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For all the bluster which went with every goal he scored as Newcastle United's most exportable member of staff in a generation, Malcom Macdonald never properly did likewise with England. In the 1970s he had enormous amounts of competition for the main striker's role, with England enjoying an extensive array of centre forwards supreme, despite the decade being easily the least productive of the modern era, with only one tournament finals reached, a restrictive, unprogressive body in charge and a number of coaches who either made rash choices or struggled to make choices at all. Macdonald's debut came in the 1972 Home Internationals but he failed to score against a limp Wales side even though England made masses of chances and won 3-0. Alf Ramsey tried him again in the next fixture three days later but England infamously succumbed to Northern Ireland at Wembley (the goal scored by Macdonald's future Arsenal manager Terry Neill) and one substititure appearance followed in the final game of the competition against Scotland before Malcolm was cast aside again. Ramsey chose not to use Macdonald in the triumvirate of qualifiers for the 1974 World Cup, nor the 1973 Home Internationals - Martin Chivers, Mick Channon and Allan Clarke were considered worthier natural goalscorers - but he was recalled for a friendly in Moscow as a substitute for Clarke and got a late runout in England's 2-1 win over the USSR. Again Ramsey put his name to one side as the autumn approached, and Macdonald was not involved as England drew 1-1 with Poland and threw away their place in the following year's World Cup. Macdonald's fifth cap came in a goalless draw against Portugal in the spring of 1974 and Ramsey was sacked thereafter. Temporary replacement Joe Mercer called him up for a sector of his limited squad time but still Malcolm couldn't prove anything, even though his domestic goalscoring was as fearful and iconic as it had always been. Mercer only used him as a substitute twice in his seven games, and long-term successor Don Revie initially seemed to have a similar viewpoint, ignoring Macdonald's claims for a place in the first brace of qualifiers for the 1976 European Championships, which resulted in a 3-0 England win over Czechoslovakia and a goalless Wembley draw against Portugal. Channon and Clarke were still around, with the maverick Frank Worthington also being given his moment.
Then along came 1975 and a sudden step up for Macdonald from obscurity to history. Revie selected an in-form Malcolm for a friendly against West Germany in March 1975, and at last Macdonald got off the mark, scoring the second in England's 2-0 win. It was his eighth cap and, with whipping boys Cyprus the next opponents in England's European Championship group, Revie saw no reason why he should not keep Malcolm in the team. Macdonald's performance was a freakishly brilliant piece of individualism, reliant partially on the skill and awareness of his cultured team-mates (especially Kevin Keegan, who put in one of his best early England shows) but dependent ultimately on having a striker capable of finding the net when asked. Macdonald opened the scoring with a towering header from a free-kick; he then miskicked a shot with unintentional effectiveness past the stranded goalkeeper to give England a comfortable 2-0 half-time lead. A superb back header from Keegan allowed 'Supermac' to stoop low and nod home from close range to complete his hat-trick - England's first since Geoff Hurst against France in a friendly six years earlier, and the first in a competitive international since Hurst's most famous threesome of them all - and then rose majestically (and bravely - a defender was attempting a bicycle kick clearance at the same time) to smack home another header and get his fourth. Nobody had scored four for England since Jimmy Greaves against Norway in June 1966, and previously the most competitive foursomes had all come in the Home Internationals, the last of which had been Greaves against Northern Ireland in 1963. So Macdonald was already in the highest company, but somehow he managed to add a fifth - another header from another pinpoint centre - to complete a 5-0 scoreline and blow all goalscoring records out of English waters.
The Wembley scoreboard afterwards read 'Supermac 5 Cyprus 0' - a gesture which Macdonald said revived all of his boyhood dreams when he saw it - but somehow it seemed inevitable in this luckless decade for England that ultimately they wouldn't reach the finals and Malcolm would earn only five more caps and never score again. His career at international level ended in the same year that he wrote himself into his country's history books. Though he was nothing but a superstar at club level, Macdonald never quite seemed cut out for international football but, although many point out the standard of opposition and shocking marking of the Cypriots, he had a night for his country which would be the envy of every English footballer at every level and his achievement is there only to be revered. A few players have since scored foursomes, and David Platt scored four against San Marino in 1993 and then missed a penalty, which has been the closest to which Macdonald's record has come to being equalled. Perhaps it never will, and that surely would be something of a consolation for an England career which never truly got underway. (Matthew Rudd)
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