McLeod Eddie Image 1 East Fife 1938

Description

Glasgow born inside right Eddie McLeod played for Shawfield Juniors and was on the books at Portsmouth without making their first team before joining East Fife. He first played against a now defunct Edinburgh City in a Scottish Second Division match in Edinburgh in November 1935 which resulted in a 2-2 draw. McLeod became famous for his goalscoring in East Fife’s triumphant 1938 Scottish Cup run, scoring in the first Final in a 1-1 draw with Kilmarnock in front of 80,000 at Hampden Park and scoring the equaliser which took the replay to 2-2 in ordinary time, East Fife winning 4-2 after extra time in front of 92,000 at Hampden Park four days later, the greatest day in The Fifers’ history, the only time the Scottish Cup has been won by a Second Division club.

McLeod didn’t play for the club for very long after winning the Cup – his last match for East Fife came on 12th November 1938 against Alloa Athletic at Bayview when the home side won 3-1. McLeod made only 102 appearances, scoring 76 goals, and was then sold to Second Division Manchester City, where he found opportunities limited. He scored the winner on his Football League debut in a 2-1 victory over Southampton in March 1939 and scored a further goal for City in a win over Chesterfield at the end of April, but he only made 4 appearances for The Citizens before the outbreak of the Second World War forced the abandonment of peacetime football. During the War he played for Hibernian and after the War he joined Shrewsbury Town in 1945 before his eventual retirement.