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English Football Legends Series

"Dave Mackay was the hardest man I ever played against - and certainly the bravest".
George Best

Dave Mackay

Clubs: Hearts, Tottenham Hotspur, Derby County, Swindon Town

Position: Midfielder

Appearances*: 367

Goals*: 150

Honours: League Championship, 1
FA Cup, 3
Cup Winners Cup, 1
Division 2 Championship, 1

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* League appearances and goals only

A dynamic and inspirational half-back, Mackay was a key member of the great 1960s Spurs side, and a league winning manager with Derby.

Hearts

Mackay began his professional career with Heart of Midlothian, the club he supported as a boy.

At Hearts he won all three Scottish domestic trophies, captaining the side to their 1957/58 title triumph - a season in which they scored a British record 132 goals, and conceded just 29.

Tottenham Hotspur

He signed for Tottenham in March 1959, and provided the steel and drive to the Double winning side of 1961.

While at Spurs he also won another two FA Cups in 1962 and 1967, the later as captain.

Injury forced him to miss the 1963 Cup Winners Cup triumph over Atletico Madrid, and in 1964, he fought back from two broken legs to resume his career.

In all he made 318 league appearances for the club, scoring 51 goals, before transferring to Derby County in 1968.

Derby County

At Derby, Brian Clough deployed him in a slightly deeper, sweeping role, and used his influence to play a counter-attacking game.

In his first season, the Rams won the Second Division title, and Mackay won FWA Footballer of the Year (jointly with Tony Book of Manchester City).

Management Career

In 1971 he left to become player-manager of Swindon Town but after a year, he retired from playing and left to manage Nottingham Forest. He remained at the City Ground until October 1973, when he returned to Derby as manager following Brian Clough's resignation.

In his first season Derby finished third. In his second, he led the club to the league title.

The following season, Derby finished in a respectable fourth-place and reached the the semi-finals of the FA Cup. But a poor start to the 1976 season saw Mackay sacked by the club.

He spent a couple of years at Walsall, before taking a coaching job in Kuwait towards the end of 1978.

He returned to the UK in 1987 and had spells with Doncaster Rovers and Birmingham City, before returning to the Middle East.

He retired from football in 1997.

Dave Mackay was an inaugural inductee to the English Football Hall of Fame in 2002.

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