PETERHEAD: RORY McALLISTER
By Eddie Isaac
When Ally McCoist hailed Rory McAllister as ‘a legend’ in 2024, he was only confirming what Peterhead fans had already known for years.
They were still justifiably proud, however, to hear Super Ally acknowledge one of their own as a kindred spirit. A striker who, just like him, had a knack for scoring goals on a regular basis while simultaneously re-writing the history books.
Unlike McCoist, McAllister was more than content to spend his career in the lower leagues, rejecting the overtures of bigger clubs to carry on working as a part-time plumber.
Peterhead supporters felt blessed that he did so as it allowed them to lap up his predatory powers across three spells at Balmoor for well over a decade.
Previously released by hometown club Aberdeen, the young McAllister signed for Inverness Caley Thistle before realising that a move down the ladder may be more productive in the long term. So it proved, a short loan spell at Peterhead being followed by a switch to Brechin City that really put him on the map.
After scoring 26 and 25 goals for the Glebe Park side in seasons 2009-10 and 2010-11 respectively, he rejoined the Blue Toon on a permanent basis and never looked back.
The accolades flowed as freely as the goals, including 33 in 35 matches in the 2013-14 campaign alone. In the ten years that followed his breakthrough at Brechin, he would average more than 24 goals a season.
At a time when Rangers’ demotion to League Two had shone a spotlight on the lower reaches like never before, McAllister’s famous winner against them at Ibrox in April 2013 catapulted his name into the headlines. Five goals against Falkirk in one game only enhanced his growing reputation.
In 2018, he became the first player to score 100 goals in the SPFL since its inception five years earlier. He was also the first to be awarded SPFL Player of the Month from outwith the top tier.
Rory McAllister is acclaimed after scoring yet another goal for Peterhead
Then, in 2024, he became only the third player to hit 250 goals in Scotland’s senior leagues since the Second World War, sharing the honour with McCoist and Gordon Wallace.
There were moves to Cove Rangers and Montrose, but McAllister returned to his spiritual home of Balmoor. When he finally quit for Formartine United in 2025, he had totalled over 200 goals and 70 assists in more than 400 appearances for the Blue Toon, as well as helping them win three League Two titles.
So why didn’t he make his move to the big time, with Dundee United supposedly among the suitors he turned down?
‘Every time I was offered the chance to go full-time there was always something going on in my life at the time, or it just didn’t suit me work-wise,’ explained the part-time plumber and footballer. ‘Even the contracts you were offered weren’t as good as what you could earn. You have to look after what is best for you and your family. A lot of the times, it just wasn’t worth it.
‘I always get stick from a few of my pals who are Dundee United fans. They say I should have gone but I always say, if I would have done that, would I have these scoring stats or be remembered as a player? Probably not. Some people just don’t suit the full-time lifestyle, the part-time life just suited me perfectly.’
It worked out equally well for Peterhead, who need look no further than McAllister as their Greatest of All Time.
QUEEN OF THE SOUTH: STEPHEN DOBBIE
By Alan Hendry
There is a wood carving outside Palmerston Park depicting three legendary figures who graced the Doonhamers’ hallowed turf in three different eras.
On one side is goalkeeper Allan Ball, who made an astonishing 819 appearances for the club spanning the 1960s, 70s and 80s.
Ball was appointed an honorary director of the club in 2001 – a position he held until his death in 2018.
The second player depicted is rampaging centre-forward Billy Houliston, who scored 60 goals in 120 appearances for the club in the post-war years and is celebrated as the only player to gain full Scotland caps while playing for Queen of the South.
Nicknamed ‘Bustling Billy’, ‘Rumble-them-up’ and ‘Basher’, making life uncomfortable for defenders was second nature to Houliston, as was finding the back of the net. As well as being a Queens legend, Houliston also played a key role in Scotland’s 3-1 Wembley win in 1949 over an England team including Stanley Matthews, Tom Finney and Billy Wright.
The third player carved into wood and, in our opinion the greatest Doonhamer bar none, is Stephen Dobbie.
The wily striker turned goalscoring into an art form for Queens over two spells and claimed an astonishing 12 hat-tricks. His nonchalant finishing, left foot or right, gave the impression putting the ball in the top bin was the easiest thing in the world to him.
Dobbie’s first spell at Queens was between 2007-09 before he returned for a long, glorious Indian summer between 2016 and 2021.
Stephen Dobbie celebrates one of the 12 hat-tricks he scored for Queen of the South
It’s unusual in the modern era for a player of such talent to have served for so long at a provincial club like Queens, yet Dobbie amassed an incredible 282 appearances in total in royal blue.
With 166 goals coming as regularly as clockwork over those two spells, don’t be surprised if Queens get a bit dewy eyed at the mention of the striker.
Dobbie’s career looked to be stalling after unimpressive spells at Rangers, Hibernian and St Johnstone before Queens boss Ian McCall lit a fire under him in 2007.
He scored 55 goals in 105 appearances in that first spell, and played a key role in helping Gordon Chisholm’s side reach the Scottish Cup final in 2008, forming a formidable strike partnership with Sean O’Connor.
The Palmerston faithful adored the player they called the King of Queens – and the feeling was mutual. When he left to sign for Swansea, Dobbie vowed he would return to finish his career in Dumfries. After six successful years down south in the Championship and (briefly) the Premier League, Dobbie proved good to his word and signed on at Queens in 2016.
‘I had a few things in the pipeline but as soon as I knew Queens were interested it was just a matter of getting it done,’ he said.
At 33, Dobbie may have lost a yard of pace but his street smarts were sharper than ever, and a further 116 goals flowed over the next five years, including 43 goals in the 2018-19 season – a club record which may stand for some time.
Spectacular goals were aplenty amid Dobbie’s Queens haul, but a memorable double in a 2-0 win at Somerset Park in 2017 will live long in the memory.
The first was a sumptuous volley after a one-two with future Scotland star Lyndon Dykes, while for the second he tied several Ayr defenders in knots, beating at least one of them twice, before firing into the bottom of the net.
QUEEN’S PARK: ANDREW WATSON
By Eddie Isaac
It would be true to say that Andy Robertson is probably the most illustrious football player to have passed through the ranks of former amateurs Queen’s Park.
Having been rejected as a youth by Celtic for being too small, he joined the Spiders and impressed in his first and only season in the first team before winning a move to Dundee United.
The rest, including transfers to Hull and then Liverpool, is history.
But even the Scotland captain would be first to admit that many of his predecessors at Queen’s made much more of an impact at the Glasgow club than he did between 2012 and 2013.
They include Ross Caven, who made a record-breaking 594 appearances for the club over a 20-year period from 1982 and James McAlpine, their all-time record goalscorer with 192 goals in 547 appearances from 1920-1934.
Queen’s Park hero Andrew Watson was inducted into the Scottish football hall of fame in 2012
Football historians also cite the influence of Charles Campbell and Walter ‘Wattie’ Arnott, two of the most celebrated players from the great side of the 1880s.
There was also a young striker by the name of Alex Ferguson who honed his skills at the club in the late 1950s, some 30 years before he became manager of Manchester United.
Yet have any of them left quite the same legacy at Queen’s Park as Andrew Watson, the world’s first black international footballer?
Born in British Guiana in 1856 to a wealthy Scottish sugar planter and a Guyanese woman, he was educated in England where he developed a passion for sport, mainly rugby.
In 1874, he moved to Scotland to continue his education at the University of Glasgow, but also kicked off his football career during the same period when he played for Maxwell and then Parkgrove before signing for Queen’s in 1880.
At that time Queen’s Park were Britain’s biggest football team and, as well as becoming their secretary, he led them to consecutive Scottish Cup triumphs in 1881 and 1882.
Watson earned three international caps for Scotland those same years, captaining them to a 6-1 victory over England followed by a 5-1 win against Wales a few days later.
He would be lauded by the press as one of the finest players in the land when, the following year, he led the Scots to a stirring 5-1 triumph over the English again.
Watson’s talent was forged at Queen’s Park before he moved to London in 1882 to play for Swifts where he became the first black footballer to play in the FA Cup.
Joining Corinthians and then Bootle, he assumed the role of ‘Scotch Professor’ in which he taught his English peers the science of a more dynamic passing style.
However, an article published in the Scottish Athletic Journal in 1885 hinted at some of the on-field abuse he suffered, reporting that ‘he was on more than one occasion subjected to vulgar insults by splenetic, ill-tempered individuals’.
A true groundbreaker, Watson appears to have risen above it all.
Having paved the way for future generations of black players, while challenging racial prejudice and stereotypes along the way, he was inducted into the Scottish Football Hall of Fame in 2012.
Has there ever truly been a more influential Queen’s Park player?
RAITH ROVERS: GORDON DALZIEL
By Eddie Isaac
Raith Rovers fans old enough to remember the days of Willie McNaught and Jim Baxter would laugh you out of Stark’s Park if you so much as suggested that anyone else could even be considered as the club’s greatest ever player.
McNaught was the cultured defender who captained the club during their golden period after the Second World War. A losing finalist in the big cup competitions on no fewer than four occasions, he was absolutely pivotal in Rovers’ fourth-place finish in the top flight in season 1956-57.
That same campaign his team famously hammered eventual champions Rangers 5-1, and the Scotland international was already being hailed as a legend before sealing an all-time appearance record of 658 games. During which time he was never booked once.
That ‘Slim Jim’ Baxter was in the same brilliant side for a spell before making his name at Rangers is barely believable, but he would become another in a long line of Rovers icons including Alex James, Andy Young, Willie Wallace and Iain Davidson.
And yet, for all that supreme talent at their club, have Rovers fans ever been given reason to party as long and as hard as they did after an incredible Sunday afternoon on November 27, 1994?
Gordon Dalziel’s goal in 1994 won the League Cup for Raith Rovers
At the very heart of it all was a rugged striker by the name of Gordon Dalziel.
When manager Jimmy Nicholl’s mix of youthful players and journeymen boarded the bus to Ibrox for the League Cup final against Celtic, they were ordered not to sit at the first table on the right-hand side of the aisle. ‘That’s where we’re going to put the cup,’ insisted skipper Dalziel. He wasn’t joking.
It would be the glorious culmination of a seven-year stay at the club for the former Rangers and Manchester City player, who shot a previously ailing Rovers to the Second Division title in his first season and didn’t stop scoring afterwards.
Dalziel would become the club’s record league scorer with 154 goals, finishing top scorer in the old First Division on four occasions. In season 1992-93, that saw Nicholl’s men make a long-awaited but brief return to the Premier League as second-tier champions.
Brave and uncompromising, Dalziel scored 202 times in all for the Fife outfit in 378 appearances.
But surely he would have traded them all for the one he scored against Tommy Burns’ Bhoys that November day.
Trailing to Stevie Crawford’s shock opener for the underdogs, Celtic got back on track with Andy Walker’s equaliser before Charlie Nicholas looked to have snatched the cup for the Glasgow giants in the 84th minute.
When two minutes later Jason Dair hit a speculative shot which was unexpectedly spilled by Gordon Marshall, no one reacted quicker than the predatory Dalziel.
In the right place at the right time as usual, his header sparked chaotic and jubilant scenes, setting up extra time and penalties which were won 6-5 by Raith after Paul McStay’s kick was saved by Scott Thomson.
Asked why he was the only player who had bolted towards Marshall in anticipation of a blunder, Dalziel replied: ‘I had bosses like Jock Wallace, John Greig and Billy McNeill in my career, and if you didn’t follow up you were in trouble. I always believed a chance wasn’t gone until a goalkeeper had the ball in his hands.’
His never-say-die attitude had given Raith the platform to seize their big moment, and they grabbed it.
In the same season that the club would go back up to the top division as champions, the cup triumph proved something of a swansong for Dalziel.
The club’s reward was an unlikely place in the UEFA Cup the following season, and it didn’t seem right somehow that the 33-year-old striker was signing for Ayr United on the surreal night Raith were leading Bayern Munich 1-0 in the Olympic Stadium on their way to a 4-1 aggregate defeat.
No matter, Dalziel was a Rovers icon despite what would later be a bitter experience on his return as manager.
Was he as fine a player as McNaught or Baxter? No chance. Did he play a crucial part in the club’s revival before helping lift the major trophy that had been denied the Rovers faithful for so long? You bet he did.
The oldies remain goldies. Of course they do. But Dalziel was a modern-day hero.
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Part Eight features Rangers, Ross County, St Johnstone and St Mirren
