David Potter’s Celtic Player of the Day, No.4 – Simon Donnelly

“Sid” as he was called was a fine Celtic football player. Like so many, his reputation was tarnished because he quite simply came at the wrong time and therefore did not win nearly as many medals with Celtic as his ability suggested that he should have.

12 Apr 1998: Simon Donnelly of Celtic takes on Rangers player Jonas Thern during the match between Rangers v Celtic in the Bells Scottish Premier Division played at Ibrox Photo: Clive Brunskill /Allsport

He broke through into the team in that awful season of 1993/94 and was seen as one of the few signs of optimism. He thus lived through the “revolution” of March 1994, and like the rest of the team staggered through 1994/95 when they lost a dreadful League Cup final to Raith Rovers, and then won an equally poor Scottish Cup final against Airdrie.

The football was poor, but it was at least a win, and a medal for the deserving Donnelly who had impressed by his good forward play and goal scoring ability.

30 OCTOBER 1994: SIMON DONNELLY OF CELTIC IS LIFTED UP BY THE SHIRT BY ALAN MCLAREN IN A SCOTTISH PREMIER LEAGUE MATCH. Photo: Chris Cole/ALLSPORT

He was a hero however in the heroic Wim Jansen season of 1997/98 which saw a League Cup victory over Dundee United at Ibrox, and then that painful struggle to prevent ten in a row. Indeed he might have won the League at Dunfermline with a fine strike but the Pars equalised. However, it was all sorted out the following week.

Things became chaotic and unsatisfactory after that at Parkhead, but Simon made a bad mistake by going to Sheffield Wednesday where things were a lot worse. He returned to Scotland where he played for Dunfermline and Partick Thistle. But he will always be known as Simon Donnelly of Celtic, and in other circumstances, he might have become an all time great. He played ten times for Scotland.

30 May 1998: Simon Donnelly  playing for Scotland against USA at the RFK Stadium in Washington, D. C. Photo: Andy Lyons /Allsport

David Potter

HUGE SAVINGS IN THE CELTIC STAR’S FATHER’S DAY SALE! BECAUSE YOUR CELTIC DA’S WORTH IT!  

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About Author

I am Celtic author and historian and write for The Celtic Star. I live in Kirkcaldy and have followed Celtic all my life, having seen them first at Dundee in March 1958. I am a retired teacher and my other interests are cricket, drama and the poetry of Robert Burns.

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