Derek Dougan

Alexander Derek Dougan, footballer and administrator: born Belfast 20 January 1938; played for Distillery (Northern Ireland) 1955-57, Portsmouth 1957-59, Blackburn Rovers 1959-61, Aston Villa 1961-63, Peterborough United 1963-65, Leicester City 1965-1967, Wolverhampton Wanderers 1967-75; capped 43 times for Northern Ireland 1958-73; chief executive, Wolverhampton Wanderers 1982-85; married (two sons); died Wolverhampton 24 June 2007.

For a footballer to shave his head in the 21st century is almost de rigeur; but when Derek Dougan shed his dark locks in 1961, it served to mark out the lean, lanky Ulsterman with the hawkish good looks of a screen cowboy as something of a maverick.

The flamboyant, outspoken, periodically combustible Dougan was, indeed, both a formidable non-conformist and an enigma. Charming and intelligent, not averse to riding the waves of adulation he attracted, he was one of the most colourful and controversial characters in professional sport. However, none of that should obscure the fact that, during his late-career pomp with Wolverhampton Wanderers, when he finally achieved balance between showmanship and his immense natural talent, Dougan was also an exceedingly fine centre-forward.

Earlier he was an inveterate, rather wild rover, serving six clubs and his country, tending to thrill managers and fans alike with his spikily effective individualism. At moments, though, he might infuriate them with a volatility which, on his bad days, could be spiced unattractively with a dash of arrogance.

Happily, when he settled at Molineux in 1967 it was as if a lifelong quest to discover his true niche was at an end. Over the next eight and a bit seasons he scored 123 goals in 323 games, in the process becoming one of the most revered and enduring heroes in Wolves' history.

Alexander Derek Dougan was born in 1938 to a Protestant family in a bleak area of east Belfast where unemployment, poverty and religious bigotry were rife, the eldest of a shipyard boilermaker's six sons. He learned his football in rough pick-up games on the back streets, then progressed to more formal contests through boys' clubs, excelling sufficiently to win schoolboy international caps as a centre-half.

Away from the game, although a bright boy, he couldn't wait to leave school in order to earn money, and there followed jobs in a toy factory and as an apprentice electrician. All along, however, in his heart was the desire for a football career, which began when he signed for Distillery at the age of 15. Having switched from defence to attack, he helped the west Belfast club to beat his childhood favourites, Glentoran, in the Irish Cup Final, and won amateur international recognition.

Such was Dougan's progress that English clubs were bound to take note and, in August 1957, he was transferred to Portsmouth, then struggling in the League's top flight, for £4,000. Two months later, still only 19, he made his senior début at Old Trafford and shone in a startling 3-0 victory over reigning champions Manchester United.

But he was raw and homesick, proving unable to settle at Fratton Park. Feeling suppressed and misunderstood, he railed against authority, criticised the training regime and clashed frequently with the manager Freddie Cox, which landed him with a reputation as a rebel which he never wholly shook off. Still, he continued to develop promisingly as a player, and was rewarded with his first full cap for Northern Ireland against Czechoslovakia in the 1958 World Cup finals in Sweden.

The following season Pompey were relegated but Dougan wasn't, having been transferred to fellow First Division side Blackburn Rovers for £11,000 in March. By now the gangling spearhead was emerging as an increasingly dangerous marksman, but he remained feistily difficult to manage and his Ewood Park sojourn proved to be tempestuous.

Soon he was lauded by the fans, who nicknamed him "Cheyenne" for his resemblance to the TV western actor Clint Walker and relished both his goals and his unorthodox character. However, he became involved in more disagreements, again finding fault with training methods, then showed distressing immaturity and lack of professionalism when he was on the verge of what might have been his greatest triumph to date.

Shortly after scoring the two goals against Sheffield Wednesday that secured Blackburn's place in the 1960 FA Cup Final against Wolves, Dougan strained a muscle. Then, having posted a transfer request on the morning of the game - a provocative act which was to create immense hostility among Rovers fans - he declared himself fit for the Wembley showpiece, apparently believing that his team-mates would be able to carry him.

In fact, he was limping badly a few minutes into the game and, with no substitutes allowed in those days, his side was reduced to 10 fit men. Soon that was nine when Dave Whelan - destined to become a millionaire and preside over the rise from obscurity of Wigan Athletic - suffered a broken leg, and Blackburn were crushed 3-0 in a dismal contest.

Later he admitted he had been at fault, but at the time, despite amassing a commendable 34 strikes in 76 starts for the club, his popularity waned.

Inevitably he moved again, this time in July 1961 to Aston Villa, where the manager, Joe Mercer, was initially delighted with his £15,000 capture, whom he reckoned was a better player than his predecessor, the England centre-forward Gerry Hitchens, recently sold to Internazionale of Milan for £85,000.

Ever the extrovert, Dougan prepared for his latest challenge by shaving his head, maintaining it was not a gimmick but to make him "feel fresh." His new supporters found it difficult to judge him in that first term because he missed much of it following a car crash; but at the start of the subsequent campaign Mercer, perturbed by the Irishman's relentlessly independent outlook, told him if he wanted to be "different" to try scoring goals more consistently. Dougan responded with two brilliant efforts to beat mighty Tottenham Hotspur, but still there was trouble ahead.

Villa struggled, Mercer's health deteriorated and he upset his stormy petrel of a centre-forward by leaving him out of the 1963 League Cup Final, which was lost to Birmingham City.

Thus it was no surprise when Dougan departed that summer, but his destination raised plenty of eyebrows. In fact, his £21,000 switch to Third Division Peterbrough United was a sensation, and it was felt widely that his decision to drop two flights might signal the end of his days at the top level. However, although he dropped temporarily out of the Irish team, he flourished with ambitious Posh. They saw him as a talisman who suited their brash, go-ahead image, and he got on well with the manager Gordon Clark.

Dougan scored plenty of goals for Peterborough but one in particular, the shock winner against Arsenal in an FA Cup tie in January 1965, whetted his appetite for a return to the big time, which he achieved at season's end with a £25,000 transfer to Leicester City.

The advent of such a luminous personality generated record ticket sales at Filbert Street, where he made a superb transition back to the First Division, netting freely and regaining his international berth. Playing the best football of his life to date, he brought panache, industry and authority to his role, and Foxes fans were dismayed when the charismatic 29-year-old joined Second Division Wolves for £50,000 in March 1967.

On arrival at Molineux Dougan declared that his stay in the lower flight would last only 11 games, and so it proved. He netted a hat-trick on début against Hull City and fired six more as his new employers secured promotion.

Thus began easily the most settled and fulfilling phase of a hitherto tumultuous career, during which Dougan became the first Irishman to exceed 200 goals in England - he totalled 222 in 546 League appearances. In his maturity, he was a comprehensively fine leader of the attack: powerful but also subtle in his aerial work, adept at protecting the ball with his back to goal, deceptively quick with his loping stride, unselfish for such a natural individualist and unfailingly brave. Such was his form at the outset of 1969/70 that Arsenal tried to sign him, but were firmly rebuffed by the Black Countrymen, who had no intention of parting with their swashbuckling hero.

He excelled alongside a succession of frontline partners - Alun Evans, Hugh Curran, Peter Knowles, John Richards - and took a major role as Wolves beat Manchester City in the 1974 League Cup Final. He battled valiantly, too, in the two-legged Uefa Cup Final defeat by Spurs in 1972, and if there persisted a few disciplinary wrangles - he served one lengthy ban for swearing at a linesman - that seemed a small price to pay.

Off the field, too, Dougan's profile continued to burgeon. He became a vociferous campaigning chairman of the Professional Footballers' Association, pushing hard for freedom of contract, which was achieved in 1978. He was deeply involved in charity work, hosted a local radio programme, penned several books and in 1970 served on ITV's provocative World Cup panel - alongside Malcolm Allison, Paddy Crerand and Bob McNab - after which screen punditry was never the same again.

His collection of Northern Ireland caps stretched to 43 and was not concluded until he was 35 in 1973, two years before he played his last professional game, for Wolves.

Later he managed non-League Kettering Town and worked as a Yorkshire TV presenter before returning to Molineux as chief executive in August 1982, fronting a consortium to rescue the now-ailing club. Before that season there was speculation that debt- ridden Wolves would go out of business but the financial cavalry, led by Dougan, averted disaster some three minutes ahead of the Official Receiver's deadline. The club's fortunes continued to fluctuate, however, and he departed midway through the 1984/85 term which would end with relegation to the Third Division, going on to work in marketing.

In June 2006 Dougan - always passionate about politics, particularly the problems that afflicted his homeland - appeared on the BBC's Question Time as a representative of the United Kingdom Independence Party.

But it is for his incandescent impact on the football world that "The Doog" will be remembered most vividly. His career encompassed rarified heights and unaccountable troughs, but it was never boring.

Ivan Ponting