McNab Colin Image 2 Dundee 1928

Description

Portobello, Edinburgh born right half Colin McNab started his football career with Musselburgh Bruntonians with whom he won the Scottish Junior Cup in 1923 after defeating Arniston 2-0 in the Final. He joined Scottish First Division club Dundee a year later in the summer of 1924 and made his Scottish League debut at Aberdeen in a 0-0 draw on October 18^th in front of 18,000 spectators. Having broken into the side, McNab made 21 appearances in his debut season and in March played in both Scottish Cup semi-final ties against Hamilton Academical. After a 1-1 draw at Dens Park in the days before semis were played on neutral grounds, The Dee progressed to the Final with a 2-0 win in the replay at Easter Road but there was to be no Hampden appearance for the youngster. Skipper Jock Ross had recovered from injury to lead out the side and McNab was the one left out of the big day which The Celts won 2-1.

The following season McNab firmly established himself in the side and made 33 appearances including playing in the first top flight derby against Dundee United in a 0-0 draw at Dens on November 21^st 1925. He also played in the return fixture at Tannadice in January which The Dee won 1-0 and the following year was on the score sheet when the Dark Blues beat United 7-2 in the first round of the Forfarshire Cup at Dens. McNab would score again against United in a 4-3 Forfarshire Cup 1^st round win in October 1928 and in total would play in five derby wins.

By the end of the Twenties McNab was a stalwart in the team alongside Marsh, Brown, Gilmour and Campbell and had already made four appearances for the Scottish League XI. In October 1930 two of those, McNab and Gilmore were rewarded with their consistent performances with a call up to the full Scotland team.

McNab earned the first of his six Scotland caps in a 1-1 draw with Wales in a Home Championship match but the draw was seen as a disappointing result. Due to a club v country wrangle south of the border this was the start of a spell in which Scotland fielded an ‘All-Tartan XI’ but the draw with Wales was considered a disaster at the time because the Welsh had limited themselves to picking players from Welsh clubs only. Wholesale changes where made for the next Scotland match in Belfast and McNab and Gilmour were amongst the casualties. While Gilmour was never capped again, the battling McNab was recalled for the match against England a year later.

McNab played well in a famous 2-0 win over the ‘Auld Enemy’ at Hampden and along with team mate Jimmy Robertson was chosen for Scotland’s European tour party in May 1931. Without any Rangers, Celtic or Motherwell players both Robertson and McNab featured against Austria (a 5-0 defeat in Vienna) and Italy (a 3-0 defeat in Rome) while McNab also played in the 3-2 win over Switzerland in Geneva. In May 1932 McNab made his sixth and final Scotland appearance against England at Wembley where the depleted ‘All Tartan Troops’ were unlucky to go down 3-0. It did however make McNab Dundee’s most capped player to that point. It was twenty years before Billy Steel beat McNab’s record of caps as a Dundee player,

McNab continued to play for Dundee for another two seasons and after 293 appearances and 21 goals he transferred to Arbroath in 1934, where he captained The Red Litchies for a couple of years scoring 10 goals in 57 matches before retiring from the game but after the Second World War he was a member of Arbroath committee from 1945 to 1955.

NB the photograph was taken before The Scottish League’s match with The Football League at Villa Park on 7th November 1928,