Alex McDonald’s season-and-a-bit in the Football League’s Division I with Everton included a visit to Southampton in February 1901, where he scored one of the goals that put Southampton out of the FA Cup. When he joined the Saints at the end of that season, he was starting a 10-year stint in the Southern League, with six different clubs. He started well enough at inside-right for Southampton, with five goals in the opening three games in the Southern League. But the Saints had England internationals, Edgar Chadwick and Harry Wood, claiming precedence at inside-forward.

So, after only two more games at that level, McDonald left, come December, for West Ham. Four months, four games and two goals later, he had moved to Portsmouth, where his seven goals in as many matches rounded off a remarkable Southern League season for him: clubs played for, three; appearances 16; goals 14. After another season – and no more Southern League games – with Pompey, he enjoyed some longer stints at his next three clubs, before returning to Scotland.

Remaining, into his 70s, an active seaman with the Royal Fleet Auxiliary, he drowned at their Bo’ness base in 1949. The circumstances of his death are outlined in this clipping from the Bo’ness Journal of the 28 October 1949