Top Toon Scorers

2006 has proved to be a historic year for United with Gosforth's finest finally clambering to the top of the scoring charts.

Shearer follows a distinguished line of great centre-forwards but very few of our top ten scorers actually played in the Number 9 shirt. Indeed half of them were 5' 8" or under; it would appear that the mighty midgets rule the roost.

Surprisingly, only Hughie Gallagher scored on a regular enough basis to make the top Ten most prolific strikers.

Shearer, Macdonald, Beardsley and Gallagher (for half his career) were the only players who were the club's regular penalty takers during their time at SJP.

Alan Shearer [206 - 395/9] 1996 - 2006

It took a long time coming but Big Al finally made it to the top of United's all time goalscoring charts. Scored at will in his early years; but old Father Tyne caught up with him and the deluge became a trickle.

He might never have made it if some managers had had their way and the fact that he stayed and they went has led to many questioning his degree of influence at the club. However, you cannot quibble with his level of marksmanship.

Jackie Milburn [200 - 397] 1946 - 1957

As has been well documented Jackie actually scored 238 goals for United if all his "competitive" appearences for the club are taken into account but the goals he scored in the "Wartime League" are generally deemed to not count.

Wor Jackie's goalscoring exploits took a while to get going, but this was largely a result of playing on the right-wing and having to do his shift down the mines!

Top scorer in 5 of the 11 "full" seasons he played in, Jackie netted consistently until his departure, despite moving back out to the right flank again for many games towards the end.

Milburn always performed on the big occasion and scored the crucial goals in both the 1951 and 1955 Cup Finals.

Len White [153 - 270] 1953 -1962

Like Jackie, 5' 7" White started his United career as a right-winger; indeed in his first five seasons on Tyneside (until Milburn left) he rarely appeared in the Number 9 shirt.

As a result his first four seasons brought only 26 goals; but for the 5 subsequent campaigns Len White was the club's top scorer.

Len's lack of inches were more than compensated for by his speed, strength and shooting power and many Novacastrians could not understand why he was never rewarded with an England cap.

Often scored in twos and threes and netted four against Aston Villa at the start of the 1954/55 season.

Hughie Gallagher [143 - 174] 1925 - 1930

Hughie Gallagher is recognised as one of the greatest footballers of all time and the diminutive but fiery Scot claimed his impressive United haul in only five seasons at the club. His phenomenal goalscoring ratio of 82% makes him the most prolific in United's history

Not surprisingly he was top scorer in all of his years at the club; scoring more than 20 goals every season and hitting 39 in United's Championship season of 1926/27. The record only recently broken by Mr Cole.

There is no doubt that his goalscoring exploits were assisted by the change in the offside law in 1925-26 which led to a goals bonanza throughout the League, but his record - which he mirrored for his country - is still quite remarkable.

Malcolm Macdonald [121 - 228] 1971 - 1976

Also at the club for five years was Supermac himself; a legend in his own sideburns and although his goalscoring ratio is not one of the top ten not everyone had to play against the likes of Harris, Hunter and Smith.

A hat-trick in his home debut sent him on his way to superstardom and he topped the United scoring charts in his first four seasons at the club until Gordon Lee's mate Gowling goalzumped him in his last season.

Like Milburn and White before him his goalscoring exploits were not reflected in te number of caps he received from his country.

Peter Beardsley [119 - 320/4 ] 1983 - 1987 and 1993 - 1997

Pedro is one of the select band of players who has had two spells at the club, notching up over 300 career appearances.

His goal ratio does not match that of many of United's great forwards but forget about the quantity and appreciate the quality!

Renowned as a goal maker as much as a goal taker Beardsley still managed to score a decent amount of goals and was usually entrusted with the twelve yard trial . He is one of only two players to net a hat-trick against the Wearsiders.

Bobby Mitchell [113 - 408] 1949 - 1961

A strike rate of 25% isn't that impressive, but it is a fantastic return for an outside left. Once he got bored with bemusing the full back Mitchell liked nothing better than cutting in and rifling the ball past the opposition 'keeper.

Scoring on a regular basis until age caught up with him he was even United's top scorer in the 1954/55 season.

He was not the regular penalty taker but it was Bobby who took responsibility in the 1952 FA Cup semi when nobody else wanted to know.

The picture on the left shows Bobby Dazzler perfecting one of his more unusual methods of beating an opponent

Tom McDonald [113 - 367] 1921 - 1931

Half a century before the Roller arrival of the "sideburned one" there was another Supermac in Toon. Born in Inverness Tom joined United as a 25 year old and stayed for a decade.

In that time he amassed 367 appearances, winning himself a place in the top ten appearances table as well. He started as an outside left but soon moved inside to form a highly effective left flank partnership with Stan Seymour.

Finished as top scorer in the 1922/23 and helped United to FA Cup and League Championship success during the twenties.

Neil Harris [101 - 194] 1920 - 1925

Bearing a striking resemblance to a man who danced "Into the Valley" albeit clumsily; Harris was another wee Scot at 5' 7". But he was big in heart, courage and dash and led the Toon attack for five campaigns.

He was top scorer in four of those seasons and a strike rate of over 50% was a decent return when goas were becoming at a premium prior to the change in the offside law.

Scored both the goals in the 1924 Cup semi-final and netted another in the Final to help beat Villa.

Pop Robson [97 - 243/1] 1964 - 1971

Pop Robson made his debut as a 19 year old and stayed for another seven seasons. He spent most of his career on the flanks, although he also appeared as an inside forward.

He finished top scorer in four of his seasons although United were finding goals hard to come by and in two of those seasons his goal tally was a mere 10 and 11.

His Tyneside career peaked in 1968/69 and 1969/70 when he helped United to Fairs Cup glory and bagged 55 goals.

A great opportunist capable of scoring spectacular goals he became frustrated with United's tactics and left under a cloud

Albert Stubbins [6 - 30] 1937 - 1946

Although Wallsend born Stubbins is only recorded with six "competitive" goals for United he could lay claim to be the Toon's second top scorer of all time as he actually netted 237 goals if you include those scored in the War Time Leagues

Well built, fast and a mighty shot to boot Albert maintained an incredible scoring rate during the Hitler hiatus averaging about 1.25 goals per game. Certainly the opposition was often woefully weak but his ability cannot be underestimated.

He only played three post-war League games for United (scoring once) before he went to Liverpool for a massive fee.