A Rosyth councillor has had a helping hand in securing a headstone for his great uncle and football legend Archie Goodall.

Cllr Brian Goodall had been in contact with the Friends of Nottingham Road Cemetery in Derby to agree the wording for the proposed headstone.

A GoFundMe campaign to pay for the headstone was started by Derby County fan Kal Singh Dhindsa, who in an interview for an article with the BBC, spoke of how he was inspired by a previous campaign by fans for Johnny Goodall, Cllr Goodall’s great great grandfather.

Speaking to the BBC, Dhindsa said: "To me, Archie is one of the pioneers of early football and he should be recognised. Football fans from all over the country have been getting in touch to help Archie get the grave he deserves."

Dunfermline Press:

Both Goodall brothers played key roles in a fantastic Derby side that would challenge for silverware during their stints at the club.

Archie Goodall made 424 appearances for Derby, scoring 52 goals for the club, and captaining them for much of his stint there.

Due to how eligibility for national teams worked at the time, and Archie being born in Belfast in 1865 to Scottish parents, Archie played 10 matches for Ireland, scoring 2 goals for the nation.

An incredibly talented player, Archie could play as either a centre half or in a forward position. As well as spending 14 years at Derby, Archie also played for Wolverhampton Wanderers, Bolton Wanderers, Aston Villa, and Preston North End.

One of the goals Archie scored was in a 9-1 defeat to Scotland in March 1899, which made him the oldest player to score an international goal at the time, as well as still being Ireland’s oldest ever goal scorer.

He was a unique character of the game, demonstrated by stories of Archie refusing to play extra time in a cup match, and allegedly trying to offload his 1898 FA Cup Final tickets to a ticket tout!

Archie furthered his eccentric character after retiring as a player, travelling around Europe and the United States as part of a music hall strongman act, which featured him "walking around a metal hoop" that he had built in a shed at his home in Derby.  It is believed that he could raise 150lbs with one hand and 184lbs overhead with two.

Cllr Goodall’s great grandfather, and Archie’s brother, Johnny Goodall, already has a striking headstone in Vicarage Road cemetery that is adorned with the crest of Watford Football Club.

Dunfermline Press:

Johnny had an incredibly successful career, captaining England several times, and becoming the first ever manager of Watford. Johnny was one of the famed “Scotch Professors”, a term given to Scottish players who went to play south of the border and brought with them a more technical style of play, which many say changed the nature of the game altogether.

Playing as a centre forward Johnny, who was regarded as one of the first superstars of the game, had his two most prolific spells at Preston North End where he scored 56 goals in 66 games and, alongside his brother at Derby County, where he scored 76 in 211 games.

He also scored the goal that clinched the league for Preston, in what was the first season of the football league.

An obituary from the Lancashire Evening Post read: “He can be described, I think, as the finest centre forward in history, although he played in a number of his international matches as inside right, and his qualities as a schemer, a subtle finisher, and a scrupulously gentlemanly player are universally acknowledged.”

Cllr Goodall said: “My family are all very proud of our footballing legend ancestors and one of my Dad’s proudest possessions is one of Johnny’s International Match Medals from a Scotland v England game in 1903, but we just don’t tend to mention what side he was playing for that day.”

Johnny Goodall also wrote a book entitled Association Football, an instructional book on the game, and one of the first written by an active player. The book was republished recently, and Cllr Goodall donated a copy to Dunfermline Carnegie Library.

Despite each of the players representing nations other than Scotland, the brothers spent most of their childhoods in Kilmarnock.

Their father Richard was born in Fishcross and was a soldier in the Scottish Fusiliers.

Richard passed away when the boys were young, meaning it was their mother, Mary, who was left to care for them and their younger sister Elizabeth.

Archie Goodall passed away on November 20, 1929, at the age of 64 in East Finchley.

Johnny Goodall passed away at the age of 78, 13 years later on May 20, 1942, in Watford.

The GoFundMe campaign recently achieved its goal, raising over £1200.