Willie Ferguson

William Copeland Ferguson was a Scottish footballer and manager best known for his time at Chelsea and Dumfries side Queen of the South. His position was usually as a left winger.

A native of Muirkirk, he was still a child when his family moved to Kirkconnel. It was there with local side Kello Rovers that he started in football.

Willie Ferguson first joined fledgling Queen of the South in nearby Dumfries during season 1921-22, their third season after formation. Ferguson was the fourth of the players at the club in its first three seasons who would go on build successful careers in England's top division. The others were Dave Halliday, Ian Dickson and Hughie Gallacher. Ferguson failed to complete the season at Queens as his talents attracted big name attention.

Ferguson signed for London club Chelsea. Between then and his departure in 1933 he made 294 first team appearances scoring 11 goals.

The club were relegated in 1923-24 and in four of the next five seasons were to narrowly miss out on promotion, finishing 5th, 3rd, 4th and 3rd. They finally reached the First Division again in 1929-30, where they were to remain for the next 32 years.

To capitalise on the 1930 promotion, the club spent £25,000 ($49,000) on three big-name players; Scots Hughie Gallacher, Alex Jackson and Alec Cheyne. Gallacher in particular was one of the biggest talents of his era, known for his goalscoring and for having captained Newcastle to a championship in 1926-27. Gallacher and Jackson had also been members of the Wembley Wizards team, the Scotland team which beat England 5-1 at Wembley in 1928. Gallacher was Chelsea's top scorer in each of his four seasons, scoring 81 goals in total, but his time in west London was filled by long suspensions for indiscipline. Though the team sometimes clicked, such as in a 6-2 win over Manchester United and a 5-0 win over Sunderland trophies remained elusive through the 30s. Some felt money was too often spent on inappropriate players, especially forwards, while the defence remained neglected.

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