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Fullname: Dugald Livingstone
aka: Duggie Livingstone, Dougie, Dug, Doug Livingstone
Born: 25 Feb 1898
Died: 15 Jan 1981
Birthplace: Alexandria, West Dumbartonshire
Signed: 3 Jan 1917; 13 Aug 1917
Left: 11 Jan 1917 (loan to Dumbarton Harp); 15 Apr 1921 (to Everton)
Position: Defence/Full-back
Debut: Celtic 4-0 Ayr Utd, League, 18 Aug 1917
Internationals: none
Biog
Full-back Dugald Livingstone signed for Celtic from junior outfit Ashfield in January 1917.
He made his debut in a 4-0 league victory at home to Ayr United on August 18th. A strong and intelligent ball player Livingstone was an accomplished performer who seldom squandered possession but could be prone to the odd costly error.
He was a steady servant to the Bhoys and helped the side to regain the league title in 1918-19, with Celtic winning the title by just the 1pt. Notably, Celtic conceded just 22 goals that season albeit just a a few more than Rangers who conceded 16 goals. Celtic only lost two league games that title winning season, although Dugald did play in one of those matches (3-1 defeat to Motherwell), but thankfully Celtic weren’t stumped by that set-back, and he played a role to help win Celtic the league title.
Excluding that defeat, Celtic had an excellent defensive record in keeping out goals in the matches Dugald Livingstone played in, just six conceded that season in eleven matches he played with the first team.
However, it was a post-war era, and over his four seasons at the club he did not get to play the full season of games through any of those years and Celtic had begun to slip. In season 1920-21, Celtic ended up second in the league ten points behind league winners Rangers (who only lost one league game that season).
He only finally got to play in the Scottish Cup in his fourth season (1920/21) although Celtic never won the cup in his time at the club. A bad misunderstanding with Charlie Shaw in a Scottish Cup tie on 5th March 1921 v Hearts (“Livingstone is erratic when pressed“) is regarded as having led to his move away. Celtic were up till then loath to lose him it was said.
He left Celtic in April 1921 for long time admirers Everton, after having played 47 times for the Bhoys. He never scored a goal for the first team, an indicator of a dedicated defender.
Celtic did go on to win the league the season after he left but it was really the end of a golden era for Celtic, who had dominated the league title for much of the past decade, but were now to find league titles harder to come by over the next few generations of players.
He later moved to Plymouth, Aberdeen and Tranmere Rovers.
Post-playing / Management Career
Dugald went on to establish himself as a coach and manager with teams including Sheffield Utd & Sheffield Utd (as coach or assistant manager), Sparta Rotterdam, the Rep of Ireland (first ‘foreigner‘ to do so) & Belgian national sides, Newcastle United and Fulham.
When he became the coach of the Belgian national side in 1953, he took the side to the 1954 World Cup with the team qualifying at the expense of Finland and Sweden (but unfortunately finished bottom of their group – to England, Switzerland and Italy).
He took over at Newcastle Utd after his time with Belgium, taking them to a Cup Final in May 1955 and was manager to future Celtic Legend Ronnie Simpson. The problem for Dugald Livingstone was that at Newcastle, their board were mingling too much in his team affairs, and he left them in time.
He later moved on to manage Fulham and took them to an FA Cup semi-final in 1958. The Fulham board offered Livingstone a new contract, but he said his wife could not settle in the south and in time he was to regret leaving the club. He left to manage Chesterfield which didn’t work out and he retired from club first team management, although he did give a young future England goalkeeper Gordon Banks his first team debut.
Gordon Banks went on to win the World Cup with England in 1966. He had only played 23 senior games at Chesterfield by the time manager Duggie Livingstone called him into his office in the summer of 1959 to reveal that Leicester City had offered £7,000 for his services. Gordon Banks recalled:
“`We don’t want to sell you,’ said Duggie. `You have outstanding potential and we see your future here at Chesterfield. Whether you sign for Leicester or not is entirely your own decision. Here’s a pen!’
“I reached for the pen Duggie was jabbing in my direction and signed [for Ipswich].”
Duggie Livingstone was said to be quite an innovative player with methods and tactics. Not all were appreciative, and Charlie Crowe, a Newcastle player of the time, once said that Livingstone was:
“…a nutcase, [he] wanted us to climb ropes. I told him I’d climb it if it made me tackle or head a ball better”.
A side-note, Duggie Livingstone is said to be another of the old Celtic players who was a fine club pianist, and one biog claims he had an “unflappable, happy-go-lucky approach to life” which is something to admire.
He died in January 1981 in Marlow, Buckinghamshire.
Playing Career
| APPEARANCES | LEAGUE | SCOTTISH CUP | LEAGUE CUP | EUROPE | TOTAL |
| 1917-21 | 44 | 3 | – | – | 47 |
| Goals: | 0 | 0 | – | – | 0 |
Honours with Celtic
Scottish League
Pictures
Articles
Dugald Livingtone
source: http://www.scottishkanaries.eu/Storys/Connections/Dugald%20Livingstone.htm
Dugald (Dougie, Doug) Livingstone was born in Alexandria, Dumbartonshire, on 25th February 1898. Having played, at full-back, for Ashfield Juniors Doug appears to have impressed scouts from Celtic sufficiently to secure a move to Parkhead in January 1917. Doug made his Celtic debut on 18th August against Ayr United in a 4-0 win at Parkhead. Doug made 13 appearances as part of the league winning side in season 1918-19. In all he appeared 47 times for Celtic before moving to Everton in 1921.
Everton websites list him as Duggie and that he joined them on 3rd September 1921. During his time with Toffees he played alongside William Ralph ‘Dixie’ Dean, who would later terrorise Belgium and WS Maxwell. During his 4 and a half years at Everton Doug made 95 League and 5 FA Cup appearances.
Doug then joins Plymouth Argyle on 6th February 1926. Doug spends 18 months with Plymouth making 22 League appearances in Division Three South. Doug then moves to Aberdeen where he spends three seasons and helps the Dons to third place in 1929-30. After Aberdeen Doug again heads south this time to Tranmere Rovers. Tranmere were in Division Three North at the time, he appears 88 times in League games and 8 FA Cup ties in three years. Doug retires from playing at the end of season 1932-33 to join Exeter City as trainer.
His next move is to Sheffield United, as assistant manager to Ted Davison, in 1936. In all he spends 13 years in Sheffield, 10 with United & 3 with Wednesday, before moving to Holland. I can only assume that he joined Sparta Rotterdam as assistant manager, or coach, as he is not named as a former manager. His time abroad appears to have been noticed as his next move creates history.
Ireland become the first country to secure the services of Dugald Livingstone as a manager. In 1951 Doug becomes the first foreign manager of, what is now, the Republic of Ireland national team. Details of his time in charge are difficult to confirm as it appears he was working with a team of ‘selectors’. It appears that he only worked with the players that were selected for him. However he appears to have been in charge for the notable 3-2 victory over West Germany on 17th October 1951. In the return match on 4th May 1952 the Germans take revenge by winning 3-0 to start a dreadful month for Ireland. On 7th May Austria win 6-0 and then on 1st June Spain win 6-0. In 1 month Ireland played, and lost, 3 matches and lost 15 goals without scoring. The next match is against France on 16th November and finishes 1-1 (the referee is named Alsten from Belgium). Livingstone last takes charge of Ireland on 25th March 1953 with a 4-0 win against Austria.
And so we come to Belgium. His first match is a World Cup Qualifier between Belgium and Finland on 23rd September 1953. The match takes place at the Heysel Stadium and finished in a 2-2 draw. As we know Belgium qualified for the 1954 World Cup Finals in Switzerland (Scotland also qualified). On 17th June, at St Jakob Stadium Basle, Belgium open with a remarkable 4-4 draw with England, The match finished 3-3 after 90 minutes but the tournament rules of the time meant that extra-time had to be played. Despite each group having 4 teams, Belgium would only play 1 more match a 1-4 defeat from Italy on 20th June at Cornaredo Stadium Lugano. The last of his 13 matches in charge of Belgium came on 11th November 1954 against France, at the Olympic Colombes Stadium Paris, in a 2-2 draw.
His next move is another for football quiz makers. Who was the manager of Newcastle United when they last won the FA Cup?
Duggie Livingstone was in charge of Newcastle United for the first time on 1st January 1955, and what a start. Newcastle find themselves 4-0 down to Sheffield United early in the match at Bramall Lane. The match eventually finishes 6-2 in the hosts favour to start an astonishing year in the life of Doug. A little over 5 months later Doug was ‘in charge’ of the Newcastle team at Wembley for the FA Cup Final. The real story of the day came when Doug gave the Newcastle directors his team selection for the Final. Missing from his team was the name of Jackie Millburn. The directors took one look at his team and tore it up adding Millburn to the starting 11. On 7th May 1955 Newcastle United faced Manchester City in the FA Cup Final with Newcastle winning 3-1. The Newcastle goals were scored by Millburn, Mitchell and Hannah. In fact ‘Wor’ Jackie Millburn scored after 45 seconds to prove the directors right, and Livingstone wrong. After this Doug is demoted to working with the reserves, BUT is still credited with being 1st team manager until January 1956. In 99 matches ‘in charge’ he oversaw 43 wins, 36 defeats and 20 draws. The last word however relates to his, often, unpopular training methods. Charlie Crowe, a Newcastle player of the time, once said that Livingstone was “a nutcase, wanted us to climb ropes. I told him I’d climb it if it made me tackle or head a ball better”.
In January 1956 he moves to Fulham and an early meeting with Newcastle. On 28th January Fulham faced Newcastle in an FA Cup 4th round tie. Newcastle won 5-4 on their way to the quarter-finals, where they lost 0-2 to Sunderland. Another big game of some note is the FA Cup semi-final of 1958, Fulham faced the Manchester United side decimated by the Munich disaster. At Villa Park on 22nd March, just 6 weeks after the disaster, Fulham and Man United played out a 2-2 draw. In the replay at Highbury, just 4 days later, Man United won 5-3 to reach the Final. He appears to have been popular at Fulham with the board keen to extend his contract at the end of the 1957-58 season. His wife was unable to settle in London and he had to turn down the offer.
His last managerial appointment is with Chesterfield, where his style of management is again met with mixed reactions. Doug is said to have conducted coaching sessions from the back of the main stand using a mega-phone. The players found this strange but the directors quite liked his style of management. In November 1958 Doug makes a significant contribution to football in England – Gordon Banks is handed his 1st team debut. Just 8 months later and Banks is sold to Leicester City for the princely sum of £7000 (I have checked there are no more 0s to be added!). Livingstone stays in charge of Chesterfield until the end of the 1961-62 season and his retirement from football.
Dugald Livingstone died in Marlow, England on 15th January 1981.
Images Courtesy of family member John Proudfoot (Jambo)
Dugald Livingstone
Dugald Livingstone was born in 1898 in Alexandria, a Glasgow suburb, where his dad was a cab driver. He came through Glasgow junior football and signed for Celtic after the Great War but was transferred to Everton in 1920. Five good years at Goodison Park saw him make 95 League appearances at full-back, before he was released to join Plymouth Argyle. After a couple of seasons there and one more at Aberdeen, he finished his playing career at Tranmere, retiring in 1932. Duggie’s first steps on a post-playing career were taken as a trainer at Exeter City. He joined Sheffield United in 1936, working under Teddy Davison, the man he would later succeed at Chesterfield, and remained at The Lane until 1946, when he moved across the city to work with Wednesday. In 1949 Duggie coached Sparta Rottadam, in Holland, and became manager to the Irish national side in 1951. Two years later he was appointed manager of the Belgian national side, and took his side to the 1954 World Cup finals. He returned to England to manage Newcastle United in December 1954 and took a relegation-threatened side to 8th in Division One and an FA Cup final in his first season. If he hadn’t have got them to Wembley, he might have been alright. As it was, Livingstone presented his team sheet to his board before the big game: their response was to screw it into a ball and throw it in the nearest bin. Absent, you see, was the name “Milburn, J.” Livingstone had fallen out with him over the introduction of modern tactics and a squad rotation system.
The board picked the team for the final, reinstating the club hero; afterwards, Livingstone was shifted out of the manager’s office, forced to change for work in the referee’s room and told to work with the juniors. Were the board right? Milburn scored within 45 seconds of the kick off and won the Cup, but the Mags, unable to shake off their addiction to the idea of a big centre-forward and traditional wingers, haven’t won major a domestic honour since. Livingstone stuck this humiliation for another six months or so before resigning. Duggie became Fulham’s manager in January 1956 and laid the ground for much of their success in the late 50s and early 60s. His home was in Sheffield, though, and his wife was unable to settle down south, so he declined their offer of a contract extension and accepted the three-year contract laid on the table by Chesterfield in the summer of 1958. Livingstone’s unflappable, happy-go-lucky approach to life was sorely tested in his time at Chesterfield. As at Newcastle, some of his methods were questioned here, too – players were not used to having training sessions supervised by a manager at the back of the main stand, booming instructions through a megaphone – and he was forced to defend unpopular decisions like the sale of Gordon Banks. He undertook a huge cull of the playing staff in 1960 but was unable to bring much quality in by way of replacement, and this was a direct cause of relegation to Division Four in 1961.
In February 1962 Livingstone proclaimed that leaving Fulham had been “…the biggest mistake of my life,” and announced that he would leave Saltergate when his contract expired the following May. The football-going public of Chesterfield did not seem overly offended by that statement, perhaps sensing correctly that the rot lay deeper and beyond the manager’s reach. A success as at manager at every club that let him manage, Duggie saw his Spireite side slip from a comfortable Third Division berth to their lowest League place on record when he left for the last time. Of course, the club was on a downward spiral long before he came, and he couldn’t arrest the decline while the financial situation continued to worsen. He didn’t actually make things worse, but the sort of player that the club could afford to recruit perhaps required a simpler style of management than that offered by Livingstone. Like some of his predecessors, Livingstone appears not to have worked in football again after leaving The Spireites.
Fulham
Dugald Livingstone was named Team Manager of Fulham in January 1956. He was then a month off his 58th birthday and was to stay a little more than two years, but he had a major impact on the Club. He arrived at the Cottage with impeccable credentials. He came directly from Newcastle United and had steered the Magpies to the FA Cup the previous season. Livingstone had coached abroad, at club level in Holland with Sparta Rotterdam and with the Belgian national side in the 1954 World Cup finals after a spell in charge of the Republic of Ireland team. In the UK, he had been a coach at Exeter City and Manchester City, but had made his name during a 13-year stint at Bramall Lane. Indeed, he was coach of the Sheffield United side which beat Fulham in the 1936 FA Cup Semi Final. As a player in the inter-War period, Livingstone had been with Celtic and Aberdeen in his native Scotland, and with Everton, Plymouth Argyle and Tranmere Rovers in England. At Fulham, Livingstone fashioned a side that went close to promotion and even closer to Wembley within 18 months. By 1957/8, Fulham had their best season in the two major domestic competitions since their debut in the league in 1907/08. A dramatic FA Cup Semi Final was narrowly lost to the post-Munich Manchester United and the resulting fixture pile-up cost Fulham promotion. The board offered Livingstone a new contract, but he said his wife could not settle in the south, and he left to manage Chesterfield. He stayed at Saltergate until retiring in 1962, and he died in Marlow 10 days short of his 83rd birthday in February 1981.
Dugald Livingstone, commemorated by this fine thistle on a memorial seat in All Saints Marlow, a church by the Thames down south.
-https://twitter.com/NJones/status/1492926649716912128?s=20&t=PKB_AIGB4wfJsTaBNto_zA
