Hewitt, John

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Fullname: John Hewitt
Born: 9 February 1963
Birthplace: Aberdeen, Scotland
Signed: 14 August 1989
Left: 7 Jan 1992 (free); 20 Jan 1992 (to St Mirren)
Position: Forward, Striker
First game: Dumbarton away 3-0 League cup 16 August 1989
Last game: Rangers Hampden 1-2 League cup final 28 October 1990
Internationals: none

Biog

Forward John Hewitt was a member of the hugely successful Aberdeen squad of the early 1980s.

Aberdeen-born Hewitt came off the bench to score an extra-time headed winner for Alex Ferguson’s Dons against Real Madrid in the 1983 European Cup Winners Cup final. Signed by Billy McNeill from the Dons on 14th August 1989, he came to Parkhead to add competition to the frontline.

He arrived at Celtic at a prime age of 26, with many believing he could help turn around the first team who had floundered badly over the past year. It wasn’t to be.

John Hewitt did make a promising Celtic debut in a 3-0 League Cup win at Dumbarton on August 16th. In truth, though, Hewitt’s best days were long gone. Knee ligament problems certainly didn’t help matters but the player was simply no longer of the quality needed to lift the Bhoys from the doldrums they found themselves in. Surprisingly for a player who was known as a top striker at Pittodrie, McNeill insisted in playing Hewitt out wide on the left flank where he never really looked comfortable.

His last chance came in the Autumn of 1990 when he had a decent run in the team and earned a place on the bench for the League Cup final against Rangers on 28th October 1990 which Celtic lost 2-1 after extra time. After that he was injured again and drifted out of the picture. He had been a constant thorn in Celtic’s side at Aberdeen but was to be a major disappointment to the Celtic fans who remembered this.

Hewitt was no more than a fringe player during his time at Parkhead and it was clear that neither the player or club were close to recapturing former glories. In truth, Celtic were so bad, that his poor spell went under the radar at the club.

He would make just 21 appearances – never scoring. He had a loan spell at Middlesborough,  before being released in January 1992.

He moved to St Mirren spending a number of years there, where to the amazement of some Celtic fans he even scored a decent number of goals!

A short, unsuccessful spell as player-manager of Dundalk was notable only for the fact that Hewitt scored the only goal of a pre-season friendly game against Aberdeen. He then had a spell with Ross County, but then Hewitt retired from the game after a season as assistant manager to his former Aberdeen team-mate Doug Rougvie at Cove Rangers.

John Hewitt basically followed other Aberdeen players to Celtic. In part for financial reasons, but maybe a new challenge also. The entire environment in Scottish football was changing with the arrival of David Murray at Rangers, and Celtic were just not keeping up with the neighbours.

Sadly, neither he nor Joe Miller reached the heights that they could have at Celtic. The circumstances were part of the problems, but then again maybe their best was simply more at Aberdeen than ever with Celtic, and in John Hewitt’s case his heart was also mostly at Aberdeen too.

After football, he moved into employment in the oil and gas industry with Ithaca Energy.

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Playing Career

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