Ferrier Bob Image 2 Motherwell 1923

Description

Sheffield born outside left Bob Ferrier is a legend at Motherwell playing over 600 games, scoring over 250 goals in 20 years at Motherwell, but he couldn’t feature at international level for Scotland despite having a Scottish father. He began his football career at Petershill Juniors and signed for Motherwell in December 1917, making his first team debut against Kilmarnock at Fir Park in 1918 and becoming Motherwell’s regular left winger from 1919, missing very few games thereafter.

With Motherwell he was a central part of their great teams of the late 1920’s and early 1930’s, forming a left wing partnership for many years with George Stevenson, and Ferrier was the captain of the side that won Motherwell’s only Scottish League Championship to date, in 1931-32. His shot was described as “the despair of goalkeepers”. In 1929-30 he scored 32 League goals as Motherwell finished League runners up, as they also did in 1927, 1933 and 1934. Ferrier was known as “the player with the Cinquevalli left foot” (Cinquevalli was a skilled showman who perfected the art of juggling to a degree seldom seen). He was a Scottish Cup Finalist with Motherwell in 1931 and 1933, on both occasions The Steelmen were beaten by Celtic in the Final.

He scored 5 goals in 7 representative matches for The Scottish League between October 1922, when he scored in a 3-0 win over The Irish League at Parkhead, and November 1930, being 5 times capped against The Irish League and twice against The Football League. His Motherwell appearances record still stands, playing 626 times in the Scottish League between 1918 and 1937. His Scottish League goals record of 255 is only second to Hughie Ferguson at Motherwell, and the 6th highest total of pre Second World War Scottish League players, remarkable considering he wasn’t an inside forward. In League and Cup competitions, he had featured in 697 games for The Steelmen, scoring a remarkable 270 times.

Having retired from playing in 1937, Ferrier was appointed Motherwell’s first assistant manager in May 1938. He later managed Airdrieonians between 1943 and 1945, and Ayr United from 1945 to 1948.

He was the son of the similarly named Bob Ferrier, who played for Dumbarton in the early 1890’s and then played over 300 matches for Sheffield Wednesday from 1894 to 1906, winning successive League Championships with The Owls in 1903 and 1904.