Alex Dawson (in dark shirt) in action in the 1958 Semi-Final replay against Fulham.
By David Barber. Friday, 05 March 2004.
This season’s FA Cup competition reaches its semi-final stage in early April. How many people know the identity of the last player to score a semi-final hat-trick?
Manchester United v Fulham
FA Cup Sixth Round
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Bizarrely, no one has done it for almost half a century.
Roughly seven weeks after the Munich tragedy, Manchester United were lining up for an FA Cup semi-final replay against Fulham at Highbury. The whole country was willing their decimated team to make it to Wembley.
The son of a Grimsby trawlerman, Alex Dawson was a "Busby Babe" who had been a pro’ at United since May 1957. But he hadn’t been involved in that fateful European tie in Belgrade.
He became a first-team regular after Munich, though he had just turned 18. He scored in the famous Cup victory over Sheffield Wednesday and then hit a hat-trick in that 5-3 semi-final replay win against Fulham when he was 18 years 33 days old.
That hat-trick hasn’t been matched in a semi-final since then and TheFA.com was delighted to be able to ask the former United star about his memories of that famous day.
He told us: "Highbury was just thick mud that day - just how I used to like it. It was a bit misty too. I scored with a header, a left-footer and a right-footer. The best of the three was the first one, a diving header.
"I know that no one's scored a hat-trick in a semi-final since that day, though a couple of players have come close. Where I work they said 'You can't break our Alex's record!'
"After we'd beaten Fulham we played Bolton in the Final. I played on the right wing against Tommy Banks, Bolton's left-back, who said 'You can't put that little baby in to play against me!'".
Dawson was an "old-fashioned" style of centre-forward but actually played on United’s right wing in the Final, which they lost 2-0 to Bolton Wanderers. His best season for the club was 1960-61, when he notched 20 goals in 34 matches. Then David Herd arrived and Dawson’s days at Old Trafford were numbered.
At Preston North End he became "The Black Prince of Deepdale" and featured in their FA Cup Final side of 1964. He later played for Bury, Brighton and Brentford.
One writer called him "the Red Devils’ bull-necked battering ram".
Manchester United play Fulham again in The FA Cup’s Sixth Round on Saturday. It will be the eighth time they have been drawn together in the Cup’s history.