Donnelly, Simon

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Personal

Fullname: Simon Thomas Donnelly
aka: Simon Donnelly, Sid
Born: 1st December 1974
Birthplace: Glasgow, Scotland
Height: 5ft, 8in (1.73m)
Signed: 27 May 1993
Left: 29 June 1999
Position: Midfielder/Forward
Debut: […]
International: Scotland
International Caps: 10
International Goals: 0

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Biog

A native of Rutherglen, and son of an ex-Rangers player, Simon “Sid” Donnelly was one of the more lauded players from the then misfiring conveyor belt of Celtic youth team talent to emerge in the dark days of the mid 1990s.

Amidst a series of promising performances as a callow 19-year old striker of no little guile and effort, Donnelly was unfortunately saddled with a comparison to Kenny Dalglish (by the then manager Lou Macari who said that he reminded him of someone he used to play with) after a startling good debut game, a comparison he was, unsurprisingly, unable to live up to, and was an unfair tag to place on him so early in his career.

His emergence as a youngster of genuine promise was sealed towards the end of the 1993-94 season when he produced a hard working shift as the lone striker in the infamous ‘lock out’ game at Ibrox (where he tormented the Rangers skipper Richard Gough). He then stole the show at the much-lauded ‘Theatre of Dreams‘ (Old Trafford), scoring twice against Manchester United in a testimonial match for Mark Hughes.

Struggling for form and confidence thereafter, then-manager Tommy Burns in one his more inspired decisions, decided to reinvent the young forward as a right sided midfielder, with recent signing Jackie McNamara supporting as overlapping fullback. The pair flourished with a genuine creative chemistry, and many observers were later to lament the disruption of the partnership by the signing of Paolo di Canio in 1996.

Donnelly’s most significant contribution was as central striker alongside Henrik Larsson under the guidance of Wim Jansen, securing a double figure goals tally and scoring a number of important goals, not the least of which was the extra time penalty winner against St Johnstone in the League Cup, which arrested a disastrous start to the season, and a fiercely struck penalty against Liverpool in the epic UEFA Cup tie. It all helped to give the side the boosts they needed, and maybe Donnelly’s part has been underplayed by some in retrospectives.

Donnelly actually came very close to making a big name for himself in Celtic history as the man to seal the victory that stopped Rangers bid for ten-in-a-row. In the penultimate league match, he had scored v Dunfermline only for Celtic to frustratingly concede with seven minutes left. The final result of this drawn game left Celtic needing to now go into the final match to nervously tie up the title. So it is Brattback’s name (from the final match) that is mentioned as the one to seal the title when it could have been Donnelly. As if to rub salt in the wounds, Brattback was actually subbed on in that final league game for Donnelly, and it was Brattback who went on to score that famous goal to seal his name in Scottish football history.

Despite a highly creditable season that was rewarded by Scotland coach Craig Brown with a place in the squad for the 1998 World Cup, Donnelly had been supplanted in the forward line by the erratic Harald Brattbaak, and Donnelly was therefore an increasingly peripheral figure at Celtic. Some say Donnelly lacked heart, but that was partly youth. It takes time to develop physically and mentally. He gave his best.

Departure from Celtic

There was genuine disappointment among the support, married to a degree of cynicism when in 1999, when along with Phil O’Donnell he opted to depart on a Bosman transfer for Sheffield Wednesday, then in the Premier League, partly echoing the acrimonious departure of Di Canio two seasons previously.

The move away was an ill-fated one; both young Celts were bedevilled by injury and intermittent form, while Wednesday plunged into financial crisis, and freefalling into relegation. He took a gamble and it didn’t pay off sadly.

Donnelly eventually returned to Scotland at McDiarmid Park, and then moved on but following an unspectacular spell with Dunfermline, he then moved back to his native Glasgow with second tier/Division 1 Partick Thistle.

By the few, he is harshly judged for a career and a talent that once promised so much. Donnelly’s career has been seen by some critics to be representative of an increasing number of young players who profited handsomely from the game in financial terms by moving to less illustrious clubs down south but to the detriment of their medal collection. This is very harsh in Donnelly’s case (if not complete nonsense), as it was a difficult period to be involved throughout with Celtic and there was little more he could have added.

Six years is a long time with a club that was then in turmoil through much of the time, yet he stood by the club and played to the best of his ability. So he deserves greater respect and credit than has been given by some to date. In retrospect, it would have been better for himself to have stayed, and with his departure both sides lost out. Yet after everything, for himself personally, to take a gamble to try pastures new is something we can all relate to.

His career never reached the heights they possibly could have, but he put in some very fine performances for the first team during those difficult set of years of transition for the club.

He should be best remembered for a great part in the 1997/98 season.

He is still a regular at Celtic games and in Celtic media, and speaks very fondly of his time and of the people he met & worked with at Celtic, which we wholly respect.

He got to relive some old glories, when he played in front of 48,000 supporters for a ‘Celtic Legends‘ select side at Anfield v their Liverpool counterparts in a charity match in March 2023.

We wish him well.

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Quotes

For their penultimate league game, Celtic had a Sunday jaunt to Dunfermline and knew victory would assure them the title after Rangers had lost to a 95th-minute Kilmarnock goal at Ibrox the previous afternoon. Celtic looked like doing enough as they headed into the final seven minutes of normal time a goal to the good. A strike netted by Simon Donnelly, whose integral role in Celtic’s famous 1998 championship success has been underplayed. Put that down to Craig Faulconbridge, who netted in the 82nd minute that afternoon at East End Park to ensure it is Brattbakk whose name is synonymous with Jansen’s side getting over the line that year.
“Of course I do,” replied Donnelly when asked if he cursed Faulconbridge for his goal.
“And I curse Gouldy [Jonathan Gould] too for not stopping it. It was one of these things – it could have been my goal, but maybe it was a perfect send-off to actually win the league at Celtic Park.
“I do have to say though that it felt as if every Celtic fan in the country was at East End Park. But yes Craig Faulconbridge will go down in history as the man who killed a dream for me.”
Simon Donnelly (From the Scotsman 2018)
Source: https://www.scotsman.com/sport/football/competitions/premiership/simon-donnelly-on-how-celtic-stopped-10-in-a-row-20-years-ago-1-4736711

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Playing Career