David Potter’s Celtic Player of the Day, No.29 – Neil Mochan

Neil had a remarkable Celtic career. Having played for Morton and Middlesbrough, he joined the club in spring 1953, too late to play in League games but eligible for the Glasgow Charity Cup and the Coronation Cup.

Celtic won both competitions, every game that Mochan played was at Hampden and Mochan scored in both finals, thus completing the remarkable feat of winning two Cup medals before he played a game at Parkhead!

Able to play all over the forward line, his speciality was the left wing. He became very popular with the fans, and was famous for his mighty shot, earning the nickname “the Cannonball Kid”.

He wasn’t always popular with Mr Kelly and was never guaranteed to be in the team, but when he played, the team tended to do well. He won four domestic medals – the League and Cup double of 1954 and two League Cup medals, one of them the famous 7-1 against Rangers in which he scored twice.

He played for Celtic until 1960 when he went to play for Dundee United and Raith Rovers. Many supporters felt that he might have been made more use of at Celtic, but in 1964 in a rare piece of good judgement, Mr Kelly brought him back to be trainer. When Jock Stein came, Neil played a vital part in the team’s success.

David Potter

Click on the image above to shop

HUGE SAVINGS IN THE CELTIC STAR’S SUMMER SALE! 

The Celtic Star’s Father’s Day Promotion has been so successful, with hundreds of books at great prices being posted to Celtic fans all over the world, that we’ve decided to continue with the sale until the end of July. We’ve reduced all six books currently available from their usual retail price of £20 and prices are as low as £6 (see below).

All books are high quality hardback, with some signed by the author. And it’s also worth noting that you only pay postage on one book, so it’s free for the second, third and so on. ORDER HERE or click on The Celtic Star image above…this is how it feels to be Celtic!

About Author

David was a distinguished Celtic author and historian and writer for The Celtic Star. He lived in Kirkcaldy and followed Celtic all my life, having seen them first at Dundee in March 1958. He was a retired teacher and his other interests were cricket, drama and the poetry of Robert Burns. David Potter passed away on 29 July 2023 after a short illness. He was posthumously awarded a Special Recognition award by Celtic FC at the club's Player of the Year awards in May 2024. David's widow Rosemary accepted the award to huge applause from the Celtic Supporters in the Hydro.

Comments are closed.