Johnny Bell Player Profile

Biography

The Dundee FC record for most goals in consecutive games belongs to Lochee lad Johnny Bell who scored ten goals in nine consecutive games between September 11th and October 30th 1920.

Bell joined Dundee after being demobbed from the army at the end of The Great War and became an instant hero with the war weary Dark Blue fans by becoming top goal scorer at the end of his debut season with 28 goals as The Dee finished a credible fourth – their highest league placing since finishing runners-up in 1909.

Bell started his football career before the First World War with Junior club Ashford before moving to London to join West Ham United. However he ‘joined the colours’ when War broke out but decided to move back to Scotland after being demobilised.

He was much sought after but chose to join his home town club Dundee and manager Sandy MacFarlane told The Courier that, “He comes with a splendid reputation and will be a valuable acquisition to the Dens Park staff.”

Bell joined Dundee on Thurday 23rd October 1919 and made his first appearance for the club 24 hours later for the reserves against Cowdenbeath in an Eastern Division match.

Naturally he scored and it was enough to persuade MacFarlane to throw his new striker in for his first team debut at home to Rangers the following day but his second game in 24 hours ended in disappointment with a 2-0 defeat in front of 28,000.

Seven days later however Bell got his first goal for the club scoring in a 3-3 draw away at Clydebank and got his first goals at Dens the following week when he scored a brace against Clyde in a 3-0 win.

By the end of the month Bell scored his first hat-trick for the club in a 7-1 home win over Ayr United as the goals started to flow and by the end of the season he was Dundee’s top goalscorer with 28 goals in 28 league games. Amongst the highlights was the first in a 2-1 win over Celtic on January 31st in front of 20,000 and his impressive average of a goal a game caught the eye of many scouts south of the border

Bell no interest of moving back down to England however and hit the ground running at the start of his second season. He netted a brace away at Falkirk in a 2-2 opening day draw and scored four in the first five games of the 1920-21 season.
After a 1-0 defeat at Hamilton on September 8th, Bell was back on the scoresheet three days in a 1-0 win over St Mirren in Paisley and it was the start of a run that would take him into the Dark Blue record books.

Seven days later Johnny scored the winner in a 2-1 home win over Third Lanark and followed that up with the equaliser in a 1-1 draw against Queen’s Park at Dens on September 18th in front of an impressive crowd of 19,000.

Bell then got the opener in Kirkcaldy in a 2-1 win over Raith and two days later on Monday 4th October made it six goals in five games with a double against Hearts in a 3-0 home win. He got his fourth goal in a week the following Saturday scoring the first in a 2-1 win away at Motherwell and set a new club record of scoring in six consecutive games beating Jimmy Dundas’ record of five from the Dark Blues’ inaugural season.

David Clarkson also scored a goal at Fir Park on his consecutive run and he also copied Johnny Bell when he netted in a 2-1 defeat against Celtic. Clarkson got his at Parkhead while Bell scored in front of 25,000 at Dens on October 16th 1920 and his ninth goal in eight games came in a 3-1 defeat at Tynecastle the week after.

History was set on October 30th when Bell scored in his ninth consecutive game in a 3-1 home win over Kilmarnock – a scoreline that was also replicated on Clarkson’s run when he scored in a 3-1 win at Rugby Park on November 1st almost 96 years to the day.

A goal in the 10th game, away to Rangers, proved elusive for Bell as Dundee crashed to a 5-0 loss, but that was academic by then as Bell had already made a name for himself and wrote himself into the Dundee history books.

By the end of the season he was Dundee’s top goalscorer with 26 goals in 40 games (25 in the League and one in the Scottish Cup against Stenhousemuir in the second round in February). The Dee against finished fourth for the second year in a row with Rangers, Celtic and Hearts the sides ahead of them.

The Courier were full of praise for Bell describing him as “a rare forager and a fine distributer of the ball” and a “dangerous centre if played to, so it is up to the halves and wings to see that he is not neglected”

The following season Davie Halliday became Dundee’s main marksman after he joined from St Mirren in an effort by Dundee boss MacFarlane to bolster the height in The Dee’s attack and Bell was restricted to just three goals in 17 matches. Halliday would go on to score 103 goals for The Dee and create a record of his own with 39 goals in season 1923/24; a record like Bell’s that still stands.

Season 1922/23 would be Johnny’s last as he would make just six appearances before joining Albion Rovers and scored his last goal for the club in a 4-3 win over today’s visitors Motherwell at Fir Park on September 9th 1923.

Clarkson got very close to Bell’s record but set his own record for post war goals in consecutive games and became the first player to score in his first eight games for The Dee.

Johnny Bell was a Dark Blue Destroyer whose goals undoubtedly brightened up many a troubled heart in the months that followed the First World War. He became a real hero of the people at a time when such role models were in great demand to rouse the population’s spirits as well as being an extremely talented centre-forward and his record of ten goals in nine consecutive games for Dundee may be broken.