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Personal
Fullname: Patrick McMahon
aka: Pat McMahon
Born: 19 Sep 1945
Birthplace: Kilsyth, North Lanarkshire
Signed: 27 May 1967
Left: 2 May 1969 (free)
Position: Inside Forward
Debut: 22 Aug 1967 Celtic 5-0 Partick Thistle (Glasgow Cup)
Internationals: none
Biog
Pat McMahon had the honour to be Celtic’s first signing following success in the 1967 European Cup final.
The inside-forward signed for the Hoops from Kilsyth Rangers just two days after the triumph in Lisbon. Interestingly, whilst with Kilsyth Rangers, he wrote to Celtic, asking for trials. Initially he had no luck and he moved to London, working for the GPO (General Post Office).
In April 1967, Kilsyth Rangers sent him a telegram asking him to play for them in the Scottish Junior Cup final as a last minute replacement for an injured player. He performed splendidly, and they won the cup. The next thing you know, Celtic responded promptly and signed him. So quite a turnaround.
Notably, prior to Celtic he’d actually trained in the priesthood, so life could have turned out so different than it did.
He made a scoring debut in a 5-0 Glasgow Cup drubbing of Partick Thistle on 22nd August 1967, scoring twice. He even took Lisbon Lions Bertie Auld’s place in a League Cup match in Sep 1967 and scored (a great achievement).
In fact in six first team appearances McMahon scored five goals, quite a great run of form. He actually scored in every Celtic game he played in bar one (a 1-1 draw with St Johnstone).
However, with competition at the European Cup holders fierce, Pat McMahon was more often than not a reserve team player and a lack of first team games was a cause of much frustration for the undoubtedly talented player.
Critics claim a lack of patience was the reason for Pat McMahon’s departure and being moved to a midfielder position (the player himself admitting he went in the ‘huff‘ after being dropped to the reserves). However others state that despite being highly rated by Jock Stein, Pat McMahon was forced through the exit door after clashing with assistant manager Sean Fallon.
As he put it himself:
“I think I got a bit too cocky… so that when I was dropped, I went in a huff, I didn’t show any interest in the reserves and that was the wrong attitude to take.“
At Celtic, young players could be given a few first team games but then pushed back down to the reserves. Some say this was a test for the young players, and it appears that Pat McMahon failed the attitude test (he was just young), but then again with his goal scoring record sympathisers could argue that he possibly deserved more chances.
Post-Celtic
He moved to Aston Villa in 1969 under ex-Celt Tommy Docherty who managed to get him on a free, and spent many years there.
However, his subsequent career with Aston Villa was mostly low-key, and likely indicates that the other youth players at Celtic at the time (which included the highly regarded Quality Street Gang) were better prospects, so in retrospect the Celtic coaches made the right decision to move him on for the benefit of the first team.
At Aston Villa, he went on to win a lower tier league medal and play in a league cup final, so some success to show for his efforts, which we can respect.
He later moved to the US and after spells as a player with Portland Timbers and Colorado Caribous, he became a coach/assistant manager with the Atlanta Chiefs.
Playing Career
| APPEARANCES | LEAGUE | SCOTTISH CUP | LEAGUE CUP | EUROPE | TOTAL |
| 1967-1969 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 6 |
| Goals: | 2 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 5 |
Honours with Celtic
Scottish League
