Obituary - David Herd, Scottish football internationalist

Died: October 1, 2016

DAVID Herd, who has died aged 82, was a former Arsenal, Manchester United and Scotland centre forward. He is still 15th in the list of all-time Arsenal goal scorers.

He was born in Hamilton, but grew up in Manchester, where his father Alex was playing. Alex Herd's career included an appearance in the Manchester City team which won the FA Cup in 1934

David Herd's first club was at his father's club Stockport County, and father and son played together when David made his first-team debut in a 2-0 win over Hartlepool United on the final day of the 1950-51, with 17-year-old David scoring one of the goals.

The need to complete his national service meant David was frequently absent from the county team over the next three seasons, but he did enough to attract the attention of Arsenal, who paid £10,000 to take him from the Third Division North to the First Division, in 1954. Arsenal faced competition for his signature from Manchester United and their failure to capture him was to cost them dearly.

This time is known in Arsenal history as The Dark Era as the Gunners struggled to finish above mid-table. It was not until his third season at Highbury, 1956-57 that Herd became a first-team regular, but between then and 1961, he hit the net regularly for the Gunners, on his way to 107 goals in180 games, an average of 0.59 goals per game.

His goal-scoring feats caught the eye of the Scottish selectors, and, when the rebuilding began after the disappointing 1958 World Cup finals campaign, Herd was one of four new caps selected for the first international of season 1958-59 – the visit to Cardiff to face Wales. He was the 737th full Scotland cap, and the 72nd of the 1950s decade.

Sir Matt Busby was Scotland manager for this match, one of just two in which he managed the national side. Scotland won 3-0, with the headlines being dominated by another of the debutants, the 18-year-old Denis Law. In playing for the international team, David equalled the feat of his father, whose only Scotland appearance had come at inside right in a wartime Scotland team, which beat England 5-4 at Hampden, on 18 April, 1942.

Herd scored his first international goal in his second cap, a 2-2 draw with Northern Ireland, at Hampden, 18 days later. He held his place for the final home international of the season, a 0-1 loss to England at Wembley, after which he was dropped for Ian St John.

Herd was recalled in May, 1961, when St John was one of those who paid the price for the 9-3 Wembley drubbing from England. This was for the Hampden meeting with the Republic of Ireland, the opening match in the 1962 World Cup qualifying campaign, and doubles from Herd and Ralphie Brand gave Scotland a 4-1 win.

Injury kept Herd out of the return game in Dublin, before he came back for his fifth and final cap, the 0-4 loss to Czechoslovakia, in Bratislava. His three goals in five games gives him a goal per game average of 0.6 – which is above the “international class” benchmark of 0-5, and exactly the same as that of Law.

He and Law would become team mates again, after Busby paid £35,000 to take Herd from Arsenal to Manchester United during the summer of 1961 – with Law joining him at Old Trafford the following summer, to form a lethal striking double act. Of course, the Golden Trinity of George Best, Law and Bobby Charlton grabbed most of the headlines, but Hot-Shot Herd's contribution in goals to this period in United's history should not be overlooked.

His best individual goal-scoring season was 1960-61, his last at Highbury, when he scored 30 goals in 41 games. At United, he was a consistent, if not heavy goal-scorer, scoring more than 20 goals in four of his seven seasons, and hitting the net on 145 occasions in his 265 games for the club.

None of these was as valuable as the brace he bagged in the 1963 FA Cup Final, in which United beat Leicester City 3-1. Law had fired United in front on the half-hour, and in the second half Herd scored in 57 and again in 85 minutes to ensure the United team which Busby had spent heavily to recruit salvaged an otherwise poor season with the cup win.

In his seven seasons at Old Trafford he added two League Championship medals to his FA Cup one, but, after breaking his leg in March, 1967, he was a mainly peripheral figure – although his appearance against Gornik in the quarter-final entitled him to a European Cup-winner's medal. Like Law, he was a frustrated spectator at the final at Wembley.

He did set a high standard for scoring with United, bagging goals on his debut in five different competitions: the League, FA Cup, the League Cup, the European Cup and European Cup-Winner's Cup.

At the end of that European Cup-winning 1967-68 season he left United, for Stoke, where he spent two seasons, before winding down his playing career with a short spell with Waterford Town, then managed by old United team mate Shay Brennan, in the League of Ireland.

In all, he played 511 club games, scoring 269 goals, giving him a more than respectable average of 0.53 goals per game – better than Law's, while he remains United's 13th-highest scorer.

That such a consistent and prolific goal-scorer, a regular in a Manchester United team which was consistently in the mix for English and European trophies, only won five Scotland caps is surely one of the greatest indictments yet of the work of the SFA selection committee, who picked the national squads then.

Herd spent a short period as manager of Lincoln City, before leaving football to enter the motor trade in the Manchester area, running a garage in Urmston right up until he reached in 1999.

He had invested in the garage at the height of his powers with United, already looking to the future, and, although he had hung up his football boots, he continued to be active in sport, playing as “a destructive batsman” for various club sides in South Manchester, where he lived. Indeed, he was still a first team player into his seventh decade.

He was also a long-term member of the Ashton-on-Mersey Golf Club, where his marvellous hand-eye co-ordination meant he was a low handicapper for much of his life.

Alex Herd had sent David's mother back “up the road” so that David, when born, would qualify to play for Scotland and, in retirement, he was frequently up the road himself, to golf at St Andrew's, he always enjoyed the Dunhill Links Tournament; and to tour Scotland.

He enjoyed cruising holidays and was a frequent visitor to Malta, while his garage business allowed him to indulge his passion for fast cars, but had been suffering from vascular dementia.

David Herd's marriage to Joan ended in divorce, he is survived by his only son Alex and by grandsons David and Peter.

MATT VALLANCE