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Fullname: Robert Carroll
aka: Bobby Carroll
Born: 13 May 1938
Died: 11 May 2016
Birthplace: Glasgow
Signed: 22 September 1957
Left: 1 February 1963 (St Mirren)
Position: Outside-right
Debut: Celtic 1-2 Partick Thistle, League Cup, 12 Aug 1959
Internationals: n/a
Biog
| “It makes me feel good that I’ve got a wee bit of history.” Bobby Carroll |
Railwayman Bobby Carroll was a Scottish Junior Cup winner when he signed for the Bhoys from Irvine Meadow in September 1957.
A prolific scorer at junior level, Carroll made his first team Celtic debut on August 12th 1959 in a 2-1 League Cup defeat at home to Partick Thistle. He had been called up to help out and was one of the vaunted ‘Kelly’s Kids’, the Celtic Chariman Bob Kelly’s attempt to nurture talent to lead us onto greatness.
After sporadic runs in the first team, he finally became a regular starter in season 1961-62, but sadly for only this season. He didn’t get to play for Celtic in one of the major finals, although played for Celtic in the Glasgow Charity Cup final in 1961 (joint winners after a 1-1 draw with Clyde).
A whole hearted player Carroll made Celtic history when he scored the Hoops first ever goal in European competition when he netted at Valencia in the Intercity Fairs Cities Cup on September 26th 1962. A pivotal goal, one on which his name has been carved into Celtic’s history (one for the trivia boffins). Strictly he scored both of Celtic’s goals that day, but as there was a deflection the Spanish marked it as an own goal (although under modern standards it would have been marked as Carroll’s goal).
Curiously, despite scoring those important goals he wasn’t selected for the return leg. Some would put it down to the myopic standards for picking the team back in those days, but on the other hand in the intervening games he’d only scored once. In any case as he was to say of the first game:
“It makes me feel good that I´ve got a wee bit of history,” said Carroll.
Problem was for Bobby that as much as he had the proven potential and a great junior record, the rest of the club (team management and board management) was a shambles. The club had begun a barren spell of which he was one of the few young bright spots. He ended up learning to hone his skills not with the first team but the reserve side with Jock Stein in charge. If only Jock had been the manager of the First XI much sooner it could have benefited Bobby.
One humourous anecdote for Bobby occurred during a match on 1 October 1960 – he went to take a corner kick and…
“I stepped back to get my run-up and this thing, this black thing, came flying over out of the crowd behind me and landed in the penalty box.
I took the corner and Johnny Divers headed over the bar. So while the ball is out of play, I go to have a look.
I recognise the horseshoe shape, it’s a black puddin’ lying there and I’m still looking when the referee comes up. “What is it?” he says. “It’s a black puddin'” I say.
And right at that moment, the voice from the crowd, “Aye, Carroll, and that makes effin’ 12 o’ ye!”
It was definitely 12 and it was in the penalty box, not at the corner flag.”
(Talking With Celtic, 2001)
It wasn’t to be for Bobby at what must have been a frustrating time to be at Celtic. In all, he scored a respectable 27 goals in 78 appearances before moving to St Mirren in 1963, followed by Dundee United, Coleraine and Queen of the South before returning to Junior football in 1968 with Irvine Meadow. He went into coaching joining Yoker Athletic as coach in 1972 and scouting too, scouting for Carlisle Utd at this time.
Sadly he left Celtic empty handed in terms of silverware from the major competitions. Celtic were underachieving and not at the races in those barren years. Bobby had seen what good Jock Stein could do (working with the reserves), and once he returned all was to change for the better but by then Bobby Carroll was gone.
In old age, he retired after working as a rep selling hydraulic hoses, and was still very much in love with the Celts, and enjoyed weekly jaunts to Celtic Park with his son.
He passed away in 2016.
Playing Career
| APPEARANCES | LEAGUE | SCOTTISH CUP | LEAGUE CUP | EUROPE | TOTAL |
| 1957-63 | 61 | 4 | 12 | 1 | 78 |
| Goals: | 20 | 1 | 4 | 2 | 27 |
Honours with Celtic
None
Pictures
Articles
Celtic legend Bobby shares his memories
Written by Andrea O’Neill
NETTING Celtic’s first ever European goal and taking home a Scottish Junior Cup winner’s medal are among the cherished memories of local football great Bobby Carroll.
Now, 50 years on from that defining moment when he signed on the dotted line at Celtic Park, the modest former right-winger looks back on his striking career and tells the EK Mail why, for him, the late great Jock Stein changed the face of the Scottish game.
Bobby, 70, said: “I remember turning 21 on the Wednesday, on the Friday I won the Junior Player of the Year trophy and on Saturday I won the Scottish Junior Cup. Then I was called up to Celtic and went straight into the first team, so that was a good week.”
A prolific scorer at junior level with 78 goals in a single season for Irvine Meadow, Bobby caught the eye of former Hoops boss and Parkhead goal machine, Jimmy McGrory.
This saw him kicking off his premier league career against boyhood heroes Partick Thistle, before carving his name in the Celtic history books with his first competitive wonder goal – against Valencia in 1962.
However, it was under the legendary gaze of then reserve coach Jock Stein that the young player really honed his skills. He added: “Jock Stein changed it all. I left about two months before Jock came back to Celtic. I wish I had played in his team because he didn’t believe in changing it every week. He had a settled team and stuck to it and his tactics were amazing. He knew the other teams inside out.
“Before, we just ran up and down the terraces at Celtic Park – but he trained his players properly.”
The father-of-three also revealed that he has been left with a daily reminder of the ‘big man’ proving that Jock’s straight-talking methods never fell on deaf ears. He said: “Jock would always try and toughen players up. He once asked me to hit him after training so I took a swing, but he blocked it and got me a cracker in the ear.
“I’m partially deaf to this day, he had hands like shovels.”
Now retired and happily settled in Calderwood with wife Ann, 64, Bobby enjoys weekly jaunts to ‘paradise’ where he taught his son Paul, 41 – who once played midfield for the ‘Medda’ (Irvine Meadow) – all about the beautiful game. He added: “My father died when I was 13 so he never saw me play. He would have been a Celtic supporter so I know he would have been as proud of me as I am of my sons.”
EK Mail – Bobby Carroll
April 2009
History Bhoy reflects on his golden Euro goal
Official site, Celticfc.net By: Mark Henderson on 26 Sep, 2012 12:31
BOBBY Carroll may not be a household name among Celtic supporters but he will forever hold a special place in the club´s history.
It was on this day 50 years ago that the winger scored the Hoops´ first-ever goal in European competition. This was the opening gambit in the club´s incredible continental caper, a spellbinding story comprising instances of both sheer joy and despair.
It was back on September 26, 1962, just before the onset of the Cuban Missile Crisis, that Celtic travelled to Valencia for the first-leg of a Fairs Cities´ Cup (which became the UEFA Cup and is now the Europa League) tie against the Spanish side.
The Hoops couldn’t have asked for a more formidable opponent for their first foray into European football. Valencia were holders of the cup and would go on to retain the trophy that season.
Still, Jimmy McGrory´s side were certainly not disgraced over in Spain, putting in a spirited display before going down to a 4-2 defeat.
Both of the visitors´ goals came from Carroll as he etched his name in Celtic history.
At the time, the more pedantic Spanish press declared his opening strike as an own goal, simply because it touched a Valencia player on the way in. That was their practice in those days.
However, by any measure, and certainly by modern standards, it was Carroll´s goal. And it remains vivid in his memory.
Like so many of his contemporaries who donned the Hoops, the 74-year-old is a self-effacing character, but as he spoke to official website for the 50th anniversary his golden goal, he did admit to feeling proud of his achievement.
“It makes me feel good that I´ve got a wee bit of history,” said Carroll.
“It does mean a lot. They are claiming the first one was an own goal but it wasn´t, as it beat the goalkeeper.
“He was out of his six-yard box and I was just in front of him. Mike Jackson cut it back to me and I put it in past him. The defender came running in and tried to stop it but he couldn’t.
“The Spanish press said it was an own goal but I would only say it was an own goal if it was going past the post and he had deflected it in. But he couldn’t stop it.
“If it had been the goalkeeper on the line and he had put his hand on it and it had went in, it would have been a goal for me so that´s the way how I look at it.
“The other goal I scored was quite similar. Mike Jackson cut it back from the byline and I hit it past the goalkeeper.”
Only three years earlier, Carroll had been helping Irvine Meadow lift the Scottish Junior Cup, the team he would join Celtic from. Now he was starring on the big stage within the imposing surroundings of the Mestalla Stadium.
Armed with straw hats to block out the sun and a newclub blazer, itwas all anexciting adventure for the players- although it was a more dampening experience for the Celtic directors…
“It was an amazing stadium,” recalled Caroll”
From what I can remember, it was similar to Celtic Park now. The crowd were away up high and towering over you. It was the first ground I had played in which was like that. It was a bit intimidating.
“We arrived at the park and we couldn’t believe it, the terracing as the stands were away above us.
“They were a good team as well. It is the same as the Spaniards do now, they played a good passing game.
“It was an exciting experience. It was the first time we had played in Europe. We were all given hats to wear if we went out into the sun. I don´t know where that is now but I still have my blazer that I wore.
“When we arrived , there was thunder and lightning and it was like a river running past the hotel the next morning.
“Bob Kelly and the rest of the directors were in a wee kind of annex down near the beach and when they got up in the morning they stepped into a foot of water!”
After making 78 appearances for the Hoops, scoring 27 goals, he had spells with St Mirren and Dundee United before eventually ending his playing days back at Irvine Meadow.
Despite his brace in the first-leg, Carroll wasn´t picked for the return game in Glasgow – another example of the erratic selection policy at the time – which ended in a 2-2 draw, giving the Spaniards a 6-4 aggregate victory.
Celtic were out, but Carroll, who now resides in Calderwood, near East Kilbride, had lain the first step on the road which would lead to European Cup glory in Lisbon five years later.
“It doesn’t feel like 50 years have passed,” he added. “I couldn’t believe when I was told. I didn’t realise it was that long.
“I suppose I was lucky that it was me that put it away! But at least I managed to do it.
“I never gave it a thought at the time until someone told me a couple of years later that it was the first one. But it makes me feel good now – it keeps me a bit in limelight!
“It´s been in the papers quite a few times. I play bowls out here and people do come up to me in the bowling club. And it also a question at a quiz that I was at a few years ago.”
Carroll´s pivotal part in the Celtic story will never be forgotten.
The scorer of Celtic’s first European goal Bobby Carroll dies at 77
http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/14485003.The_scorer_of_Celtic_s_first_European_goal_Bobby_Carroll_dies_at_77/?ref=rss
CELTIC star Bobby Carroll has passed away at the age of 77.
The club announced the news today on their official website.
The club said: “Everyone at Celtic is saddened to hear of the death of former player, Bobby Carroll, who has passed away at the age of 77.
“Bobby, who played for Celtic between 1959 to 63, made 78 appearances, scoring 28 goals. His most famous goal, and one which assured his place in the Celtic history books, came on September 26, 1962 in the first round of the Fairs Cities Cup against Valencia.
“Bobby’s goal in that 4-2 defeat was the first goal scored in European competition by a Celtic player. He had also fired in the shot which took a deflection off a Valencia player for Celtic’s first goal in the game, so he always had a valid claim for having scored the club’s first ever European goal as well.”
The player joined the club in September 1957 from Irvine Meadow where he a prolific goal scorer at junior level.
He made his debut in the League Cup tie against Partick Thistle on August 12, 1959.
Herald Scotland:
The first of his 28 goals for the Hoops came just three days later when he scored in a 4-2 defeat away to Airdrie in the same competition.
He left Celtic for St Mirren in February 1963 and returned to Celtic Park with his new team just a few weeks later, helping them to a 1-1 draw.
The player also had spells with Dundee United, Coleraine and Queen of the South, and he rejoined Irvine Meadow where he finished his career.
A spokesman for Celtic added: “The thoughts and prayers of everyone at Celtic are with Bobby’s wife, Ann, his family and friends at this very sad time.”
Death of former Celt, Bobby Carroll
http://www.celticfc.net/news/10492
By: Newsroom Staff on 11 May, 2016 10:51
EVERYONE at Celtic is saddened to hear of the death of former player, Bobby Carroll, who has passed away at the age of 77.
Bobby, who played for Celtic between 1959-63, made 78 appearances, scoring 28 goals. His most famous goal, and one which assured his place in the Celtic history books, came on September 26, 1962 in the first round of the Fairs Cities Cup against Valencia.
Bobby’s goal in that 4-2 defeat was the first goal scored in European competition by a Celtic player. He had also fired in the shot which took a deflection off a Valencia player for Celtic’s first goal in the game, so he always had a valid claim for having scored the club’s first ever European goal as well.
An outside-right, Bobby joined Celtic in September 1957 from Irvine Meadow and made his first-team debut in a League Cup tie against Partick Thistle on August 12, 1959. The first of his 28 goals for the Hoops came just three days later when he scored in a 4-2 defeat away to Airdrie in the same competition.
He moved to St Mirren in February 1963 and returned to Celtic Park with his new team just a few weeks later, helping them to a 1-1 draw. After spells with Dundee United, Coleraine and Queen of the South, he rejoined Irvine Meadow where he finished his career.
The thoughts and prayers of everyone at Celtic are with Bobby’s wife, Ann, his family and friends at this very sad time.