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Fullname Ian Edmund Andrews
aka: Ian Andrews
Born: 1 December 1964
Birthplace: Nottingham, England
Signed: 26 July 1988
Left: 22 December 1989
Position Goalkeeper
First game: Hearts 1-0 home 13 August 1988, League
Last game: Aberdeen 1-3 home 17 September 1988, League
Internationals: none
Biog 
Born on 1st December 1964, goalkeeper Ian Andrews, a promising England under 21 player, was signed from Leicester City in June 1988.
Arriving in the wake of Celtic’s double winning Centenary season the midlander was that summer’s only signing and arrived for a fee of £300,000. A popular figure in his early years at Filbert Street, Andrews was given an early chance to shine at Parkhead due to an injury to Paddy Bonner.
His debut was a 1-0 win v Hearts in the league, and was given positive reviews for his performance, helping to keep a clean sheet with notably stopping Hearts’ Colquhoun from scoring.
However, things were to deteriorate fast, and he never kept a clean-sheet again for Celtic.
He failed to impress after his debut, and Andrews was derided in particular for his performance at Ibrox on 27th August 1988 as Celtic crashed 5-1, the club’s worst loss to Rangers in 28 years and sadly it was to set the tone for the side that season. To Billy McNeil’s credit, he recognised Andrews’ confidence was hit but kept him in the first team despite that defeat to Rangers to help him recover his confidence.
Despite the vote of confidence by the manager, mentally he was too badly dented, and he went on to lose a poor goal in Hungary against Hoved in the European Cup. Billy McNeill was forced to drop his now error prone goalkeeper and bring in the veteran Alan Rough until Pat Bonner regained fitness.
Almost a year to the day after that humiliation against Rangers in the league, Celtic lost 3-0 to Rangers in a Reserve League match at Ibrox, with Ian Andrews getting sent off after just four minutes. Nothing seemed to be going right for Ian Andrews at Celtic sadly.
Ian Andrews in total had conceded 15 goals in 8 first team matches, and the writing was on the wall. There weren’t to be any further chances for him.
After Pat Bonner returned from injury, Ian Andrews was loaned to Leeds in early December before heading permanently to Southampton (where he was second to Tim Flowers) for £200k on 7th Feb 1990.
Generally regarded by some commentators as one of the poorest goalkeepers that Celtic have had in their history but that’s not necessarily a short list. There are actually Celtic goalkeepers from the 1930s-40s who can be argued to have been far poorer.
In fairness to him if things had just been a bit different in those early poor games (especially against Rangers) then things could have been very different for him over the longer term. Must add that the defence in front of him was shocking that day as well, it simply wasn’t just Ian Andrew’s fault. That one game has made him an easy target for boo boys and humorists, whilst other goalkeepers who have played for Celtic and also been at the end of some big defeats don’t seem to get it in the neck as much as Ian Andrews.
Subsequently he transferred to Bournemouth. He finally returned to Leicester under future Celtic manager Martin O’Neill as a player/coach and physiotherapist, and was still training with the team. He left Leicester in 2004, and at time of writing he works as a Physiotherapist for Bath University teams.
We wished him all the best.
Playing Career
| APPEARANCES | LEAGUE | SCOTTISH CUP | LEAGUE CUP | EUROPE | TOTAL |
| 1988 | 5 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 8 |
| Shut-outs: | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 (12.5%) |
| Club ______________ |
From _____________ |
To _____________ |
Fee _____________ |
League ________________ |
Scottish/ FA Cup |
League cup _____________ |
Other _____________ |
|||||
| Leicester | 01/08/1997 | 31/05/2002 | Free | No appearance data available | ||||||||
| Leicester | 18/03/1997 | 31/05/2001 | Loan | No appearance data available | ||||||||
| Bournemouth | 05/09/1994 | 31/05/1997 | £ 20000 | 64 (0) | 0 | 2 (0) | 0 | 7 (0) | 0 | 3 (0) | 0 | |
| Southampton | 22/12/1989 | 05/09/1994 | £ 200000 | 10 (0) | 0 | 0 (0) | 0 | 0 (0) | 0 | 1 (0) | 0 | |
| Leeds | 15/12/1988 | 31/01/2006 | Loan | 1 (0) | 0 | 0 (0) | 0 | 0 (0) | 0 | 0 (0) | 0 | |
| Celtic | 26/07/1988 | 22/12/1989 | £ 300,000 | 5 (0) | 0 | 0 (0) | 0 | 2 (0) | 0 | 1 (0) | 0 | |
| Swindon | 01/01/1984 | Loan | 1 (0) | 0 | 0 (0) | 0 | 0 (0) | 0 | 0 (0) | 0 | ||
| Leicester | 06/12/1982 | 26/07/1988 | Apprentice | 126 (0) | 0 | 7 (0) | 0 | 6 (0) | 0 | 0 (0) | 0 | |
| Totals | £520,000 | 207 (0) | 0 | 9 (0) | 0 | 15 (0) | 0 | 5 (0) | 0 | |||
| goals / game | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||||||||
| Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | |||||
Honours with Celtic
none
