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Source: List of Scotland national football team hat-tricks

Since Scotland's first international association football match on 30 November 1872, 33 players have scored three goals (a hat-trick) or more in a game. The first player to do so was John McDougall, in a match against England on 2 May 1878. 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 and Joe Harper in a friendly against a Canada Olympic team on 13 June 1967, although some reports credit at least one of their goals to other players. 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. Steven Fletcher (twice), Robert Snodgrass, James Forrest and McGinn all scored hat-tricks for Scotland between 2015 and 2019, 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.
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. 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, 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. 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. 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.