Culley, James

Personal

Fullname: James Culley
aka: Jimmy Culley
Born: 20 July 1915
Died: […]
Birthplace: Croy, North Lanarkshire
Signed: 1941 (loan) / Jan 1942 (permanent)
Left: end 1942
Position: Goalkeeper
Debut: Falkirk 0-1 Celtic, Regional League, 15 Oct 1941
Internationals: none

Biog

Initially brought on loan from Alloa in the autumn of 1941 Croy-born Jimmy Culley signed for the Bhoys on a full time basis in January 1942.

The former Hibernian goalkeeper made his debut in a 1-0 Regional League win at Falkirk on 1st October 1941 and in time took over from the under-performing John Hunter who was detained on essential wartime work. Opposing him was Bob Rooney who went on to have long career at Celtic in the backroom staff.

In truth, Culley didn’t have a great record at Hibs in goals, and had conceded heavily there (in admittedly poor Hibs sides) which included an 8-3 defeat to Hearts, 5-0 loss to Celtic and a 7-4 loss to Clyde. So the writing was already on the wall there.

As Celtic had a string of poor goalkeepers during this era, the introduction of Culley in retrospect was either one of desperation in lack of options or very poor judgement (or both even). He had previously played under Celtic manager Jimmy McStay whilst at Alloa, so maybe Jimmy McStay had some confidence in him.

Apart from in his second match, where Celtic conceded four goals in a 4-4 draw with Hearts, Culley was still an improvement on John Hunter, not that should have been the benchmark. Granted goals were conceded but not to the extent under his predecessor. So he shored up matters in goals to an extent and helped Celtic to move up to third in the league table which at that time was a big achievement for an underperforming Celtic side. However, he was still conceding too many goals, and Celtic were still incapable of clean sheets during this time.

Culley also was to play for the first team in the Glasgow Charity Cup, League Cup and end-of season Summer Cup but to no avail in medals, as Celtic floundered.

He was to be the regular goalkeeper for the first team through from 27 Dec 1941 till Aug 1942 when Willie Miller made his debut. Culley had conceded five goals in his first three league games in season 1942-43 which were to be his last. Yet Willie Miller had actually had a poorer start to that season but was given the nod ahead of Culley, and in retrospect that was to be the correct decision.

With the great talent that Willie Miller was to be (some would even argue Celtic’s only truly great talent throughout that wartime era), it was not going to be easy for anyone to compete with him, and sadly for Culley it was the end of the road for him at Celtic.

He had made a total of 22 League & League Cup appearances before losing his place to Willie Miller.

In any case, Celtic were a shambles in how it was run during that time (both at club and board level), so not an easy environment for anyone.

By the end of the year (1942) Jimmy Culley had left Parkhead. It just wasn’t to be for him at Celtic.

Playing Career

Honours with Celtic

none

Pictures

• Player Pics

(note below misses out his time at Celtic during the war)

source: https://www.vintagefootballers.com/product/culley-james-image-1-lincoln-1938/

Condorrat, North Lanarkshire born goalkeeper James Culley joined Scottish junior club
Camelon Juniors in 1933 from where he was signed by Scottish League Hibernian in 1934. He made his Scottish League debut at Falkirk in April 1935 and made 34 appearances in his four seasons at Easter Road. In the summer of 1938 he was signed by Third Division (North) Lincoln City as understudy to Dan McPhail and he made his Football League debut against Chester in September 1938 playing 5 times for The Imps that month before losing his place after a 6-0 defeat at Crewe Alexandra. He returned to Scotland after a single season at Sincil Bank to join Alloa Athletic in the summer of 1939 but The Second World War brought a premature end to his professional football career.