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Personal
Fullname: John Daniel Gould
aka: John Gould, Red Lichtie, Johnny Gauld, John Gauld, Johnny Gould
Born: 16 December 1919
Died: […]
Birthplace: Glasgow
Signed: November 1939 (Loan from Arbroath)
Position: Outside-Right
Debut: Morton 1-1 Celtic, Regional League, 11 Nov 1939
Internationals: N/A
Biog
A wartime loan signing, Barrhead boy John Gould was a skilful outside-right with Arbroath who was on the verge of a lucrative move to England when World War Two broke out. He was at the time of the move to Celtic an apprentice engineer with G&J Weir of Cathcart.
Apparently, Newcastle and West Ham had watched him with interest, with a figure of £4000 offered but with the war starting Celtic managed to grab him on loan for free.
John Gould, who would be Willie Maley’s last ever signing for Celtic, came to Parkhead in November 1939 and made his debut at Morton on 11th November 1939 in a 1-1 Regional League draw. In this debut, he was given a positive review by The Herald newspaper (who actually didn’t give a full match report):
“Gould of Arbroath at outside-right added much-needed colour to the Celtic attack“.
An entertaining wideman and described in one match report as a clever winger, Gould was regarded to have a tendency to over-do things and was viewed by critics as lacking directness in his play in his one season in 1939/40 with Celtic. At Arbroath, he “would persist in trying to beat the man twice” and had been encouraged to play the raiding winger and go for goals but was “timid when it came to shooting”.
Overall, Celtic were dreadful that season, finishing 13th out of 16 teams in the league, which was a truncated league set-up due to the wartime situation, so if it was a full season then Celtic could have finished even lower. Rangers won the title with 48pts, twice Celtic’s total. The first team lost 16 games out of 30 games, and even Albion Rovers finished far higher than Celtic that season.
He lost his place not long after Jimmy McStay became manager in February 1940, with his last game being a thumping 5-0 loss to Hamilton away on 3rd April 1940 with a number of games still left to play in the league. It was a Lanarkshire double, as Motherwell had defeated Celtic at Fir Park 2-0 just a few days earlier.
John Gould hadn’t played in a winning league game since 6th January, and since then had played in 5 league losses and a draw. Luckily there was no relegation to be concerned with that season.
As Celtic’s next game after the humiliation by Hamilton was against Rangers, understandably changes were needed fast in the team, and John Gould was dropped. Celtic still lost the game v Rangers but only by a more respectable scoreline of 2-1.
Probably his high-mark that season was in scoring twice in December 1939 when Celtic defeated Dumbarton 5-1.
By August that year he was playing on loan for Albion Rovers, and with Celtic’s record that season, major changes were needed, worsened by the difficult wartime environment. His loan unsurprisingly wasn’t renewed.
He had played 17 times in the wartime league & cup for the Bhoys and scored five goals, in what was a season to be best forgotten for Celtic fans.
John Gould was to move on in a series of loan moves during the war, including spells at Morton, Raith Rovers, Dumbarton and Third Lanark. He was freed from Arbroath in 1947 and moved onto Ayr Utd before wrapping up his time with Stenhousemuir.
Note: Red Lichtie – Nickname for Arbroath so named because of the red light in Arbroath harbour that used to guide fishing boats home.
Playing Career
| APPEARANCES | REGIONAL LEAGUE |
WAR EMERGENCY CUP | LEAGUE CUP | EUROPE | TOTAL |
| 1939-40 | 15 | 2 | N/A | N/A | 17 |
| Goals: |
4 |
1 |
– |
– |
5 |
* = Appearances refer to unofficial wartime competitions
Honours with Celtic
none