Willie Pettigrew

William Haddow Pettigrew (born 2 October 1953) is a Scottish former footballer, who played as a striker for Motherwell, Dundee United, Hearts, Morton and Hamilton Academical. Pettigrew also represented Scotland and the Scottish League XI.

Willie Pettigrew
Personal information
Full name William Haddow Pettigrew
Date of birth (1953-10-02) 2 October 1953
Place of birth Motherwell, Scotland
Position(s) Striker
Youth career
1970–1971 Hibernian
1971–1972 East Kilbride Thistle
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1972–1979 Motherwell[1] 166 (80)
1979–1981 Dundee United[1] 58 (21)
1981–1984 Hearts[1] 68 (26)
1984–1985 Morton[1] 33 (10)
1985–1986 Hamilton Academical[1] 3 (0)
Total 328 (137)
National team
1976–1977 Scotland[2] 5 (2)
1978 Scottish League XI[3] 2 (1)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only

Club career

Pettigrew started his career with Hibernian, but left them for junior club East Kilbride Thistle after failing to make a first-team breakthrough.

He joined Motherwell in 1972, where he had his most prolific goalscoring spell, averaging better than a goal every two league games. He ended the 1975–76 season as the highest scorer in the Scottish Premier Division at the age of 22. He repeated the feat when two years later in 1977–78. In 2019 it was announced that Pettigrew was to be inducted into the Motherwell F.C. Hall of Fame.[4]

In 1979, Dundee United purchased Pettigrew for £100,000. He went on to win the 1979 Scottish League Cup Final with United, scoring two goals in a 3–0 replay win against Aberdeen. He also played in the winning 1980 Final team, but this time the goals were scored by the two strikers who were the club's first choice pairing for the next few seasons, Paul Sturrock and Davie Dodds.

In 1981, Pettigrew moved to Heart of Midlothian for a £120,000 fee, going on to achieve promotion to the Premier Division at the end of the 1982-83 season. He joined Morton in 1984 for one season, then ended his playing career the following season after playing a small number of games for Hamilton Academical.

International career

It was at Motherwell that he won five caps for Scotland, 4 in 1976 and 1 in 1977. Scotland won all five games, with Pettigrew scoring a goal in each of his first two appearances. He also played in two games for the Scottish Football League XI in 1978 that both ended in 1-1 draws, giving Pettigrew an unbeaten career as an internationalist of seven games. He scored the Scottish League goal in the second of those two games. Having debuted for Scotland aged 22, his last full cap was aged 23 and his international career at all levels was over aged 25.

Honours
Dundee United
Heart of Midlothian

References
  1. Willie Pettigrew at Post War English & Scottish Football League A–Z Player's Database
  2. Willie Pettigrew at the Scottish Football Association
  3. http://www.londonhearts.com/SFL/players/williepettigrew.html
  4. "Willie Pettigrew to be inducted to Hall of Fame". motherwellfc.co.uk. Retrieved 2 October 2019.
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