Great Celtic Sides Named and Rated – Glasgow, Lanarkshire, Ayrshire and Fife Celtic

IT started earlier this week when David Potter was challenged by Jerry Woods to come up with an all-time best Celtic eleven from players all hailing from the Kingdom of Fife. The Celtic historian duly delivered his selection for consideration and with the likes of John Thomson in goals and Scott Brown captaining the side, it did look like a very decent Celtic side.

David though put out a challenge to other Celtic Supporters to come up with alternative Celtic teams from both Lanarkshire and Ayrshire and that challenge was met head on by Gerald Downey.

His first submission was for the Lanarkshire Celts and that team was so impressive that the Fife Bhoys conceded that they’d be lucky to come away with a 2-0 defeat and that’s with Celtic’s greatest ever goalkeeper keeping the score down.

So we also have Gerald’s Ayrshire Celtic Eleven to tell you about and Matt Corr has chipped in too with a Glasgow Celtic team ie eleven players all coming from the city of Glasgow. Now he’s obviously got a much bigger squad to play with so we’ll see if he’s narrowed it down sufficiently to impress our judge and jury – who happen to be the two Fifers the after mentioned David Potter and Jerry Woods, author of To Lisbon and Back on a Fiver. Jerry started the ball rolling a few days ago. Let’s have a re-cap so that this is all in the one place for you to enjoy.

Oh and we’re still waiting on someone sending in an all-Ireland Celtic Eleven…

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On Monday this week we carried an article about Celtic on this day in 1923 which included the most fascinating video – truly one of its kind – that captures the travelling Celtic Support and some match highlights from the Lochgelly United v Celtic Scottish Cup tie.

The video is a must watch – and you’ll probably go back and watch it two or three times. Both Matt Corr and (Fifer) David Potter have contributed to this article based around this game and this era in Celtic’s early history and as always both write brilliantly. Read those contributions and watch the video below.

Unique Must Watch Video of Celtic playing Lochgelly Utd on this day in 1923

Anyway plenty of people were contacting us today to praise the article, one being a Fifer himself, Jerry Woods. Jerry you may recall from the summer self published his own book – which was an account of getting to Lisbon and back in May 1967 on a fiver.

The Celtic Star serialised the book, To Lisbon and Back for a Fiver, for Jerry, meaning that it was read by a much wider audience than would otherwise have been the case, and generating the book sales for the author (like the trip to Lisbon and back, the book cost a fiver) and allowing Jerry to donate his profit to Celtic Foundation.

You can read the entire book on here, the link above is for chapter 1 but you can go back to 20 May for Chapter 2 and so on or use the search function to find the subsequent chapters – it’s a great wee read and again gives you an insight into what it was like supporting Celtic in a different era.

Anyway this morning Jerry was one of our readers who got in touch to praise the article. He also noted that “there very few police on duty – reek from fags and Wee Fergus Bunnets.”

I replied jokingly saying “As a Fifer yourself Jerry, I am going to avoid asking if were you at the game with David Potter (LOL)!”

Jerry came back straight away. “Nice one. It would be informative if you could suggest to David Potter to write something on the top Fifers who played for Celtic Scotland and of course East Fife.”

This suggestion was forwarded on to the Celtic Historian who has been in hibernation since the 29 December. It was probably a good time to see if he’d got his Celtic mojo back yet.

Message to David Potter: “A wee suggestion for an article from Jerry…Good to have the football back on Saturday- ends the cold Turkey!”

And his reply: “Yes, I cannot wait for the real football to start again on Saturday. I’ve been sulking about the General Election and the events of 29 December (and in particular the Daily Record’s extraordinary blatant coverage of it) but will start again tonight. I have been looking several times at the Lochgelly game of 1923 – still fascinating – and then I will try to pick a Fife team of Celtic players, although I may have to borrow a few from neighbouring counties! I’ll do it tonight because I have something else on this afternoon.

“PS. I saw Paddy Roberts play for Middlesbrough v Spurs. Much greeted by the crowd, but not really very effective against a Spurs team that I don’t think is very good.”

Well a little ahead of schedule here is David Potter writing about CELTIC AND FIFE….

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CELTIC AND FIFE BY DAVID POTTER

I never tire of seeing the Lochgelly United v Celtic Scottish Cup tie featured today on The Celtic Star!

Sadly, the film is better for sociological reasons than football ones with the photographer understandably more interested in taking shots of the crowd (the film would be shown at local cinemas next week and it was a great way of persuading punters to turn up at the local fleapits to see themselves on the silver screen!)

The only Celtic players that one can recognise and identify with any certainty are goalkeeper Charlie Shaw and full back Eck McNair, now in 1923 at the veteran stage and having lost a fair amount of his hair! And Willie Cringan is the captain who leads the team out. The Celtic player who is stopped by a spectator to be wished luck on the way out looks like the goal scoring hero Joe Cassidy, but it is not impossible that it is John “Jean” McFarlane who was, after all, a Fifer from nearby Glencraig and the spectator may have been a relative or a friend.

Pity we can’t see the goals in the 3-2 Celtic victory (depicted graphically by the scales in the film) but we can see that it was a cold, wet, windy muddy day on 13 January 1923. Funnily enough, 13 January 2020 is by no means dissimilar! So much for “climate change”! Somebody fell early and has a huge patch of mud on his pants. I suspect that is Johnny or Jock Gilchrist.

But the shots of the crowd are great. Everyone wears a bonnet and a muffler. A few have a collar and tie, and one or two soft hats are seen. Apart from the lady seen bringing her wee boy in, I do not see very many female faces. That is a shame! Nor do we see Willie Maley, unless I am being stupid and not recognising him. Not really like him to miss a trick like that! He was never ever shy of any kind of publicity. But I love the shots of the pipers (that part of Fife always has been strong in pipe bands!) and the policeman. Fascinating stuff! Do have a look at it!

What happened to Lochgelly United and Recreation Park? Lochgelly never really survived the devastation of the Miners’ Strike of 1926 and went out of business soon afterwards. The “Happylanders” suffered from being just too close to Cowdenbeath, Dunfermline and Raith Rovers in a shrinking market. Recreation Park is now covered with houses.

Which leads me on to Celtic and Fife. I would like to submit, for the consideration of the readers, a Celtic team throughout the ages of men with Fife connections. It will be in the 4-3-3 formation, although quite a lot of them would have played 2-3-5 or some other weird combination with diamonds or holding midfielders or defensive minded midfielders or whatever. Not that it matters, What is important is HOW they would have played.

Goalkeeper – John Thomson. No argument here. Born in Kirkcaldy in 1909, died in the Royal Victoria Hospital, Glasgow 5 September 1931. A true Celtic immortal.

Back Four – George Connelly. Came from Kincardine, and played in early 1970s. He would have been one of the greatest of them all if he could only have sorted out his personal problems. Mind you, a strict, uncompromising teetotaller was possibly not the best man to have as his Manager.

Peter Johnstone played from 1908 until he was killed in World War One in 1917. Very versatile player but good centre half and left half. Won Cup medals in 1912 and 1914, and League medals in 1910 and 1914.

Charlie Geatons great left half from 1930s. Came from Lochgelly and took over in goal when John Thomson was injured in 1931.

“Jean” McFarlane from Glencraig, near Ballingry and Lochore. Left half in 1920s, famously taking the free kick from which Jimmy McGrory scored the winner in the 1925 Scottish Cup final.

Midfield – Scott Brown. You know who he is, don’t you? He would be the captain, I think.

Willie Fernie great midfield wizard of the 1950s, arguably one of the best of all time. Came from Kinglassie.

Alec Thomson from Buckhaven and called “McGrory’s fetch and carry man” and “Mr Evergreen”. His career ran parallel to that of the great Jimmy McGrory, and McGrory reckoned he got about half his goals from Alec.

Tommy Callaghan signed by Jock Stein from Dunfermline in 1968. Great tackler and passer of the ball.

Forwards – Frank O’Donnell from Buckhaven played in 1930s won 6 Scottish caps and played for Preston North End and Blackpool.

Hugh O’Donnell brother of Frank, Won Scottish Cup medal with Celtic in 1933 and English Cup medal with Preston in 1938.

John Brown – lesser known than some others but born in Dysart, near Kirkcaldy and won Scottish Cup medal along with Patsy Gallacher in 1912. Career ruined by World War One, after which he became a trainer with a variety of clubs.

So that is the Fife Celtic team. Have I missed anyone out? An outstanding goalkeeper and midfield, an acceptable midfield, but a bit weak in the forward line with no McGrory, Quinn or Larsson. Still, would put up a good show against an Ayrshire Celtic or a Lanarkshire Celtic if anyone wishes to pick such a side!

David Potter

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Gerald Downey’s Lanarkshire Celtic 2 – 0 David Potter’s Fife Celtic

David Potter selected an all-time Celtic Eleven hailing from the Kingdom of Fife and also laid down a challenge to readers to come up with a better team of Lanarkshire or Ayrshire Celts that would be good enough to beat his fine team which had John Thomson in goals and was captained by Broony.

It all came about because we were marvelling at the unique video footage of Celtic playing Lochgelly Utd in the Scottish Cup in 1923 – exactly 97 years ago yesterday.

Jerry Woods, of To Lisbon and Back for a Fiver fame, challenged his fellow Fifer, the Celtic Historian David Potter (a well known and valued contributor to The Celtic Star from the start) to come up with an All Time Celtic Eleven from Fife.

David rose magnificently to the task and then challenged the Lanarkshire and Ayrshire Hoops fans to come up with their all-time Celtic team of local lads.

We’ve yet to have an Ayrshire side submitted – come on Bhoys what are you waiting for, Sandman what’s happening down there? – but the Lanarkshire team is in, and it’s got the Fifers worried.

Jerry Woods was the first Fifer to react when we forwarded on the Lanarkshire side that was submitted this morning by Gerald Downey.

“Great team,” Jerry noted, “but it takes a Lang Spoon tae Sup whi a Fifer!” Fighting talk then!

David Potter has also reacted to Gerald’s Lanarkshire Eleven – we’ll get to that shortly – while I must admit to having been surprised not to see Paul McStay make the team. Still it’s Gerald’s team and it’s a belter.

So who did he select? “Thanks for your wonderful article. Here is my “Lanarkshire select”. I don’t think they need any introduction,” Gerald wrote.

John Fallon (Cambuslang)
John Milsop ( Cambuslang)
Tommy Gemmell (Coltness)
Bobby Murdoch (Rutherglen)
Billy McNeill ( Bellshill)
John Clark (Holytown)
Jimmy Johnstone (Viewpark)
Johnny Doyle (Viewpark)
George Mc Cluskey (Uddingston)
Sammy Wilson (Uddingston)
John Hughes (Coatbridge)

On the bench .. John Stein (Burnbank) John Jack (Bellshill)

Yours in Celtic
Gerald Downey

When I sent on Gerald’s Lanarkshire Eleven to the two Fifers, I pointed out my surprise at Paul McStay being missing but wound them up by saying “I think that the Lanarkshire team would give you Fifers a helluva beating!”

As we’ve already stated, Jerry came back with this: “Great team – but it takes a Lang Spoon tae Sup whi a Fifer

“My Wife’s Father was Thomas McGregor from Uddingston , ex Miner and moved to Tullibody in late 50,s
George McCluskey / Thomas O Hara / Jimmy Johnstone / McGregor’s all related one way or another via marriage. Been at a few funerals at St Columba’s Church Uddingston.”

David Potter, too was impressed by the Lanarkshire side selected by Gerald – even without Paul McStay – and reckons that they’d wipe the floor with his best of Fife Celtic side.

“I think Lanarkshire might beat Fife,” David noted. “I can’t really see my forwards making much progress against McNeill and Clark. That Jimmy Johnstone was not a bad player, either, as far as I can recall.

“But I think that at least two McStays are worthy of inclusion – Willie (senior) of the 1920s and Paul of the 1980s. In fact I would put Jimmy McStay (1930s) on the bench and promote that Stein fellow to be Manager. I think he would be good at that.

“John Millsop who died of appendicitis in his early 20s was also a great prospect, and then there was Sammy “Seven-One” Wilson in the forward line and John Hughes who, on his day, could be the best player in the world.

“John Fallon in the goal? I hate the idea of falling out with my old friend, but I would have to suggest, respectfully, that John Thomson was maybe a better goalkeeper.

“My prediction would be Lanarkshire 2 Fife 0 – Fife having a fair share of the play but lacking forward power, and Lanarkshire’s goals coming from George McCluskey and a great individual effort from John Hughes.

“For Fife, Thomson was outstanding in the goal, and the other Thomson played well also. They were well lead by captain Brown, but he got a yellow card near the end from referee Mr Collum.

“And I now look forward to tomorrow’s game which might be against Ayrshire (Roy Aitken, Bobby Lennox, Sunny Jim, Jimmy Hay, Peter Wilson perhaps, or maybe Glasgow itself? Or even Ireland? And then we could really have some fun with a game of Protestants v Catholics. What’s that? They tried that for some time, but one of the sides had to employ some of the other persuasion because they couldn’t win some European Cup or something, and then went bust soon after? Is that true?”…

So there we have it. We have a Fife Celtic side and an very fine Lanarkshire one. We are still waiting on someone taking up the challenge and giving us the Best Celtic Eleven from Ayrshire – with David Potter offering some pointers above.

Now we are looking for a Glasgow side – one for Matt Corr maybe or anyone else who fancies giving it a go – and also a Celtic side from Ireland (all 32 counties please). As far as choosing two Celtic side based on religion that’s never been the Celtic way. But at least we could go all the way back to 1888 to select our players for both of those teams. Others would need to select from two clubs and could only go back to 1989.

Please email your Ayrshire, Glasgow or all Ireland Celtic all-time eleven sides to editor@thecelticstar.co.uk and we’ll see how it compares to the Lanarkshire and Kingdom of Fife Celtic sides!

A wee follow up on David Potter’s Fife team  that featured the O’Donnell brothers. As it’s a little snippet of Celtic history that otherwise wouldn’t get shared, it is worth adding here.  “The O’Donnell brothers were related to my wife’s cousin James O’Donnell – lives in Leven – shall try and get more info on them for you,” Jerry advised.

“The Celtic fans used to sing “O’Donnell Abu” with slightly different words for Hugh O’Donnell, but the problem was that they played a lot in 1934 and 1935 when life was not good for Celtic, and it was only when they appointed Jimmy Napoleon McMenemy to be trainer and, in fact, more or less manager instead of the awkward, curmudgeonly, hypochondriac and depressive Maley that things began to improve,” David Potter stated.

“But both O’Donnells did well at Preston, and Frank had some good games for Scotland as well. I am told they are both buried in the East Wemyss cemetery. Am I right?”

Don’t forget we are looking for your all time best Celtic Eleven from Ayrshire, Glasgow and the 32 counties of Ireland…oh and if there’s a Celtic side from Paisley, Greenock and the Port you can send that in too!

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Gerald Downey’s Ayrshire Celtic Eleven

Gerald had a go at picking an Ayrshire team for us, to keep the ball rolling. Here’s what he had to about his second team of Celts and about his controversial omission of the McStays from his Lanarkshire side.

“I’ve had a crack at picking my “Ayrshire” team so here goes. My goalkeeping choice is debatable but I couldn’t think of any prominent “No 1” who hailed from that region. I’ve had feedback (understandable) from a few readers questioning my wisdom in omitting “The Maestro” from my “Lanarkshire 11” but the fact that I was a school buddy of John Doyle and played Boys Guild football with him, gave him the nod. With hindsight I should have picked Paul in some role that hindsight is a wonderful gift,” Gerald stated, which is fair enough. Here is his Ayrshire Celtic team…

Bobby Wraith (Largs)
Sunny Jim Young (Kilmarnock)
Mark Reid (Kilwinning)
Roy Aitken (West Kilbride)
Jimmy Hay (Tarbolton)
Billy Price (Tarbolton)
James Forrest (Prestwick)
Lou Macari (Largs)
Alan McInally (Ayr)
Dougie Mc Guire ((Stevenston)
Bobby Lennox (Saltcoats)

This was sent to the two Fifers for their consideration. Jerry Woods was reasonably impressed. “My Reply Ayrshire 11 – No bad , but they might require the help of RABBIE BURNS.

“NAE, JOHN THOMSON – Willie Fernie – Scot Brown – or my Son in Law , Dominic Schiavone who played in the BP cup final,” Jerry noted. Hard to please these Fife Bhoys.

David Potter was next to give his thoughts on Gerald’s Ayrshire Celtic side.

“Mmm, not the worst football team in the world! Ayrshire would also have the advantage of having the world’s best poet to write a few songs for the Ayrshire Green Brigade, “Auld Ayr wha hae wi Aitken bred, Auld Ayr whom Young has often led” etc. but my view would have to be that Lanarkshire would definitely beat the Honest Men (as long as Paul McStay got a game and Jock Stein was their Manager) but that Fife and Ayrshire would probably draw – a high scoring draw, I think, because Bobby Lennox would score a few but, at the other end, Aitken and Reid were always capable of leaking a few goals, and with all due respect to Bobby Wraith, he is not Celtic’s most famous goalkeeper.

“On the other hand, three absolutely inspiring midfield leaders in Aitken, Young and Hay, and if Sunny Jim and Broonie were direct opponents in the Ayrshire v Fife game, there would be a few meaty clashes, I feel.

“The referee would have to be good – maybe Jack Mowat from neutral Rutherglen, who was notorious for “no nonsense”. Jamesie might be a handful on the Ayr wing, and Lou Macari is a great player – but don’t make him Manager! – and I feel that John Thomson would have to be at his best in the Fife goal.

“Billy Price was not a bad left half, but suffered from the times in which he played when Celtic were not at their best, and I would love to see him at this level.

“Big Rambo is strong and powerful but maybe lacks subtlety and Dougie Maguire suffers from inexperience, and might be well sussed out by Charlie Geatons of Fife.

“And do Ayrshire have anyone that could stop Willie Fernie?

“So my prediction would be Ayrshire 3 (Bobby Lennox 2, Lou Macari) Fife 3 (Willie Fernie with a penalty awarded when Sunny Jim brought down Hugh O’Donnell) Alec Thomson and Scott Brown (who annoyed Ayrshire supporters by a gesture called the “Fifie” after he scored the late equaliser).

“Fife Celtic supporters could not understand why Peter Wilson from Beith was left sitting on the Ayrshire bench. Was there some confusion here with Beath which is certainly in Fife? Could the Ayrshire Manager not spell?” David Potter concluded.

So bet you are all wondering who will be selected from the huge pool of players available to Matt Corr who is picking the Glasgow Celtic Eleven?

“Depending on Matt’s selecting skills, I think Glasgow would appear to have all the advantages. But I look forward to reading it!” David Potter stated.

Turn the page to find out who made Matt’s Glasgow Celtic team where he”ll have to selected players from Celtic’s home city and not his mates from France…

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Matt Corr’s Glasgow Celtic Eleven

“Here’s my Glasgow XI Celtic side to take on the challenge,” Matt stated.

“Gutted I couldn’t include James Kelly as he was born in Renton so a slightly different shape to my team.”

Ronnie Simpson

Danny McGrain
Bobby Evans
Tom Boyd

Paddy Crerand
Bertie Auld
Bobby Collins

Kenny Dalglish

Jimmy McGrory
Stevie Chalmers
Joe McBride

“Bring it on!” Matt wrote.

And David Potter was reasonably impressed! Here’s what he had to say about Matt’s team…

“I think this Celtic XI might just win the League, The only problem would seem to be that selector Corr has not picked enough defenders, but that is a mighty strong midfield, and up front Dalgish, McGrory, Chalmers and McBride are all proven goalscorers.

“Ronnie Simpson is as good a goalkeeper as you would get, although one often wonders how he would have got on in a poor Celtic team? He was with us when we were successful, and of course, played a large part in that success.

“Danny McGrain is another shoe-in to any Celtic team, as indeed is Bobby Evans who has the advantage of being versatile in that he can play at right half and at centre half. He would have to be centre half here. But Evans, McGrain and Boyd are the only out and out defenders here.

“But what a midfield! Pat Crerand – brilliant passer of a ball, and what a player he would have been if Jock Stein had been his Manager! Bertie Auld and Bobby Collins – two feisty wee Glasgow characters, full of patter and with the ability to back it up.

“Yes, not really a weakness in this team, but what about Bobby Murdoch? Does Rutherglen not qualify as part of Glasgow, and if it does, what about the great Napoleon? Mind you, Napoleon could be the trainer of this team, and we can argue about Willie Maley as Manager. He was actually born in Ireland, but spent all his life in Glasgow, and indeed was capped for Scotland.

“Yes reluctantly I would have to admit that Glasgow might just win, but Fife would be second,” the Celtic Historian opined. Hope you all enjoyed reading this.

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