Cheyne Alec Image 3 Chelsea 1932

Description

Glasgow born inside forward Alec Cheyne began as a professional for Aberdeen, signing in 1925 from Shettleston Juniors. During his time at Pittodrie he became an idol of the locals, and his goals helped improve the team from regular mid-table finishes to third place in the Scottish League in his final season.

He first played for Scotland against England at Hampden Park in April 1929, when he scored a late winner, the only goal, credited with starting the ‘Hampden Roar’: as Scotland were playing with only ten players and there was less than a minute remaining of the game, the crowd of over 110,000 took up a roar of encouragement, which continued until well after the final whistle and subsequently became a common sound at Scotland home games.  He scored a hat-trick, including a goal direct from a corner, in his second international, a 7-3 tour match victory over Norway in Brann, winning two more caps on the tour in internationals against Germany and The Netherlands. His final cap came against France in a 2-0 win in Colombes in May 1930. In October 1929 he also represented The Scottish League in a 4-1 win over The Irish League at Windsor Park, Belfast.

After 48 goals in 127 games for Aberdeen he joined David Calderhead’s Chelsea in the summer of 1930 for a club record fee of £6,000, making his Football League debut at Grimsby Town that August but, despite playing alongside other talented forwards such as Hughie Gallacher and Alex Jackson, he struggled to settle. He joined French club Nîmes Olympique in 1932 after 11 goals in 60 appearances. He returned to Chelsea two years later scoring twice in 9 further appearances for The Pensioners, finally leaving in 1936 to join non league Colchester Town, which became Colchester United in March 1937, with whom he won the Southern Football League Cup in 1938 and the Southern League in 1938-39.

Upon retiring Cheyne moved into coaching, initially with Chelmsford City, becoming manager of Arbroath in 1949 staying six seasons although without trophy success.

NB in the photograph taken in February 1932, Cheyne is second right with Chelsea team mates (l-r): George Barber, Peter O’Dowd, Tommy Law and George Pearson.