M | Player Pics | A-Z of Players | World War Two
Personal
Fullname: William Miller
aka: Willie Miller
Born: 20 October 1924
Died: 23 May 2005
Birthplace: Larkhall, Scotland
Signed: 20 May 1942 (from Maryhill Harp)
Left: 1 August 1950 (to Clyde)
Position: Goalkeeper
Debut: Celtic v Hamilton Accies, Regional League, 22 Aug 1942
Internationals: Scotland; Scottish League
International Caps: 6 Caps; 1 Cap with the Scottish League
Biog
| “Willie Miller was Celtic’s busiest ever keeper” From Tom Campbell’s biog on Bobby Evans |
He is undoubtedly one of the best loved Celtic goalkeepers of all time despite joining the club when it was in a sorry state both on & off the field. Willie Miller’s brilliance in goals helped save Celtic on many occasions throughout the bleak days of the 1940’s, but he was to suffer in this era and not win any major silverware as a player of his quality deserved.
Willie Miller was born in Glasgow on 20th October 1924 – he initially played for St. Rollox United before joining Celtic in May 1942 whilst starring for Maryhill Harp. He was training to be an engineer and and worked all day only to then work again in training for Celtic.
It can be taken that part of the reason for the eagerness to play Willie Miller was likely as Celtic had badly stumbled in recent years to find a competent keeper. Recent incumbents in the goals included Robert Smith and Donald McKay who had been conceding goals heavily, and due to wartime there were shortages in manpower to recruit.
Brave and athletic, Willie Miller was a stylish goalkeeper with excellent anticipation and clean handling. Willie Miller made his debut in a 2-2 Regional League draw with Hamilton at Parkhead on 22 August 1942. Incredibly he was just 17 years old, so quite a vote of confidence in his ability from an early age despite being put in what is one of the most demanding roles on the field (especially in those days where unlike today, goalkeepers are not as well protected by the referee).
His willingness to do anything to stop a goal saw the keeper pick up countless injuries (and stitches). His acrobatic saves often astounded the Celtic support and frustrated opposition forwards. He could seemingly turn his body in any direction to stop a goal bound shot.
Some of the plaudits included:
- “Miller’s brilliance defied Hearts time after time” (1943);
- “Excellent goalkeeping by Miller” (v Hearts 1944);
- “Miller had a magnificent second-half” (v Rangers 1945);
- “A keeper in a million” (v Rangers 1946).
It was however Miller’s misfortune to be the final line of defence for some dismal Celtic sides and instead of winning trophies as his efforts deserved they often merely prevented humiliating defeats. Willie Miller eventually lost his place to John Bonnar and was transferred to Clyde on 1st August 1950 after 265 Celtic appearances in the league & Scottish Cup, and a highly deserved place as a Celtic favourite and great assured. He was still young, only 26 on his transfer, so possibly moving him on was premature. On his departure, many fans actually wrote to him bemoaning his loss to the club.
He actually had a relatively poor record compared to various other Celtic goalkeepers in the club’s history, 28 shut-outs in this period to give just a 23% shutout rate (post-war). Compared to say Ronnie Simpson (an incredible 48% shutout rate), Willie Miller is way behind. However, the figures must be taken in light of the whole team during the period (Ronnie Simpson played with the majestic Lisbon Lions). Celtic’s teams during the 1940’s were managed poorly and the tactics were woeful. The war period and for a number of years thereafter was a disastrous time for Celtic. If Willie Miller wasn’t there, the results would have been far worse. You only need to look at the records of certain of the goalkeepers that had recently preceded him to see what a difference Willie Miller had made; those other goalkeepers records were dreadful.
It was remarked that “Willie Miller was Celtic’s busiest ever keeper“, which in light of the form of the First Team from during his era, that remark is most probably correct.
If an example was to show how much the fans rated both his ability and person, then the following anecdote is apt. After a 4-1 defeat to Third Lanark in September 1946, the fans demonstrated against the state the club was in. Despite Willie Miller having been the goalkeeper to have conceded four goals that day, on seeing Willie Miller the crowd actually erupted into cheers. The demonstration petered out not long after. The support never held Willie Miller accountable for the state the club was in, but rather saw him as having buffeted the team from being ever the worse.
It is a sad reflection on the Celtic team of the period that despite having undoubtedly one of Celtic’s most popular and highest regarded club goalkeepers, Willie Miller never actually won any major domestic honours with Celtic. Willie Miller did however win some silverware with Clyde in the 1951/52 season – Glasgow Cup, Charity Cup, Supplementary Cup and the Second Division Championship Trophy.
On the international front, the hugely loved keeper won six Scotland caps in 1946/47 and seven Scottish League caps. As with Celtic, he was to not play in a great side, and so his record at international level was also poor in these matches. Scotland lost four of the matches (with ten goals conceded) and had one 6-0 victory over Luxembourg. Scotland did manage a 1-1 draw with England away in front of 98,250 attending with Willie Miller in goal; both teams were presented to then Prime Minister Clement Atlee before kick-off.
Willie Miller left Clyde in January 1954, moving to Hibs and then subsequently retired in the close season of 1955.
Out of every player who ever played Celtic, there is likely no other player who at the end of their time at the club deserved so much more in many ways than Willie Miller in what transpired during their time at the club. Willie Miller though reflected fondly on his time at Celtic which is much to respect and be humbled by:
“I thoroughly enjoyed my football career! It was wonderful to play for Celtic; they were a great club with such a wonderful support and I have very happy memories of my days there.”
Following his football career, Willie Miller worked as a whisky representative and then ran his own pub in the Townhead area of Glasgow not that far from Celtic Park.
He died in May 2005. He will always be fondly remembered.
Quotes
“I thoroughly enjoyed my football career! It was wonderful to play for Celtic; they were a great club with such a wonderful support and I have very happy memories of my days there.”
Willie Miller speaking to Jim Craig
“Miller, half-blinded and limping, refused to leave the field and played in a dazed condition for most of the match. Thistle players rushed to shake his hand at the end.”
Press report on Partick Thistle 4-1 Celtic, 16th November, 1946.
“Willie Miller was Celtic’s busiest ever keeper”
From Tom Campbell’s biog on Bobby Evans
Playing Career
| APPEARANCES | LEAGUE | SCOTTISH CUP | LEAGUE CUP | EUROPE | REGIONAL LEAGUE |
REGIONAL LEAGUE CUP |
TOTAL |
| 1942-50 | 94 | 6 | 23 | n/a | 117 | 25 | 265 |
| Shut-outs | 21 | 3 | 4 | n/a | 26 | 10 | 74 |
Honours with Celtic
No Major Honours
Pictures
Links
Articles
THE GREATEST CELTIC GOALKEEPER?
By David W Potter
With Artur Boruc currently receiving rave reviews – and deservedly so – David W Potter pays tribute to a goalkeeper who many describe as Celtic’s greatest ever – Willie Miller.
David writes:
The scene was Pittodrie Park the week between Christmas and New Year, 1980. Celtic were being comprehensively beaten by an Aberdeen side whose fans chanted “There’s only one Willie Miller” in tribute to their captain whose side (which included Alex McLeish and Gordon Strachan) were doing so well. The old man sitting beside me demurred with the sentiments of the song, and told me there had been another Willie Miller “and a damned sight better than either of them”, pointing to Jim Leighton and Paddy Bonner. He was of course referring to the man that many people think was Celtic’s greatest ever goalkeeper.
Willie Miller is a prisoner of history in that he came and reached his peak at the worst time in the history of Celtic F.C., namely the years of the Second World War and immediately afterwards, when Celtic had a few fine individuals but a dreadful team. 1948 was the year that Celtic were saved from the ignominy of relegation. Everyone said that they rescued themselves at Dens Park on the last day. Not so! Dundee and the referee “collaborated” that day, and in any case Celtic had been saved on five occasions earlier that season when what should have been defeats were turned into goal-less draws by Willie Miller.
In a funny sort of a way, it is easy to be a goalkeeper in a bad team. One gets loads of practice! But Miller was good enough to convince the Scottish selectors to give him 6 Scottish Caps, his most famous one being the first England v. Scotland International at Wembley after the War on 12th April 1947 , when he was absolutely inspirational in the last five minutes as England forced three corners. In that era, he was the only Celtic player to be even remotely considered for a Scottish place, and he never let his country down.
Willie had joined Celtic in 1942 from Maryhill Harp while still only 17, and his debut was at the start of the 1942-3 season. Press reports are unanimous in singing his praises, not least for his courage in diving at the feet of his opponents. It was estimated that at one time or another he must have had about 100 stitches in his head and face! He also had the cat-like ability to take off late in his jump, thus giving himself an extra split second to think and judge the pace of a shot. He could also, like many great goalkeepers, “read” a game, and be in the correct position to intercept crosses. Above all else, he clearly enjoyed being a goalkeeper, acting as a calming influence to those around him.
It is a shame that one cannot record any major domestic honours coming his way. One Glasgow Charity Cup in 1943 and one Glasgow Cup in 1948 are all the medals that he won with Celtic. What a shame it was that other goalkeepers, competent perhaps but not as brilliant as Willie Miller, won more medals than he did – simply because they were in better teams. Yet there was no goalkeeper more loved than he.
One day in September 1946 after a dire defeat by Third Lanark, an angry mob had assembled outside Parkhead. Management shrewdly sent out Willie Miller, suitcase in hand (suitcases were used to carry kit in those days) as if he were simply going home. The crowd cheered, for Willie was not to blame for the poor performances, Willie said a few things to them, and the crowd dispersed, some of them having shaken hands with one of the very few heroes that Parkhead possessed in those dreadful days.
Willie was blamed for the defeat by Hearts on Hogmanay 1949 and replaced by John Bonnar, a good goalkeeper but not really any better than Miller. Then to the chagrin of his many fans, Miller was allowed to go in 1950 to Clyde , with whom he won another three medals (Glasgow Cup and Charity Cup and Scottish League “B” Division in 1951-52).
Before he retired in 1956, he had a brief spell with Hibs. He worked later in the tobacco industry and the licensing trade, but being a quiet man by nature, he kept himself very much to himself.
Celtic were often famous for their goalkeepers. One can think of Dan McArthur, Davie Adams, Charlie Shaw, Joe Kennaway, John Thomson, Ronnie Simpson and Paddy Bonner – fine custodians, and all of them won many trophies for the Club. But those who followed the Club in the terrible years of the 1940s will argue strongly that the greatest of them all was Willie Miller.
Willie Miller recently died at the age of 80 years.
Willie Miller Former Celtic goalkeeper renowned for his courage
The Herald
BOB CRAMPSEY
Saturday 25 June 2005
ON THE face of it there would appear to be little to say about a Celtic goalkeeper who completed a 10-year stint without winning a Scottish Cup medal or, indeed, without even appearing in a final.
He had been blessed with technical ability, elegance and, above all, courage. Had there been a conspicuous gallantry medal for goalkeepers, his cupboards would have been full of them. He arrived at Parkhead in 1942 at one of the lowest points in the history of the east end club. He came up to senior football in the timehonoured way at St Rollox in the juveniles and Maryhill Harp in the juniors.
Goalkeeping had been a problem for Celtic ever since their keeper, Joe Kennaway, had returned to his native Canada at the outbreak of war in September 1939. One or two guest keepers, such as Hunter of Kilmarnock and Johnstone of Aberdeen, were tried out with little success. The young keeper, ready to start the season 1942-43 was coming in to a fraught situation. The former chairman, Willie Maley, had parted acrimoniously from the club shortly before. After his departure, the club seemed content to sleepwalk through the rest of the war. The handful of players left from pre-1939 days had become cynical as the new arrivals seemed on the whole to be substandard.
But not this one. What impressed about Willie Miller was his graceful athleticism and his courage. He was intrepid to the point of foolhardiness. In any run-of-the-mill fixture he would imperil his safety three or four times per match. Time and again he would hurl himself at the feet of an advancing opponent and scoop the ball from his toes.
There was an irony here. Every day when Willie Miller entered the main doors at Parkhead he came under the eye of the large picture of Johnny Thomson, a Celtic goalkeeper who had also been brave that one time too often.
The finest example of Willie Miller’s naked courage was provided in the inter-league match of 1947 on a snowbedecked Hampden. Those looking back through the files will see the record simply reading: Scottish League 1, Football League 3. What had happened was rather different.
The Football League forward line contained three other great forwards of that time in the persons of Stanley Matthews, Horacio Carter and Wilf Mannion, and these three, Matthews in particular, were carving up the Scottish League defence at will. This was causing the Scottish rearguard considerable bother. In the course of the first half, Johnny Kelly of Third Lanark, a perfectly valid choice, was given such a runaround by Matthews that to all intents and purposes his career was finished.
Four times Miller plunged to the ground to thwart English forwards and on the fifth he did not get up. The trainer emerged and mopped up copious amounts of blood. Chalkwhite, Miller staggered off and George Young took over in goal. Ten minutes passed and then a roar as Miller wearing a turbanesque hat went to outside left and an even bigger roar when he started the second half in his own position.
Almost at once Dennis Westcott of Wolves was clean through and before anyone realised what had happened Miller had plunged earthwards and come up with the ball.
He brought out the chivalrous side of his opponents’ character. Late in the war, at the height of an unsavoury Old Firm battle, he was forcefully charged by an opponent, and the miscreant was equally forcefully rebuked not by Miller but by Billy Williamson of Rangers.
The warwas by now over but apparently no-one had told the Celtic board. In the five years after the war, the Celtic club drifted along like the Marie Celeste. In 1948, Morton put Celtic out of the Scottish Cup at the semi-final stage and Miller would never again be as near to the major prize.
His was a strange international career. A 1-0 win against Luxembourg was his only international success but when capped against England at Wembley he played well in securing a 1-1 draw.
He was a connoisseur’s keeper. In those days when bumping the keeper was a sport within the sport, his cutting out of crosses was a delight to watch. Only Jimmy Cowen of Morton has been in the same class in this regard.
In the other kind of timing he was not so fortunate. Ten years at Parkhead did not bring the medal which young George Hunter acquired after a couple of matches. He was moved on to Clyde and in his four years at Shawfield he maintained his policy of arriving either just too soon to be in the honours parade or getting there just as the great doors swung shut.
His last couple of seasons were spent with Hibernian, and although the absolute edge had gone, he remained a fine keeper.
By force of circumstance, much of his keeping was on the plane of damage limitation.
At a time when Celtic had the occasional good player, if hardly ever a good team, Miller provided flashes of hope and poetry. Miller could not any more than any man make a bad side a good one, but he could and did invest it with the cloak of respectability.
