Oldest-ever Scottish Cup Goalscorer?

[HibeeJibee]

East Kilbride's social media is suggesting Robbie Winters may have become the oldest-ever Scottish Cup goalscorer today, netting twice in a 9-1 First Round win.

Remarkably, Winters is less than 6 weeks short of his 42nd birthday.

None of the usual suspects... Craig Brewster, Andy Millen, Davie Irons, Graeme Armstrong, etc. etc. ... seem to surpass that.

There used to be an "Oldest Players" thread - Div's upgrade obliterated it.

Anyone better Winters?

[cmontheloknow]

1 hour ago, HibeeJibee said:

East Kilbride's social media is suggesting Robbie Winters may have become the oldest-ever Scottish Cup goalscorer today, netting twice in a 9-1 First Round win.

Remarkably, Winters is less than 6 weeks short of his 42nd birthday.

None of the usual suspects... Craig Brewster, Andy Millen, Davie Irons, Graeme Armstrong, etc. etc. ... seem to surpass that.

There used to be an "Oldest Players" thread - Div's upgrade obliterated it.

Anyone better Winters?

I lost about 10000 posts in that purge

I would be surprised if 41 was the oldest goalscorer in a cup as old as that - though there is perhaps no record noted and even then it may be 'oldest known scorer' because of the lack of known/recorded DOBs for earlier players.

He wasn't a renowned goalscorer at all but I recently read about Donald Colman who stepped up from the Juniors at a relatively old age (late 20s) and stayed in Senior football for a few decades thereafter, even going on to pick up full caps. There will be others like him and it just takes one obscurity to net in an early round...

 

 

 

[tamthebam]

I can remember John Clark firing in a free kick to win a Scottish Cup tie for Gala (against Stirlling?) when he was manager there but he may only have been a youngster of 40. 

[HibeeJibee]

He was only 37.

http://www.statto.com/football/teams/gala-fairydean-rovers/2001-2002/results

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Clark_(footballer,_born_1964

[tamthebam]

years or stone....? 

[cmontheloknow]

just to up this, I see the stat was incorrect as Stevie Mallan was older when he scored for Talbot vs. Fort William. As I was at that game I can claim to have witnessed history!

[HibeeJibee]

Bit late now, there has already been a huge lot of fanfare with the Scottish Football Museum confirming Robbie Winters as the oldest-ever Scottish Cup goalscorer on record.

Perhaps they haven't access to Junior registrations or something like that, but rather embarrassing someone's found an example as recent as 2009.

[cmontheloknow]

17 hours ago, HibeeJibee said:

Bit late now, there has already been a huge lot of fanfare with the Scottish Football Museum confirming Robbie Winters as the oldest-ever Scottish Cup goalscorer on record.

Perhaps they haven't access to Junior registrations or something like that, but rather embarrassing someone's found an example as recent as 2009.

It was in the Sun that he says he'll go for the record next year now he knows it wisnae him!

This is however just an example of the void of stats at this level. i wouldn't be at all surprised if someone else had the record before Mallan and he hasn't beaten it - no-one at the SFA, museum or otherwise, actually knows because there are no records of such things it would seem. This has only been news because EK decided that no one older than RW has scored in the Cup, and wiith no alternative view being forthcoming, it stuck. Plainly no one at Talbot was so up themselves to trumpet such a stat.

Another issue is the altering format of the cup and recording of stats pre R2 (in present form) - the Rothmans doesn't both with anything before R3 beyond scores since the 2007 changes. It takes someone pretty dedicated to maintain a record of goals etc and even then DOB stats are not always available.

Just going back to my main point, someone called Spence scored for Vale of Leithen in a 3-2 home defeat to Brechin on 5/12/87 - how old was Spence? What was his first name, even? Unless someone has this info for all ties, the stat is empty and unproven.

Also on Mallan the game's scorers were misreported (Mallan scored the 7th):

http://www.skysports.com/football/auchinleck-talbot-vs-fort-william/109085

http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/football/scottish-cup-auchinleck-talbot-7-1037794

 

 

[craigkillie]

To add to that, I've been trying to compile a list of every hat-trick scored in Scottish football (more of that to come on this forum at some point).  There are matches in the 19th century where it's impossible to even find out the score or the date of the match, let alone the goalscorers.  There is more and more data becoming available online now, but it's unlikely we'll ever be able to retrieve full records for these older games.

[HibeeJibee]

You'd think EK have appointed the Spartans PR man. Today social media is awash with a fact that if they beat Vale of Leithen tomorrow they'll break the world record for consecutive wins, currently held by Ajax on 25 wins in a row.

Firstly, it's worth saying EK actually drew one of those games and won it on penalties.

Secondly, it's based on the fact the recognised world record is at top tier level. EK may surpass Ajax tomorrow but I'd be astonished if no lower / non-league club anywhere - perhaps even here - hasn't won 26+ games in a row before.


It's rather like the situation with Keith McLeod at Spartans a couple of years ago. He went on a scoring streak, scoring in every game, and was bearing down on the British and World record figure (which was thought to be held by someone with Dundee Utd in the mid 1960s, IIRC, but actually turned-out to be held by someone from Falkirk)... Thankfully or unfortunately, depending on your perspective, he didn't score in the game to equal the record because it wouldn't have been a record anyway. As soon as you widened it to include lower / non-leagues better examples were easily discovered.