Dave Halliday


David Halliday was a Scottish association footballer and manager. He achieved numerous distinctions and high rankings as a prolific goal scoring forward with six then senior clubs; St Mirren, Dundee, Sunderland, Arsenal, Manchester City and Clapton Orient. He bookended his senior career playing at then non-league Queen of the South and Yeovil and Petters United. Halliday's three goals in the FA Cup proper for Yeovil give him a career total of 368 senior goals. From being Player / Manager at Yeovil he went on to win trophies managing Aberdeen and Leicester City.
He is the most recent of only two players to be outright top scorer in both Scottish and English football's top divisions with 38 Dundee goals in 1923/24 and 43 Sunderland goals in 1928/29. He is the quickest player in history to 100 goals in English football's top division taking 101 games when at Sunderland. He is the only player to score 30 or more goals in four consecutive seasons in English football's top division. He scored at least 35 league goals in each of those four seasons. He is Sunderland's most prolific goals per game striker with 165 goals from 175 games. His 211 goals in English football's top division with Sunderland, Arsenal and Manchester City rank him the 19th highest scorer at that level. Of the 27 players to have scored 200 or more goals in English football's top division, only Dixie Dean scored at a more prolific rate at that level.
Managing Aberdeen he won the 1946-47 Scottish Cup and the 1954–55 Scottish Football League. He managed Leicester City to promotion to the top division in England from winning the 1956-57 Football League Second Division.

Player

Early years and Queen of the South

Dave Halliday was born in Dumfries and started in local schools football where he featured on the left wing. He firstly attended Noblehill Primary School and thereafter Dumfries Academy. Halliday then worked with car manufacturer Arrol-Johnston and played for the company's team. This side was one of three who merged to form Queen of the South in 1919. However, despite having played in the new club's trial matches, Halliday did not join Queens until 17 January 1920 as he had a brief spell with Tayleurians. After joining the club Halliday played 19 games for Queens until the season's end in May 1920.
Within Queens's first season their fixtures consisted of challenge games and local cup competitions. This included the Dumfries Charity Cup which was played over three weekends in May. On 8 May in the first game Queens thrashed Dumfries 7–1. A week later Queens saw off Solway Star 4–0 in the semi final. They then faced up in the final against side Dalbeattie Star.
A then record crowd of 4500, with many others situated upon the stadium's roof watched the game. An early Halliday shot went wide following good link up play with Ian Dickson. However it was Dalbeattie with their physical style of play who took the lead. Queens equalised through Willie McCall before Halliday's play became fruitful. One Halliday shot hit the post, another went inches wide before he put Queens ahead five minutes before half time. Connell hit Queens' third a minute into the second half before Halliday beat Borthwick to cross for McCall who scored a fourth goal. This winning margin of 4–1 saw Queens triumphantly lift the Cup.
Halliday in all scored 13 goals while playing at outside left in 19 games for the Doonhamers in 1920. Later on in 1924 Halliday's 16-year-old brother Billy Halliday joined Queen of the South.

St Mirren

Halliday was asked to sign by St Mirren after the cup final win over Dalbeattie. He requested time to consider the offer before the Thursday after he said he would sign with one stipulation; that he continued working with Arrol-Johnston and traveled to Paisley on match days. In season 1920/21 at St Mirren as a part-time member of the playing staff he scored two goals in 13 league games. These were his first two of the goals in senior football that would become his trademark.

Dundee

Halliday next joined Dundee in 1921 for whom Scotland internationalist Alex Troup played on the left wing. Halliday was thus moved to play at centre forward. Halliday quickly became one of the most prolific centre forwards in the game. He finished as Scottish top scorer in 1923–24 with a remarkable return of 38 goals from his 36 top division appearances. This remains the club record all-time seasonal league goal scoring record. Halliday scored in the 3-0 1924-25 Scottish Cup tie win eliminating holders, the Airdrieonians team of Hughie Gallacher, Bob McPhail and Willie Russell. With Dundee he also played in the 1924–25 Scottish Cup final in which after leading at half-time, Dundee lost 2–1 to a last minute goal by Celtic's Jimmy McGrory. Halliday scored 90 goals in 126 league appearances for the Dees. Adding 13 goals from 21 Scottish Cup games, he scored 103 goals in 147 Scottish League and cup games for Dundee in 4 seasons.
While at Dens Park he was capped for the Scottish League in a 1–1 draw against the English League at Ibrox Park in March 1924. In end of season tours with Dundee, Halliday scored doubles against each of Athletic Bilbao, Real Madrid, Valencia CF and FC Barcelona.

Sunderland

In 1925 he joined Sunderland who paid £4,000 for his services. Replacing Charlie Buchan in the team, Halliday instantly became even more prolific South of the border as the North. Halliday hit his first 100 goals for Sunderland in just 101 games. He remains the quickest player to 100 English top division league goals. His 43 goals in 1928–29 made him top scorer in England's top division that season. This makes Halliday the most recent of only two players to have been outright top scorer in the top divisions of both Scotland and England. He scored at least 35 league goals in each of the four full seasons he spent at Sunderland. He is the only player at any club to score 30 or more league goals in four consecutive seasons in England's top division. His lowest full seasonal league tally of 35 goals is higher than any other Sunderland player has achieved in their best season. Hence Halliday has the top 4 season by season league goal scoring tallies at Sunderland.
Halliday has a Sunderland goals to games ratio of 0.943, the highest of any striker in Sunderland's history. He struck 165 goals in 175 games for the Black Cats of which included 156 league goals from 166 games, and nine in nine FA Cup outings. Halliday scored 12 Sunderland hat-tricks, more than any other Sunderland player. He hit scored 4 goals in a game on three occasions. He is also Sunderland's third highest goalscorer of all time. His 165 Sunderland goals were all in his first 168 games at Roker Park before scoring in none of his last seven Sunderland games.
Despite Halliday's goals feats with Sunderland, he managed no better than third place in the league with the club, achieved in the 1925–26 and 1926–27 seasons. While at Sunderland in November 1927 Halliday's brother Billy joined nearby rivals Newcastle United.

Arsenal

In 1929 Halliday was signed by Arsenal. He debuted against Birmingham City on 9 November 1929. Halliday endured a relatively goalless start for him, playing in an Arsenal team off-form largely attributed at the time to injury affecting key play maker, Alex James. Manager Herbert Chapman tried different combinations in attack before James and subsequently the rest of the team began to find form in late January. Jack Lambert had been recalled at Centre-Forward. With Arsenal's form in upswing, Lambert remained Chapman's first choice for the number 9 jersey for the rest of the season with Halliday becoming only an occasional first teamer. Halliday though played in the 6-6 record scoring game against Leicester City on Easter Monday 21 April 1930. Halliday scored four putting him on six goals from his four most recent first team games at that point.
Arsenal's next game after the 6-6 v Leicester was the 1930 FA Cup Final. Chapman recalled Jack Lambert at Centre-Forward for the Cup Final. Chapman's decision was vindicated with James and Lambert scoring in the 2-0 win over Chapman's previous club, Huddersfield Town. Chapman started the league campaign the next season with the five forwards from the cup final. Arsenal scored 127 goals in 42 games winning the league by seven points in the era of the two points for a win. Halliday scored regularly playing for the reserves, but with Lambert top scoring for the first team with 38 goals in 1930/31, Halliday stayed out of the first team.
Halliday's 4 goal game against Leicester was his last Arsenal first team appearance. Halliday scored 8 goals in 15 games for Arsenal. He also played in a game against Middlesbrough which was abandoned after 55 minutes, and hence is not counted in official statistics.

Manchester City

Halliday signed for Manchester City in November 1930, a year after joining Arsenal, for a fee of £5,700. At City, Halliday hit 47 goals in 76 league games as well as four goals from six cup appearances that took City to the 1931-32 FA Cup semi-finals when they lost to a last minute Arsenal goal. At Manchester City he scored a hat-trick against former club Sunderland in just ten minutes in January 1932. Halliday though missed the 1933 Cup Final, which City lost to Everton.

Clapton Orient

He saw out his senior playing career with Clapton Orient between December 1933 and June 1935. He top scored for Orient in both seasons in which he played there despite arriving in late December. In his 18 months there he hit 36 strikes in 56 competitive first team games.

Yeovil & Petters United

After leaving Orient, Halliday became player-manager of non-league Yeovil & Petters United. He top scored in both his full seasons there with 22 and 47 goals respectively. He also scored a further three goals in the FA Cup proper. In that FA Cup run they defeated Ipswich Town and Gainsborough Trinity taking Yeovil to the FA Cup third round playing against Manchester United at Old Trafford. He had already reached agreement between Yeovil and Aberdeen that he would take over as Aberdeen manager immediately after the January tie v Manchester United.

Playing statistics, records and rankings

Excluding Queen of the South figures as they were non-league until 1923/24, Dave Halliday scored 92 league goals in Scotland in 139 appearances and a further 13 in 21 Scottish Cup appearances. In England he scored 244 league goals in 310 appearances and a further 19 FA Cup goals in an unknown number of appearances for a total of 368 first class goals. It is worth noting that a large chunk of his career was spent playing under the old offside rule and that all his league goals bar the season and a half with Clapton Orient in the Third South were scored in the top flight in both Scotland and England.
Dave Halliday goals at senior clubs:-
SeasonClubLeague appearancesLeague goalsCup appearancesCup goalsTotal appearancesTotal goals
1920–21St Mirren13200132
1921–22Dundee2823323125
1922–23Dundee2610853415
1923–24Dundee3638313939
1924–25Dundee3619754324
1925–26Sunderland4238444642
1926–27Sunderland3336113437
1927–28Sunderland3835344139
1928–29Sunderland4243104343
1929–30Sunderland11400114
1929–30Arsenal15800158
1930–31Manchester City2414102514
1931–32Manchester City4028544532
1932–33Manchester City830083
1933–34Manchester City420042
1933–34Clapton Orient2119102219
1934–35Clapton Orient3214233417
1921–1936Totals4493363929488365

Dave Halliday goals at then non-senior teams:-
SeasonClubAppearancesGoals
1919–20Queen of the South1913
1935–1938Yeovil and Petters United??

Aberdeen

Halliday was appointed manager of Aberdeen on 22 December 1937 but did not take over the reins until after Yeovil's FA Cup tie at Manchester United in January 1938. He led the Dons to a 3-2 victory against Rangers in the 1945–46 Southern League Cup Final; that season a national competition in all but name and predecessor to the Scottish League Cup launched the season after. Halliday then guided Aberdeen to 1946–47 Scottish Cup success defeating the emerging Hibernian team in the final who were en route to being Scottish league champions in the three of the next five seasons. This was the first major trophy won by Aberdeen. He returned to the Scottish Cup Final again in 1953 when losing a final replay 1-0 to Rangers. In 1954 he was Scottish Cup runner-up again this time losing 2-1 to Celtic. He led Aberdeen to their first-ever Scottish Football League title in 1954–55. Only Alex Ferguson has since taken Aberdeen to the Scottish League title.

Leicester City

After leaving Aberdeen in 1955 he spent three years at the helm of Leicester City, guiding them to the 1956–57 Second Division title. Although Halliday left Leicester in 1958 the 1957 promotion was the beginning of Leicester's longest run to date in the England's top division, 12 seasons.

After management

Halliday returned to the Aberdeen area and scouted for Leicester City in northeast Scotland. He died on 5 January 1970, aged 68.

Honours

Manager

Aberdeen
Leicester City