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Personal
Fullname: Thomas Doyle
aka: Tom Doyle
Born: 15 January 1916
Died: […]
Birthplace: Uddingston
Signed: 19 November 1935
Left: 1938 (free)
Position: Goalkeeper
Debut: Third Lanark 4-2 Celtic, League, 6 April 1937
Internationals: none
Biog
Uddingston-born goalkeeper Tom Doyle was signed by the Bhoys from Blantyre Celtic in November 1935.
Mostly a reserve, he was loaned to Arbroath before returning and eventually making his first team debut, following an injury to Joe Kennaway, in a 4-2 defeat at Third Lanark on 6th April 1937.
He still played in the next two games which saw Celtic win 4-3 v Dunfermline and 5-1 v Arbroath. Six goals conceded in three games looks poor, but he was somewhat fortunate as only two games later Celtic lost by 8-0 to Motherwell in the last league game of the season and thankfully for himself he wasn’t in goals. So on that showing it looks like the Celtic goalkeepers weren’t the only problems. Some of his successors to come during the early war years had even poorer records.
His next games were in the next season (1937/38), once again deputising for Joe Kennaway, but yet again he conceded goals in a 3-1 victory over Clyde and then a 2-0 defeat to Arbroath.
He thankfully kept a clean-sheet against Sunderland at Roker Park in the battle between the Scottish and English Cup winners (Celtic winning 2-0) in 1937. A major cross-border match and one in which in retrospect he can take pride in. The Sunderland team were a celebrated side, with centre-forward Raich Carter the captain and pin-up boy of Sunderland and England. The Wearsiders, with a wealth of talent in their team, had won the top tier English League in 1935/35 for the sixth time and the FA Cup in 1937 but were to fail to score against Celtic and Tom Doyle in this match.
In total, Tom Doyle played a total of five league games with no shut-outs and nine goals conceded for the Bhoys, before being released in 1938 and joining Rochdale.
Celtic won the league in 1937/38, so he got to play a small part in that title triumph, the last for around a generation or so at Celtic.
Tom Doyle served in the armed forces (1940-46) during the war years, and later on played for ‘Celtic1938‘ in the 1950s who were affectionately known as the ‘Celtic Old Crocks‘. He even ‘suffered‘ for the Celtic cause, when in 1956 during a charity match at Kilmarnock he suffered two broken ribs.
Playing Career
| APPEARANCES | LEAGUE | SCOTTISH CUP | LEAGUE CUP | EUROPE | TOTAL |
| 1935-38 |
5 |
0 |
N/A |
N/A |
5 |
| Shut-outs: | 0 |
0 |
– |
– |
0 (0%) |