges from the shadows and hits the headlines. Scott McDonald is one such player.
After graduating from the Australian National Institute of Sport, McDonald, the son of Scottish parents, moved to Britain chasing the dream of becoming a professional footballer. Aged just 18, things looked to be going in the right direction for him when he signed for Premiership Southampton in the summer of 2001.
It didn’t take long for the youngster to make his debut and on 11th September 2001, he made his first senior appearance, starting in Southampton’s Worthington Cup match against neighbours Brighton. Impressing on his debut he retained his place in the Saints squad and was named amongst the substitutes for the next few games, turning out in a 3-1 home defeat to Aston Villa and then again as a sub in a 3-1 win over Middlesbrough at the Riverside. That however would prove to be his last ever involvement for Saints first team.
At the beginning of the 2002/03 season, in an attempt to gain some first team experience and match sharpness, Scott joined Huddersfield on a three month loan deal. Whilst it was useful in terms of playing regular football the Aussie hitman returned to the South Coast without having done enough to tempt the Terriers to sign him on a permanent basis.
By that time Saints had changed managers and current Celtic boss Gordon Strachan had taken up the reigns. Unfortunately, Strachan did not fancy Scott at all and he was pushed even further down the pecking order at St. Mary’s. Another loan spell followed, this time to South Coast neighbours Bournemouth. Despite taking part in eight games at Dean Court and scoring one goal, Scott failed to secure a permanent move as Bournemouth missed out on promotion and the finance required to do business was therefore unavailable. Unsurprisingly McDonald’s contract at Southampton wasn’t renewed and he found himself in footballing limbo.
After a brief spell with MK Dons (then Wimbledon), Scott seriously considered heading home to Australia. That was until he changed agents and linked up with former Rangers and Scotland defender Dave McPherson (who had ended his footballing career down under) and new avenues in the UK were opened to him.
Trials at Dundee Utd and Livingston followed but both managers at the time (Ian McCall and Davie Hay) rejected McDonald because of the extra weight he was carrying and his lack of fitness. McPherson then contacted his former team-mate and ‘Well gaffer Terry Butcher and the rest as they say is history! Sufficiently impressed by what he saw McDonald was given a contract with the Dossers to the end of the 2003’2004 season.
After just a couple of reserve games, Scott was thrown straight in at the deep end when he came on as a late substitute in Motherwell’s 3rd round Scottish Cup tie at McDiarmid Park. With ‘Well 2-0 to the good and coasting Butcher replaced David Clarkson with McDonald and the striker made the best possible impact. In front of a packed away end, he blasted in a debut goal and celebrated by leaping into the front row of the ‘Well support.
Despite playing in a further seventeen games that season, the goals would just not come for McDonald however in that time he had shown more than enough to suggest he merited an extension to his contract. For the first time in his short career Scott appeared ready to put down roots. He signed off the season on a high note when he grabbed a goal, his first in the SPL, at Tynecastle in the final game! It was a signal of intent from the striker and season 2004’05 was proof of that.
Having being compared to Motherwell legend Dougie Arnott by Butcher and Coach Chris McCart Scott had a lot to live up to but to his credit he delivered big time. The Aussie striker notched fifteen league goals, despite missing four months of the season through injury, including incredible strikes against Dundee Utd, Dunfermline, Rangers, Aberdeen.
Despite those achievements it will be the final game of the season against Celtic that Scott will always be most famously remembered for. With Motherwell losing 1-0 and Celtic heading for the League Championship, McDonald produced two moments of magic in quick succession in the dying minutes to leave Celtic pointless and Championship-less and in the process write his name into Motherwell FC and Scottish Football folklore! His amazing season was capped by being named Motherwell’s Player of the Year.
A new improved contract followed for Scott but with it came a whole lot more expectation and pressure to deliver.
Despite, by his own admission, often failing to hit the high standards he set during the 2004'05 season and enduring a couple of long goal droughts, McDonald once again reached double figures.
Unfortunately though Scott fell short of matching his previous season's tally and as a result was failed to do enough to merit a place in Australia's World Cup Squad. Having made the breakthrough to the full squad in a 3-1 win over Bahrain in the Asian Cup Qualifiers in February 2006, McDonald needed to be on fire to attract the attention of Guus Hidink. Two goals in his last 19 games for the Steelmen simply wasn't good enough to do that.
Perhaps the pain of missing out on that World Cup adventure caused him to take stock of his situation for soon after Skippy made it known he wished to move on from Fir Park.
An uncomfortable summer followed for 'Well fans anxious to retain a player of McDonald's calibre yet angry and frustrated at the way he seemed to be touting himself for moves to all and sundry.
By the time the new season started Scott had accepted that for the short-term at least his immediate future lay at Fir Park and to his credit he got his head down and worked his socks off for the cause.
Initially left out of the side for the opening couple of games, once restored to the starting eleven he quickly found his goal touch to the extent that by the end of the first quarter of the season McDonald was leading scorer in the SPL.
An injury which kept Scott out for 3 games in November showed just how much Motherwell rely on him and it was with some relief when he returned to the side.
Scott came back into the side just in time to create another little piece of history when he netted the 5000th goal in the SPL when helping 'Well to a 4-2 win over Falkirk.
A cheeky late £400,000 bid from Rangers was turned down by Motherwell in the January transfer window prompting more toys being chucked out the pram by McDonald and especially his agent but once again the player knuckled down finding the net in each of his next three matches.
Eventually the inevitable happened in late March and Skippy's departure was finally sealed. A surprise bid, ranging between £600,000 and £750,000 depending on your choice of reading was enough to force Motherwell's hand and agreement was reached that McDonald would be re-united with his former manager Gordon Strachan at Celtic in the summer of 2007.
As would be expected there were those amongst the 'Well support who vented their disapproval at the striker on his next appearance in claret and amber. Any audible criticism however was quickly shot down as the player showed a desire and committment that several of his team-mates failed to come close to matching as the season wound down.
McDonald will always be remembered for being a fantastic player for the Dossers and in particular for those two goals against Celtic in May 2005.
Its a shame though that he could have been held in even greater esteem by many a fan, were it not for his all too frequent outbursts about his keeness to leave the club which arguably saved his professional career. Big player on the park, unfortunately equally big mouthed off it. |