Dawson Kenny Image 2 Falkirk 1937

Description

Forres, Morayshire born outside left Kenny Dawson started his football career with Forres Thistle in 1931 and played for Nairn County in 1932. He failed to break through at Sheffield United with whom he spent 1933-34 on their books, returning to Scotland with Forres Mechanics in 1934, from whom he joined Scottish League Falkirk at the beginning of 1935, scoring a double hat-trick against King’s Park in the Stirlingshire Cup Final in his first season, in which he scored 3 goals in 4 League appearances as Falkirk were relegated. With “a terrific left foot shot”, he soon started scoring goals a plenty for Falkirk, a record 39 League goals followed as Falkirk won the Scottish Second Division in 1935-36, his total of 42 goals coming in just 39 games, and after a further two seasons back in the top flight when he scored 50 more goals, he attracted a bid of £2,500 from First Division Blackpool whom he joined in the summer of 1938.

He made his Football League debut against Everton in August 1938, however he only managed 12 appearances in a tangerine shirt between August and October that year scoring once at Derby County in October, and he returned north of the border to Falkirk, with whom he played until retiring in 1950. He also played for Third Lanark during the last two wartime seasons. Including wartime goals, Falkirk historian John Meffen acknowledges Dawson as the club’s highest ever goalscorer with 281 goals in 434 games (of all varieties) for Falkirk. Of these he scored 141 goals in 224 peacetime League and Cup appearances for The Bairns.