Frank McDougall: Former Aberdeen and St Mirren striker dies aged 65

Frank McDougall was a guest at Pittodrie in February of this year

Former Aberdeen and St Mirren striker Frank McDougall, who has died aged 65, was "a pleasure to play with", says former Pittodrie captain Willie Miller.

McDougall scored 44 goals in 69 appearances for Aberdeen, winning the Premier Division title in 1984-85.

The following season he was a Scottish Cup and League Cup winner before a back injury forced him to retire at 29.

McDougall, who had five years with St Mirren, revealed last October he had lung cancer.

Among his Aberdeen highlights was scoring all four goals in a 4-1 win over Celtic in November 1985, with manager Sir Alex Ferguson later saying it was "one of the greatest individual displays I have ever seen".

"He was quite easy to captain," Miller told BBC Scotland of a player who earned a place in the Aberdeen Hall of Fame.

"Frank was a great guy, with a really quiet sense of humour. Him and [Alex] McLeish used to gang up and play pranks.

"As far as being a striker's concerned, magnificent. Frank scored goals with ease. He just had a natural instinct to be in the right place at the right time.

"It was a pleasure to play with him, it was a pleasure to be part of his life and enjoy some of the fun that we had together."

'He should've played for Scotland'

McDougall joined St Mirren from Clydebank in 1979 in a £150,000 move that broke the transfer record between Scottish clubs at the time.

He scored 64 goals in 169 appearances for the Paisley side before Ferguson signed him for Aberdeen.

Tony Fitzpatrick was McDougall's captain at St Mirren and revealed the forward sustained an eye injury that most people did know about after a brick was thrown at a bus he was travelling on during his younger days.

"He could hardly see out his left eye through his career so you can imagine... to be able to get to the standards he got to with being mostly blind in his left eye," Fitzpatrick added on Sportsound.

"What a goalscorer, what a great player. He should've maybe played for Scotland."