Troup Alec Image 4 Dundee 1920

Description

Born in Forfar, winger Alec Troup played junior football with Forfar North End in 1913, joining hometown professional club Forfar Athletic in 1914 and from there moving to Dundee a year later. In a scintillating performance on the first day of the 1915-16 season Troup set up the first goal for centre-forward Davie Brown before adding a second himself, a goal which The Courier described as “an outstandingly brilliant goal”,  in a 2-0 win over Ayr United in front of 5,000 at Dens Park.

Over the next two seasons Troup played forty-one times for Dundee before he volunteered for military service and was called up to join the Royal Engineers. His last game before leaving for basic training at Largs on the Ayrshire coast, where he spent time on loan at Ayr United in 1916, was against Hearts at Tynecastle on December 16^th 1917 but he turned out again for The Dark Blues when they played nearby Ayr United in February before being sent to the Western Front, where he played in inter-regiment matches for the 13^th Reinforcement Company Royal Engineers and managed to survive the maelstrom before returning to Dundee in 1919.

He became a real hero of the people at Dens Park, being a wonderfully tricky winger whose sparkling play, gentlemanly demeanour, good humour and extremely likeable personality and was known as “Wee Troupie” due to his small stature. He won his first Scotland cap in April 1920 in a 5-4 defeat to England at Hillsborough. He won 3 more caps between February 1921 and March 1922. He first represented The Scottish League in January 1921 against The Irish League, winning his second cap that October against the same opposition, both games finishing in 3-0 victories.

In January 1923 he joined Everton for £4,000, and such were his performances that he was recalled to the Scotland team winning his fifth (and final) cap in  1-0 victory over England at Old Trafford in April 1926. He was ever present scoring 10 goals as Everton won The League Championship in 1927-28 and is credited with setting up a significant number of Dixie Dean’s 60 goals that season. He played his last game of 260 appearances, scoring 35 goals, for The Toffees in December 1929 before returning to join Dundee, spending another 4 years at Dens Park. His last match for Dundee came at Dens on April 22^nd 1933 against Celtic, who had won the Scottish Cup the week before before, Troup re-joining Forfar Athletic later in 1933, having scored 47 goals in 305 appearances for Dundee across his two spells with them.