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Fullname: James Conway
aka: Jim Conway
Born: 27 August 1940
Birthplace: Motherwell
Signed: 23 August 1956 (prov); 27 August 1957 (full)
Left: 30 April 1961 (£12,000 to Norwich City)
Position: Centre-Forward
Debut: Falkirk 0-1 Celtic, League, 7 Sep 1957
Internationals: none
Biog
His debut came in a 1-0 league win at Falkirk on 7th September 1957, breaking into the first team at the age of 17, at the time the youngest player at the time to have played for Celtic to date.
His next match was a few months away, and was to be his scoring debut in a 2-1 defeat to Queen of the South in December 1957, Conway whipping a Bobby Collins pass into the corner of the net to pull one back for Celtic.
He had to wait a little while before regular first team football but the Motherwell-born player scored plenty of goals for Jock Stein’s reserve side.
About 12 months on from his first team debut Jim had forced himself into the starting line-up on a regular basis but he struggled to find the scoring form he had displayed at reserve level.
Didn’t help that Jimmy McGrory wouldn’t make him permanent earlier in his career, said to have been due to the broken leg on top of a broken apprenticeship suffered by earlier Celtic player John McGrory. He insisted that James Conway get a trade for his own benefit which in retrospect is good advice.
Hard-working and with a great shot Jim Conway was an undoubtedly promising attacker with bags of ability but at the highest level he seemed to dwell on the ball for just that split second too long.
Over the seasons he was mostly in and out the first team, and rarely a regular. Possibly his best form was in early 1958/59 where he scored four goals in the then pre-season league cup tournament but Celtic were knocked out 2-1 v Partick Thistle in the semi-finals, Jim Conway scoring the consolation goal. However, he only went on to score one goal in the league matches afterwards in that season.
He was transferred to Norwich in April 1961 for a £12,000 fee, and was Norwich City’s first £100 a week player. Strong and well built, he took a while to get off the mark but did well at Norwich.
Jock Stein tried to buy him for his high flying Dunfermline side but to no avail. Jock Stein didn’t forget that as a reserve team manager at Celtic that Jim Conway had scored a barrowload of goals (four) in a reserve team cup final v Rangers, Jock Stein’s first coaching trophy. When Jock Stein had left Celtic, Jim Conway commented that:
‘We had enough on our plates rather than care about what faith some bloke had’.
His early promise just petered out at Celtic, which was a poor place to come for any aspiring player in the late 1950s/early 1960s. He was just another victim of this. He was said to always give his best and that we can all respect.
Possibly he was one of the major losses to the club in that era, and surely most can only wonder now “What if?“.
He later moved to Portadown to play under the great Charlie Tully.
Later he would go on to coach Bolton Wanderers in 1968, and in time became the national coach of St Vincent and the Grenadines, and coached the reserve team at conference side Leigh RMI. He continued to scout for various clubs such as Aberdeen and Norwich City. He moved on to work for the Press Association covering mainly Bolton and Bury games.
His brother-in-law was John Kelman who became Chief Scout at Celtic Park in 1978.
One curious trivia note on Jim Conway was that on 11 March 1959, together with four other Celtic players (including Charlie Tully) he had to sign a short-term deal with Rangers in order to play for a Celtic/Rangers XI v Caledonian FC in a friendly to mark the turning on of their new floodlights. This was due to Scottish FA rules requiring all players fielded by a club to be signed to that club. Therefore, this was as if it was a Rangers team with Celtic players as guests. See Link.
Playing Career
| APPEARANCES | LEAGUE | SCOTTISH CUP | LEAGUE CUP | EUROPE | TOTAL |
| 1956-61 | 32 | 1 | 10 | n/a | 43 |
| Goals: | 9 | 0 | 4 | – | 13 |
Honours with Celtic
None
Pictures
Articles
Jim Conway Interview21/5/2018
Source:
http://cc.bingj.com/cache.aspx?q=jim+conway+norwich&d=5023365486216976&mkt=en-GB&setlang=en-GB&w=Oee8zppRmTXsXJCxu00DqvjuIHSnqtaJ
https://www.villafychannel.com/blog/3
Jim Conway was born in Motherwell, Scotland and was a prominent and highly successful professional footballer from the early fifties through to the early eighties and on a chilly morning in spring I was on my way to his Bolton home where he has lived for almost 40 years with his wife Mary. He offered to pick me up from Bolton train station and there I met him at the appointed time, the Scottish footballing legend dressed in a fashionable brown chequered suit and brown polished shoes.
After a short drive through Bolton, we reached the Conway residence, where I met his wife Mary, and I was offered a cup of tea and some Scottish shortbread. A tour of Jim’s home followed, during which I was shown neatly displayed photographs which marked out key moments in his career. As a tried to put pen to paper, Jim soon dived into our interview as he described his early days as a football mad teenager in Motherwell, which led him to embark on a professional career which would take him on a journey through the Scottish, English and Irish professional leagues.
Youth
Jim was the youngest of eight children but it was only he and his elder sister who really had any interest in football. As a young boy, he enjoyed playing in the school teams around his home town and this strong interest came to fruition when he reached his middle teenage years when Jim played for the primary team at Motherwell at centre back. Jim’s subsequent move to Coltness United led to his first encounters with life- long friends Joe Backer and Denis Law, and the duo became the first few British players to play abroad with Torino in Italy.
Soon the news broke that Manchester United had offered the talented youngster a month’s trial with the club, with a full provisional if the trial proved successful. The bright lights of Manchester beckoned but wiser heads in Jim’s family expressed concerns about such an enormous step for someone so young, at a time when the support and security which is now routine for junior players was then virtually non-existent.
The consequent rejection of Manchester United’s offer, however, was the turning point as Celtic seized the opportunity and signed up young Jim.
Emotionally shell-shocked that he was getting a chance to sign up for one of the biggest clubs in European football at such a young age, the offer was laid before the young player in the city of Glasgow in 1957, with Jim’s proud father standing beside him. After more negotiations and lots of celebrations, Jim signed for Celtic on a provisional contract at the age of 16 years – after just two months in the reserves and lots of hard grafting on the training pitch, Jim broke into the first team in 1957 in his debut match against Falkirk at the age of 17, the youngest player at the time to ever play for Celtic.
Professional
With his game constantly maturing and growing ever stronger, Jim Conway’s early years at Celtic were characterised by the great relationship he established with then reserve manager Jock Stein and success as a young player looked assured. But 4 years on following a day of training at Celtic Park, Jim and Jock were sharing their journey home one evening which had become routine for the two friends, when Jim noticed that Jock looked almost in tears. Jock informed him that Celtic would not allow him to continue at the club as reserve manger anymore and that he’d have to find another job somewhere else.
And the reason? Not due to questions or concerns about managerial skills or tactical ability in match strategy. This was the late 1950s and the reason for the termination of his contract was one of religion. Jock Stein was a Protestant. Celtic was predominantly Catholic in character. A heavy blow to Jock Stein, who resigned as manager of Celtic Football Club later that season. Jim lost a true friend and a firm believer in his abilities at a crucial time in his career. Expressing a view shared by many connected with the club at the time, Jim Conway commented, ‘We had enough on our plates rather than care about what faith some bloke had’. Opportunity comes knocking, often as a matter of luck, of being in the right place and the right time, and for Jim Conway, finding a supportive manager at Celtic at an early point in his footballing career had meant that Celtic Park in the late 1950s had been the right place at the right time.
Now, with Jock’s departure, everything changed. Opportunities for Jim to demonstrate his abilities on the pitch became fewer as he was overlooked by the new reserve team manager, and disparaging comments made a bad situation worse.
A glimmer of hope in a new beginning was offered when Jim was given a month’s club trial in the English league at Norwich City. He knew that if this did not meet with success, a return to the situation at Celtic would ensue, with little chance of him achieving his dreams. Happily, fortune favours the brave, and in more ways than one! Jim discovered a love for the ‘fine city’ of Norwich, discovered a love for the type of football the club was playing, and, most important of all, discovered the love of his life, his wife Mary.
Now playing football in England, it was Mary who provided Jim with a great amount of support, similar to the way in which his family had played such a pivotal role in his early years at Celtic.
It was a support upon which Jim would now lean heavily as, sadly, Norwich City encountered troubled waters, with the club falling into the trap of uncertainty, with five managerial changes in the space of three years, a state of affairs unheard of for a football club in the sixties.
Jim once more drew on another aspect of his character by facing realities and making a firm decision, transferring to Southend United and later embarking on a new journey in his career in team management. Jim was still only in his twenties, and had so much he still wanted to achieve on the pitch as a player.
After Southend United, Jim now moved across the Irish Sea to Porta Down, serving as player manager at the club, a development in his career which coincided with the return of Jock Stein to Celtic and his old friend having great success on the European stage. Jim was delighted to see his former reserve manager overcome the challenges of the past and return to Glasgow in order to win the greatest prize in club football.
Challenges now faced Jim Conway at Porta Down as he tried an array of strategies in order to achieve success with his team on a managerial role he carried forward these measures to Partick Thistle, returning to the city of Glasgow to play his final games as a professional footballer, completing a playing career spanning over 15 years.
Managerial and Coaching
Jim started coaching at Porta Down, Northern Ireland as a player manager and developed a strong commitment to team management during this time. He began seeking managerial positions further afield and this came in the form of St. Vincent and the Grenadines in the Caribbean.
He gathered enough resources from FIFA to create a football foundation in that country, enjoying the challenge with limited resources. Jim returned to the UK and settled in Bolton where he took on the role of chief scout and youth development officer at Bolton Wanderers. Jim spent almost a decade at Bolton Wanderers Football Club before retirement, the final chapter in a long, dramatic and fulfilling career.
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