King Alex Image 2 Heart of Midlothian 1896

Description

Dykehead, Lanarkshire born inside left Alex King’s started with hometown Scottish League club Dykehead in 1891 and played for both Airdrieonians and Albion Rovers in 1892, and Wishaw Athletic in 1893, before a move to England to join Second Division club Darwen in the 1894 close season, making his Football League debut against Newcastle United that September. He scored 10 goals in 23 matches for Darwen through to February 1895 and then returned to Scotland to rejoin Dykehead, from where he joined Heart of Midlothian in the 1895 close season.

He made his debut for Hearts in a defeat at St Mirren in August 1995, and at the end of the season he scored one of the Hearts goals as they won the 1896 Scottish Cup Final by beating Hibernian 3-1, soon after which he was transferred to Glasgow Celtic in May of that year after 12 goals in 18 appearances for The Jambos, having come to the attention of the Celtic directors when he scored a hat-trick for Hearts in September 1895.

While still a Hearts player he won his cap for Scotland, making his debut in a 4-0 win over Wales at Carolina Port, Dundee in March 1896, and playing the following month in a win over England at Parkhead. He scored in a 5-1 win over Ireland at Ibrox in March 1897, and won 6 international caps in total, the last coming against Ireland in March 1899. He also made four appearances for The Scottish League, making his debut in a defeat to The Football League at Goodison Park in April 1896, and he went on to win three further inter-league caps over the following two years, scoring both goals in a 2-0 win over The Irish League at The Solitude, Belfast in January 1897.

His debut for Celtic came in a 3-1 League defeat at Hibs on August 15th 1896, but then scored in the next match a 7-2 league win over Clyde and made a fast name for himself scoring a double for the first team in a 6-0 win over Abercorn in only his fourth League game. While with Celtic he was employed in a variety of positions, even including goalkeeper, was a near ever present in the first team, and helped Celtic win the Scottish League title in 1897-98 and the Scottish Cup in 1899, as they beat Rangers 2-0 at Hampden Park. King played 62 times for Celtic in the League and Cup before a loss of form and confidence saw Celtic try to push his effort by cutting his wages. Not surprisingly it didn’t work so he was sold to Dykehead in September 1900.

He joined St Bernard’s later that year and played 9 matches for them before the end of the season, then had the longest of his five spells at Dykehead between 1901 and 1903. He then returned to Airdrieonians where he played 23 matches for The Diamonds during their 1903-04 campaign before a fifth spell at Dykehead before his eventual retirement.