List_of_Scotland_national_football_team_hat-tricks
Since Scotland's first international association football match on 30 November 1872,[1] 33 players have scored three goals (a hat-trick) or more in a game. The first player to do so was John McDougall,[2][3] in a match against England on 2 May 1878.[1] The most goals scored by a single player in a match is five, scored by Hughie Gallacher in a 1928–29 British Home Championship match against Ireland on 23 February 1929[4][5] and Joe Harper in a friendly against a Canada Olympic team on 13 June 1967,[6] although some reports credit at least one of their goals to other players.[7][8] Denis Law is the only player to have scored four goals in a single match more than once. Robert Smyth McColl, Gallacher and Law are tied for the most hat-tricks for Scotland's international team, with three hat-tricks each.
The most recent player to score a hat-trick for Scotland was John McGinn, in a UEFA Euro 2020 qualifying match against San Marino on 13 October 2019.[9] Steven Fletcher (twice), Robert Snodgrass, James Forrest and McGinn all scored hat-tricks for Scotland between 2015 and 2019,[10][11][12][13][9] ending a long wait dating back to 17 May 1969, when Colin Stein scored four goals in the 8–0 1970 FIFA World Cup qualifying win over Cyprus.[10][14]
Scotland have conceded eight hat-tricks in total, with the first scored by England's Fred Spiksley in 1893 – this does not appear in all records, with the last goal of a 5–2 scoreline being mistakenly attributed to Jack Reynolds for some time.[15] The second instance 62 years later, featuring four goals by Dennis Wilshaw of England on 2 April 1955 in a 1954–55 British Home Championship match,[16] remains the highest individual player total for either team in the fixture and the only occasion an opposing player has scored four times in a match.
Nico Claesen of Belgium was the first player from outside the Home Nations to score a hat-trick against Scotland, in the UEFA Euro 1988 qualifying match on 1 April 1987.[17] Scotland had only conceded five hat-tricks until the 2003–04 season when the feat was achieved against them in successive matches, first by Ruud van Nistelrooy for the Netherlands in a UEFA Euro 2004 qualifying playoff match against the, and then by Robert Earnshaw for Wales in a friendly.[18] The most recent hat-trick conceded by Scotland was in May 2012, when Landon Donovan scored three times in a 5–1 win for the United States in a friendly.[19]
