Phil Weir

Phil Weir
Personal information
Full name Philip Edward Weir
Date of birth 1901
Place of birth Edinburgh, Scotland
Date of death 1963 (aged 61–62)
Place of death Buckhaven, Scotland
Position(s) Outside right
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
– Edinburgh Emmett
1922–1935 East Fife 404 (218)
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Philip Edward Weir (1901 – 1963) was a Scottish footballer who played mainly as an outside right. His only senior club was East Fife, where he spent 13 seasons and is the record scorer with 228 goals[1] despite playing on the wing – he was initially signed as a centre forward, but was not particularly effective in that role and moved out to allow others, including Arthur McGachie, to act as the focal point of attack.[2]

The vast majority of Weir's goals in the Scottish Football League were scored in its second tier, although in his single season in the top division, 1930–31, he found the net 10 times[3] (McGachie also contributed 14, but the Methil men still finished bottom of the table). This league total is recorded as 215 in some sources,[4] or 218 in others.[3] Weir contributed four goals in seven matches during East Fife's unexpected run to the 1927 Scottish Cup Final as a lower-tier side, where they lost 3–1 to Celtic.[5]

  1. ^ Record Goalscorers, East Fife FC
  2. ^ Arthur McGachie, Benarty Heritage Project
  3. ^ a b John Litster (October 2012). "A Record of pre-war Scottish League Players". Scottish Football Historian magazine. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  4. ^ Scotland - All-Time Topscorers, RSSSF, 20 March 2009
  5. ^ "Celtic 2–1 East Fife, Scottish Cup (newspaper report scans)". The Celtic Wiki. 16 April 1927. Retrieved 7 July 2020.