Curley, Thomas

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Fullname: Thomas Curley
aka: Tommy Curley, Tom Curley
Born: 11 June 1945
Birthplace: Glasgow
Signed: 27 Nov 1961
Left: 1965 (free); Sep 1965 (Brentford)
Position: Outside-right
Debut: Hearts 4-2 Celtic, League, 26 Sep 1964
Internationals: none

Biog

Thomas Curley was at Celtic for five seasons but made just one competitive appearance with the first team.

The Glasgow-born youngster had joined Portsmouth straight from school but was quickly homesick and returned to his home city when Celtic signed him in 1960 after just a few months at Fratton Park.

His first and only game came in a 4-2 league defeat at Hearts on September 26th 1964. It was a poor time to be at Celtic and he just missed out in playing a part in the revolution that was to be brought in with the arrival of Jock Stein just a few months after his debut.

Interestingly, in his one and only game, he played alongside six future Lisbon Lions. Shows how things changed so quickly at Celtic, but Tommy was not to play a part in it. He dropped into the Reserves and was also seen playing with the young Combined Reserves at the end of the 1964-65 season.

With the change in policy on youth development at the end of the 1964-65 season he was freed by Celtic in 1965 and joined Brentford that September.

It was a difficult time at a struggling Brentford, but he made a number of appearances for their first team over two seasons before being cut due to financial issues at the club then in the fourth tier in English football. The sad irony is that whilst he was being cut from the bottom of the rung in England, some of his former colleagues at Celtic had just won the European Cup and domestic treble to make history.

He later moved onto Crewe Alexandra, then returned home to Scotland to play for Hamilton for a short period before wrapping up his career.

He became Chairman of the local junior football team, Bankhall Villa when they won a juniors Scottish Cup at Hampden in 1993.

Thomas Curley moved later in life into politics, and was a member of the Scottish Labour Party for over 20 years becoming a councillor for Airdrie South. He held positions of Junior Whip, Deputy Provost and Provost. He even went on to become provost (i.e. Mayor) of North Lanarkshire until May 2012.

He resigned from the Scottish Labour Party in October 2016 and became an independent councillor, not standing for re-election in the 2017 North Lanarkshire Council election.

Playing Career

Honours with Celtic

none

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