Friday, January 12, 2007

100 Person Who Shock The Kop - NO 89: Donald Mckinlay



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The next name to be entered into our '100 Players Who Shook The Kop' hall of fame is Donald McKinlay, a defensive stalwart of the 1920s who has been voted in at number 89.
Four years after our ground-breaking '100 Days That Shook The Kop', we are delighted to invite you to enjoy our new '100 Players Who Shook The Kop' series – the definitive countdown of the 100 players who have made the biggest impact at Liverpool.

Over 110,000 supporters have all nominated their own personal Top 10 players in order of impact made and now the definitive top 100 countdown is underway.

Every player who has made the top 100 – and there are some surprises in there - will be honoured on this website via the e-Season ticket console with a specially produced video clip, including archive footage and exclusive interviews.

Since 1892 hundreds of players have represented this club but everyone has their own particular favourites so don't expect this list to be based solely on talent. The greatness of a player can be measured in many ways – obviously, his ability on the pitch is the most important, but 100 PWSTK is much more than that. It's about the impact the individuals chosen have had on this club, be it for a variety of reasons. Maybe it was because of their unique rapport with the crowd, a specific incident that has never been forgotten or anything else that has left a lasting impression.


Name: Donald McKinlay

Years at Liverpool: 1910 to 1929

Position: Defender

Date-of-birth: 25/7/1891
Birthplace: Glasgow

Games: 433
Goals: 34

Honours won: First Division Championship (1921/22, 1922/23)

Scottish defender McKinlay enjoyed one of the longest careers of any Liverpool player and will forever be remembered as one of the most distinguished figures in this club's history. He made his debut as an 18-year old in 1910 and played his last game 18 years later. Although four years of McKinlay's life as a professional were lost to the First World War he more than made up for it in the years that followed. As a youngster he experienced the bitter pain of being on the losing side for Liverpool in the 1914 FA Cup Final but he recovered from that disappointment in style by skippering the Reds to successive League titles in 1922 and 1923. Regarded as an uncompromising, hard-tackling defender, McKinlay was predominantly used as a left-back but displayed such great versatility that he could also operate at wing half, centre half and right across the forward line. Long before the term "overlapping" had become part of football parlance he was a great exponent of the art, his speed carrying him menacingly into the opposition penalty area and, as a result, amassed the impressive total for a mainly defensive player of 34 goals, one of them struck spectacularly from 10 yards inside his own half at West Ham in January 1926. A solid competitor, the Glasgow-born Kop favourite was also renowned as an expert dead-ball kicker and was a really consistent performer throughout the course of his lengthy stay at Anfield. A true Liverpool stalwart in every sense, McKinlay's illustrious career was eventually ended by injury in 1929.

Sold to: Prescot Cables

Claim to fame: Captaining the club to back-to-back title triumphs in the early 1920s

Did you know? Despite playing over 400 games for Liverpool he was somehow only awarded two international caps by Scotland

Where is he now? Worked as a publican in the Merseyside area after hanging up his boots and passed away, aged 68, in September 1959

Stephen Done on Don McKinlay: "He was quite a stalwart of the club, playing 434 games. Big tall Scottish player, one of a long line of great Scottish players this club has had."

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