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Personal
Fullname: Francis Meechan
aka: Frank Meechan
Born: 27 Oct 1929
Died: 20 Aug 1976
Birthplace: Condorrat
Signed: 1 July 1952
Left: 1959 (free)
Position: Defender, Full-back
Debut: Hibernian 3-0 Celtic, League Cup, 30 Aug 1952
Internationals: none
Biog
Croy-man Francis Meechan signed for Celtic in July 1952 as a free agent after previous spells in junior football and with Hibernian. It was a poor time for Celtic and not one many new players would have liked to be playing at. Celtic were the poor relations in Scottish football at the time as Rangers and the Edinburgh sides were the top dogs.
He was a part-time player until the 1955-56 season, and was said to enjoy the camaraderie of the pit.
The full-back made his debut in a 3-0 League Cup defeat at Hibernian on August 30th 1952. Despite the defeat the defeat, he played in the following match, a 2-1 league victory over Rangers. However, that was a rare respite for him that season, as Celtic lost more than they won in his matches. He was to lose his place to Alex Rollo for the Coronation Cup success which helped to reboot Celtic.
The season next, he was a regular in the League and Cup double winning side of 1954, which helped to reignite Celtic back to the top of Scottish football after being a poor relation to the club’s piers over the the past generation. Playing alongside Jock Stein, the first team helped steer the club back to glory. In the New Years Derby match in 1954, he was reported to have a mastery of Rangers’ Waddell, which helped push Celtic to a 1-0 victory. Taking in that Celtic had lost 4-0 in their last meeting to Rangers, this was quite a turnaround.
He also played in the Scottish Cup final in April 1954, with Celtic defeating Aberdeen 2-1 which sealed the league & cup double.
He retained his place the season after when Celtic were to be unfortunate not to repeat their feats of the past season, coming second to Aberdeen in 1954/55. He also played in both of the Scottish Cup final matches which Celtic sadly lost to Clyde 1-0 in the replay. In the first final, he & Johnny Bonnar combined to unintentionally let Clyde score a last minute equaliser, coming in from a corner-kick inswinger at the near post.
A tendency to make the occasional costly error – such as the gaffe in the 1955 Scottish Cup final – meant Frank Meechan was never a regular starter in his latter years at the club. After initially being a starting partner for Mike Haughney through 1954-55, he fell into the reserves and became a replacement for Sean Fallon whenever the Irishman was injured.
In one strange moment for Frank Meechan in a game v Falkirk, the Celtic crowd once famously turned on Frank Meechan for fouling the great ex-Celt Jimmy Delaney (who had just recently moved to Falkirk).
He made a resurgence to the first team in the latter half of season 1957/58 as a right back to the left back of Neil Mochan. He had played some earlier matches in the season in the league cup group games, but did not play in the classic 7-1 victory in the final v Rangers.
He never scored a goal for Celtic, a mark of a dedicated defender some might say.
After a loan period at Stirling Albion in 1958 he was eventually released by the club in 1959 after 116 appearances in the three major domestic competitions.
He later was to be a scout for Celtic from 1968 until July 1975 working through Cumbernauld Utd where he developed many young players for the Juniors and was instrumental in the development of Kenny Dalglish.
Frank Meechan sadly passed away prematurely in 1976 at his home in Croy.
Playing Career
| APPEARANCES | LEAGUE | SCOTTISH CUP | LEAGUE CUP | EUROPE | TOTAL |
| 1952-59 | 86 | 19 | 11 | – | 116 |
| Goals: | 0 | 0 | 0 | – | 0 |
