Evans, Bobby

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Personal

Fullname: Robert Evans
aka: Bobby Evans
Born: 16 July 1927
Died: 1 September 2001
Birthplace: Glasgow, Scotland
Signed: 23 July 1944 (from St Anthony’s)
Left: 20 May 1960 (to Chelsea for £12,500)
Position: Centre-half (defence)
Debut: Albion Rovers 1-0 Celtic, Regional League, 19 Aug 1944
Internationals: Scotland
International Caps: 48 caps
International Goals: 0 goals

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Biog

Flame haired Bobby Evans signed for the Bhoys from St Anthony Juniors in July 1944 and over the next 16 years would firmly establish himself as a Celtic great.

Bobby Evans made his debut in a 1-0 Regional League victory at Albion Rovers on 19th August 1944, and for much of his early career he was a stand-out performer in most-often poor or underachieving Celtic side.

Initially played at inside-right, Bobby Evans really made his name after reluctantly switching to perform the half-back role. Tough tackling, strong in the air and a fierce competitor Evans was also an intelligent passer of the ball who could masterfully link defence and attack. He was also a great organiser and on-field leader. He had masses of enthusiasm and boundless energy making him invaluable.

His stamina levels were second to none and such was his massive presence on the field, that he was described as ‘like a team all by himself’. Although playing in a poor Celtic side meant that the player often would put in vast effort but with little reward.

With his Hooped shirt hanging out over his shorts, Bobby Evans was an instantly recognisable and a much admired figure and in time his efforts did receive some reward.

He was part of the side that won the Coronation Cup in 1953 and the League and Scottish Cup Double in 1954. He skippered Celtic to their first League Cup in 1956 and returned to Hampden for the final of the same competition the next year where Celtic trounced Rangers 7-1, taking over the captaincy mantle from Jock Stein who had been the talisman for Celtic for the brief purple patch in the 1950s. No easy task, but Bobby Evans was more than worthy of the position.

He had to move position on becoming captain back into the defence to cover for the loss of Jock Stein, who was on his way to an early playing retirement due to injury. This helped Bobby Evans extend his career playing at Celtic, where his reading of the game was well valued as was his skill in managing the defence.

Despite the honours, the fact is that it was only a fraction of what he deserved. Despite the quality of players he played with at Celtic, which included the irrepressible Charlie Tully, Celtic won little during his time at the club. His early years for the team as much as for himself were a disastrous period with Celtic almost relegated at one point in 1947-48.

However, Bobby Evans thankfully remained at the club, but the management of the club continued to be generally poor. The manager who had signed him for the club, Jimmy McStay, had left after being belittled and overrun by the board in their meddling in the first team affairs. His successor, Jimmy McGrory, was generally little better, and despite the wealth of talent at the club’s disposal, the team won little to match their quality. Jock Stein’s arrival helped to turn things around but the tally of honours was still fewer than could have been. It was a valuable lesson for Jock Stein in particular, but likely he learnt a lot from playing alongside a talent like Bobby Evans.

Bobby Evans many qualities were also recognised at international level where he went on to win 48 caps and become captain of Scotland, a great achievement at a time when Celtic were poor and discrimination against Celts was not uncommon. He was the record cap holder as well to that time which was incredible. Notably, this was a time when Scotland fans booed their own players if they played for Celtic, and at one point Bobby Evans publicly announced he was retiring from playing for Scotland, only to return at a later date.

Later years were difficult. After such long service to the game and the club, his pace was declining and age was catching up with him. The loss of various talent such as Fernie, Stein and Tully meant that players like Bobby Evans had a heavy burden to cover for their departures from Celtic. There were a batch of quality young players on the books, but there wasn’t the management to take them through, and it was likely too much to expect Bobby Evans to cover for the failings elsewhere at the club (and there were plenty).

Bobby Evans eventually left Celtic in 1960 to play for Chelsea in England. At the end of the 1959-60 season when re-contracting time came round, Bobby Evans asked to be put on the transfer list. The directors reluctantly agreed to his wish. He was quoted in the Evening Times as saying:-

“I have been very happy at Parkhead but I still think I can stay in top class football for another five years and a new club might well give me a new lease of life”
“The Celtic policy is the wise one of bringing more and more youth into the team and with young Billy McNeill coming along so well it gives me the chance to make a move.”

On the other hand, his best was behind him, and his form inevitably had begun to slip. With Billy McNeill around, it was time to bleed in the new players for the next generation.

Thus this signalled the end of an era at Celtic of a set of players, marked generally by underachievement. Granted the players should be held as culpable as much as the management in many ways, but it’s still disheartening to see that a player of Bobby Evan’s quality at the age of 32 not leaving with more honours to his name. He still did have a fine record of achievements and medals which all should look on very proudly. The league & cup double from 1953-54 is something any player would cherish.

By the end of his days at Celtic, he had played 549 times for Celtic and scored 11 goals (includes Regional League competition matches from the war period). Sadly, his parting was poorly handled by the board (not something that was to be an uncommon event in Celtic’s history). The board had agreed to buy Bobby Evans a house but inserted a clause obliging them to do so only “should he finish his career with Celtic”. Bobby Evans made his dissatisfaction public in the Daily Express newspaper, saying he had been cheated by the board, and he handed in a transfer request. It was regrettable that this was how it ended, especially after such long loyal service to the club.

A faithful servant to Celtic for 16 years, Bobby Evans loss was a sad departure, but he had his reasons. He left with the following attack on the powers that be at Celtic and their meddling:

“He [i.e. the Celtic Captain] has no decisions to take about team changes or tactical changes. The answers to these problems come from the directors’ box [i.e. chairman Bob Kelly] to the track – and are passed to the field by the trainer.”

It was an admission of the reality of Celtic’s mismanagement by the board during that period, only tackled once Jock Stein stamped his authority when he became the manager, Jock Stein having insisted a condition of his taking the Celtic Manager’s job was that he was in total control of all footballing matters.

Bobby Evans sadly suffered in his later years from Parkinson’s disease, and passed away in 2001.

Bobby Evans will always be a hero at Celtic Park, and has been inducted into the Scotland Football Hall of Fame. A true great and one we should all be proud of to be able to number as one of our own.

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Playing Career

Honours with Celtic

Scottish League Champions

• 1953-54

Scottish Cups

• 1951, 1954

Scottish League Cups

• 1956-57, 1957-58

Coronation Cup

• 1953

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Pictures

• Player Pics

Books

• Bobby Evans – Celtic’s Forgotten Hero by Tom Campbell (2017)

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Quotes

“He [i.e. the Celtic Captain] has no decisions to take about team changes or tactical changes. The answers to these problems come from the directors’ box [i.e. chairman Bob Kelly] to the track – and are passed to the field by the trainer.”
(Bobby Evans scathing about the Celtic Directors, 1960)

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Notes

• In 1952, he played in a Cricket match for a ‘Footballers Select XI’ alongside fellow Celtic Gil Heron & other Scottish footballers against a Polloc CC XI.

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Articles

BOBBY EVANS OBITUARY – 2001

The Herald (United Kingdom): Bobby Evans:
Charismatic Scotland and Celtic footballer who led by example H
erald and the Sunday Herald, The (Glasgow, Scotland)
September 5, 2001

Author: BOB CRAMPSEY

BOBBY EVANS was, without doubt, one of the most charismatic players to wear a Scottish jersey in the 15 or so years after the Second World War. He had arrived at Parkhead in the latter stages of that war from the junior side, St Anthony’s. Celtic had virtually given up the struggle during war-time and, as a result, there was much to be done at Parkhead.

Evans and Charlie Tully were key figures in what was a substantial, but only partial, revival. With his thatch of flaming red hair, Evans was always going to be kenspeckle and, added to the physical characteristic, he had apparently boundless energy and no little skill. He announced himself in his second international, against Northern Ireland at Hampden in 1948. The visiting side included such giants as Johnny Carey, Jack Vernon, and the great Peter Doherty and they led until well into the game when the tireless foraging and skilful prompting of Evans, allied to the opportunism of Billy Houliston, turned probable defeat into victory.

The red-haired youngster would go on to play for his country 48 times and spend an incredible 23 years in senior football. He would have had many more caps but the Scotland support was not united as it is now and there was a substantial lobby for the talented Ian McColl of Rangers. It was the time when, in Jock Stein’s memorable phrase, ‘Old Firm supporters went to internationals to cheer three players, boo two, and ignore the rest’.

Evans made a formal statement to the effect that he no longer wished to be considered for international duty and for a time he dropped out of the Scotland side. When he returned, it was to take over at centre-half from the retiring George Young of Rangers, a move that itself created controversy. By now the somewhat manic energy of youth had abated and Evans played a much more waiting role in the middle of the defence, his marshalling of the rearguard being a feature of his game.

It was his misfortune to be a Celtic player at a time when that club was slackly administered and his list of domestic honours – reasonably imposing as it is – is nothing like as extensive as it should have been. This is particularly so in the Scottish Cup where semi-final and final defeats stud his career with monotonous regularity. Even at that, he had one league championship medal, two Scottish Cup medals, and two League Cup medals, including one from the famous final of 1957 when Celtic defeated Rangers 7-1.

By the late 1950s that fine side had broken up, affected by serious injury to such as Billy McPhail and Jock Stein, assisted by administrative incompetence. Willy Fernie went and Charlie Tully retired. The edge was going from Evans’s great speed, always a trump card, and increasingly he was exposed by such mobile youngsters as Gerry Baker of St Mirren, whose blistering speed had led to a heavy defeat in the cup semi-final of 1959.

Changes in personnel and a none-too-generous wage structure at Parkhead led to a decision to join the trek south and in May 1960 Chelsea paid Celtic (pounds) 12,500 for him. His time at Stamford Bridge was very unsuccessful and with hindsight it is clear that he had delayed his move south far too long. A year in London was enough to convince both player and club that a mistake had been made and he set off for the Welsh border and the less exalted ranks of Newport County. Here he first tried his hand at managing, although, as it turned out, he still had plenty of playing left in him.

He returned north to Morton in 1963 and did much to reinvigorate the Greenock side which had just experienced a very bad patch. It could fairly be said that he helped lay the foundation of the Morton side which would reach the final of the League Cup in season 1964/65. By that latter year he had gone from coaching Third Lanark to managing that club and he did what he could to restore some measure of decency and sanity to its death throes. When he left Third Lanark the club had less than two years to exist. Understandably, he was cured of any lingering managerial aspirations and when he signed for Raith Rovers in 1965 it was purely as a player. He gave them two years of service before drawing a line under a remarkable football career.

For almost all his time at Parkhead, Evans was a figure loved and respected by the supporters. At a time when the attitude of some of the players was curiously casual and uninvolved, Evans would recognise no such thing as a lost cause. He was a physical rallier of his troops and, above all, a leader by example. He played in the era of the jersey player and there is no doubt he was one. There is even less doubt that he suffered financially and career-wise for his attachment to Celtic. By any playing standards, his career was highly successful.

He knew what it was to win at Wembley, he knew what it was to be home national champions, and, although he was just too early for European competition at club level, he measured himself in foreign internationals against the best in Europe. His nomination as player of the year in 1953 testified to his performance up to that point as does his achievement in gaining a record number of full and inter-league caps at the time of his retirement.

He made 535 appearances for Celtic in 16 years.

Bobby Evans, international footballer: born April 16, 1924, died September 2, 2001.

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From THE INDEPENDENT

PHIL GORDON
Tuesday, 11 September 2001
Robert Evans, footballer: born Glasgow 14 April 1927; player, Celtic 1944-60, Chelsea 1960-61, Raith Rovers 1965-67; player-manager, Newport County 1961-63, Morton 1963-64, Third Lanark 1964-65; married (one son, one daughter); died Cumbernauld, Strathclyde 2 September 2001.

Few footballers can claim to have been the main attraction for Danny Kaye, or a backing singer for Bing Crosby. Bobby Evans earned both of these distinctions, which in some way can at least recompense a man whose reward from his club, Celtic, was sadly out of tune with his service.

Evans spent 16 years in the Glasgow club’s first team, making 535 appearances until he departed acrimoniously in 1960 for Chelsea. It was this polished half-back’s misfortune to serve Celtic during one of its least illuminating eras, the post-war years, sandwiched between a title-winning side of the late 1930s and the all-conquering side of Jock Stein which secured nine successive Scottish League championships and won the European Cup in 1967.

Ironically, in the very year that Stein guided Celtic to its greatest hour, Evans, who had played alongside him in the 1950s, was hanging up his boots on a 23-year playing career, at the age of 40, with Raith Rovers. Stein would ultimately become one of 11 men granted a lucrative testimonial by Celtic – the most recent, Tom Boyd, earned over £500,000 from his match with Manchester United in May this year – but it is to the club’s shame that Evans was never shown similar gratitude.

The 1950s were marked with cup disappointment and league mediocrity for Celtic. Indeed, on one occasion, in 1948, they had to scrape a 3-2 win away to Dundee on the final day of the season to avoid relegation. That match marked the conversion of Evans from a youthful inside-forward to a half-back, playing in front of the defence. The sturdy redhead fetched and carried with aplomb, providing service for his forwards. His partnership with Stein and Bertie Peacock is regarded as one of the great trios in Celtic’s history.

Tangible reward, in the shape of silverware, was much harder to come by. Even Evans’s longevity could only encompass one Scottish League championship in 1954, two Scottish Cup successes in 1951 and 1954 and two Scottish League cups, though the last of these would enshrine Evans’s status among Celtic fans, as he captained the team to an astonishing 7-1 rout of their rivals Rangers in the final.

Scotland recognised Evans’s standing by awarding him 48 caps, a record at the time of his retiral, and he captained his country at the 1954 World Cup finals in Switzerland.

Born in 1927, Evans was signed during the Second World War by Celtic from the Glasgow junior side St Anthony’s and his talent was such that it was not long before he made his début in 1944-45 at the age of 17 against Albion Rovers as a forward, before his switch to the more profitable half-back role.

The poverty of Celtic’s post-war years was such that any honour was seized upon by the success-starved fans. Thus, the Glasgow Charity Cup Final in 1950 became memorable. The competition may have been insignificant but the defeat of Rangers 3-2 in the final saw Evans lift his first trophy in a match that became known as “The Danny Kaye Final”, because of the American actor’s presence at the game, which swelled the crowd to 81,000.

Just a few months later, Evans was rubbing shoulders with the other half of the White Christmas double-bill. Celtic’s post-season tour of Italy saw none other than Bing Crosby as their fellow passenger on the SS Royal Albert to Brussels. Crosby shared a beer with the Celtic players before giving his rendition of “I Belong to Glasgow”. There was a touch of the showman about Evans too. He wore his shirt outside his shorts – unthinkable at the time – which became his trademark, though it was adopted in 1951 simply to combat the heat of a summer tour to the United States.

If the Double-winning season of 1953-54 remains the benchmark of Evans’s time at Celtic as far as the record books are concerned, the crowning glory for supporters was that remarkable League Cup final defeat of Rangers in October 1957. Evans had graduated to captain after Stein’s retiral a year previously, and had moved back into defence, where his reading of the game aided his longevity. An ageing side, with many, like Evans, beyond 30, humiliated their great Glasgow rivals.

However, Evans’s parting with Celtic in May 1960 was as bitter as that day had been sweet. Celtic had agreed to buy Evans a house but inserted a clause obliging them to do so only “should he finish his career with Celtic”. Evans made his dissatisfaction public in the Daily Express, saying he had been cheated by Celtic, and handed in a transfer request.

The affair tarnished the Celtic directors in the eyes of supporters, who respected Evans’s toil. He moved to Chelsea for £12,500 but stayed only one year before moving to Newport County, then back to Scotland, where he played for Morton, Third Lanark and Raith Rovers.

Widowed nine years ago, Evans suffered in later years from Parkinson’s disease.

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Transcribed Interview

(interview between Bobby Evans & Roddy Stewart, thx to @stanthony for this)
BOBBY EVANS INTERVIEW
You were the last signing of Jimmy McStay’s when you came to the club?

What actually happened was when Jimmy got his books, at that particular time they were on holiday and when we were on holiday Celtic appointed a new manager.

Did you get any opportunity to know Jimmy McStay at that particular time?

It appeared he was treated badly by Celtic and it looked like that at the time but he was brought back as a scout and I then got to know him from around the ground.

I believe it was a guy called Tommy Lipton who took you to St Anthonys?

Tommy was playing for Dumbarton at the time and stayed in Barrhead and he was off with an injury. I was playing church football this particular Saturday and the referee never turned up and as he was off injured he took over as ref. And it was through that I signed with the Ants. I actually got in touch with Jimmy McGlone who was secretary with the Ants and he came up on the Sunday. The following Saturday the Ants had a decider, I think with Blantyre Victoria at Glencairn’s park and we won that game so that was the beginning of it. I think I was only with the Ants for three to six months and in fact another funny thing about it was we were about to play Benburb, the Ants against the Bens, and they told me before the game that Celtic were there to watch me. They shouldn’t really tell you these things because depending on the player it could upset them. But actually I went up to the park to sign on the Sunday and I remember it was a Sunday as it was illegal but they did it rather than wait till the Monday.

It was a bad time to sign for Celtic as the war was coming to a close ?

It was. They keep talking about it now when it comes to the attendances they are getting , but when you go way back to 1945 there was nothing, you couldn’t do anything, there was nowhere for people to go. Every away game other than Ibrox the gates were closed for the game. Ibrox held something like 120,000 at the time so that was the only away game that the gates weren’t closed. It was a good time and believe it or not I got £2 per week with ten bob off for income tax, thirty shillings players were getting for playing in the first team. Players like Malky MacDonald. Willie Miller, Johnny Crum, George Paterson , it’s amazing really but that’s what they were getting as well.

They don’t know they are born today.

Well that’s just life isn’t it?

What about yourself Bobby they kept playing you in all sorts of positions?

I was moved around, I was a nonentity at the time, jack of all trades but master of none. At that particular time I played in eight or nine positions for Celtic but as long as I was getting a game of football I was quite happy.

Then you played at right half in the famous game at Dundee in 1948?

That was supposed to be the relegation game at Dundee where Jock Weir scored three goals and that was my first time at right half.

How do you remember that particular game?

I don’t to be quite honest, I played that long and in that many games that it’s in the past. But although winning the Coronation Cup and the double after so many years, it’s now things that are really in the past. I played for that long that people always ask me who was the best player that I ever seen or ever played against and you know it’s absolutely ridiculous because there were so many good players in those days that you couldn’t really put anyone on a pedestal as there was a tremendous amount of good players in those days.

There was a lot of pressure on the club at that time due to relegation, did you feel under pressure?

Like I say it was just a game and it was just a matter of going out and doing your best.

How did you enjoy playing at right half ?

Oh great, great, although I would have played in any position to get a game of football.

Was that your most natural role ?

I don’t know as I played right half for a long time and centre half for a long time, the only thing is you don’t do as much running as a centre half you tend to read the game more. It might be different now as they have so many positions now.

Moving on to 1951 and your first trophy was the Scottish Cup win over Motherwell. Do you remember that one ?

I remember John McPhail’s goal not much else because as I said I played over twenty years in football and ever game is different so I can’t really remember much about that one.

Moving on to the Coronation Cup, how did you regard the whole tournament?

Well there’s the wee cup up there (in the cabinet), we got wee replicas of the trophy and that other one is the St Mungo Cup, that was another one off cup which Celtic won. The Coronation Cup, I think Celtic were just chosen to make up the teams at that particular time.

Why did it go so well ?

We just seemed to hit form plus the fact there were big attendances, I think it was all within a fortnight and they were all good games plus the fact we were playing against English clubs and they’d be quite confident. I think it was Arsenal in the first round then Man United then Hibs in the final.

How well do you remember Neil Mochan’s goal?

I remember it was a great goal but other than that not really much.

You were generally regarded as player of the tournament above players like Johnny Carey, Hibs’ famous five and Joe Mercer.

It’s just what people think. Over the years I had been argumentative against the press and it’s just the way they see things really. It’s always nice to read the paper the next day to see you played well plus the fact I loved football and that was the main thing.

You played in the double season of 1953-54 with the famous half back line of Evans, Stein and Peacock. How do you remember them as players?

Jock was very good in the air, he was excellent in the air but he had only the one foot and it was a good left foot.

Do you think people forget he was actually a good footballer because he did so well as a manager?

I would probably say that I think they think more about him now as a manager rather than a player. But at that time they brought him back from Llanelli pure and simply just to bring on the young ones sort of style but he played that well and that was him in.

Did you see the potential as a manager there?

I never gave that much thought although I was always friendly with him. In fact after training, Neilly Mochan, Jock and myself used to go to Ferrari’s then go to a snooker hall in the afternoon or go to the pictures. Neilly and Jock were great ones for backing horses but I didn’t back horses but I used to sit in Ferrari’s and Neilly would run up to wherever the bookies was to put on the bet and see how it went. So it was either snooker, pictures, or sitting waiting on their horses in the afternoons.

He liked a punt on the horses Jock?

He did but so did Neilly.

What about Bertie Peacock as a player?

Bertie was very good as well, it just so happens it worked out well for us at 4, 5 and 6 when Jock came. Bertie very rarely had a bad game he was such a consistent player and it was the same when he played with Ireland as well.

Did you have much contact with Jock when he became manager ?

No, I hadn’t much contact with him at all then.

The following year you won the double with the likes of Bobby Collins, Charlie Tully and Willie Fernie. Would you say any of them were more influential or was it a case of a team effort?

They were all different types of player but Bobby Collins was like a wee machine, he was all over the park and it as I say if you kicked him them he would make sure he got you back, not by being dirty but he would make sure he went into a tackle. For his height he could look after himself. If he’d have been a boxer he’d have been a world champion really, the way he went about it. Willie and Charlie, when you were winning you just gave the ball to them and they would play by themselves as no one could get it off them. They were very good in a winning team.

There was talk that you and Charlie never saw eye to eye?

Oh, that was a load of rubbish. That was the press. I’ve said this before. Once I was playing with Scotland and I was right half at the time and the Irish left wing at Windsor Park in Belfast was Peacock and Tully. I think we won 6-2. I was up against Charlie and I decided before the game that I was going to run at Charlie and hit him, not dirtily of course. So right away they got the kick off and the ball went to Charlie and as he went to pass it I went and hit him, you didn’t see Charlie for the rest of the game. As I said I think we won 6-2, we used to win quite a lot against Ireland. But at the end of the game Charlie makes for me right away and he says ‘Imagine me playing with these ten monkeys!’ This was just Charlie’s way speaking about the rest of his team but that was just Charlie. As I say it was just the press. I think at the time Charlie was doing an article in the paper and that was how it came about but he was a joker really. Something always comes up in the press about players and they’ve got to have stories.

In your international career you got 48 caps but actually felt you were overlooked at times?

That wasn’t the thing at all. At that particular time, Waverley, who was Willie Gallacher who wrote for the Daily Record, he was always wanting other right halves in the side. He’d want Ian McColl, he’d want Jimmy Scoular, he’d want Jimmy Dudley of West Brom he was always after other right halves. Now after the previous international it was always that I had played well so how could it come to the time to pick another team and they were always looking for somebody else?

Before teams were selected was it a case of being reported that you were playing badly?

The point about it is, it used to be as well that big George, George Young had to play because he was very good as a captain and it always had to be that the right half position was a bit dodgy as far as myself was concerned. So I decided, I was very outspoken in my younger days, and I went to Bob Kelly at the time as there was a team to be chosen in about two or three days. And I said to him – ‘I wonder if you would agree with me that I do not wish to be picked for the team but if I’m chosen I will willingly play?’ So he said it’s up to yourself if that’s the way you feel and then the headlines were ‘Evans does not want to play for Scotland’. I still have the papers and that was completely untrue. It’s just the way the press make things out. There was never any doubt in my refusing to play what I said was I did not wish to be considered but if I was chosen I would play. Which was a different way from how the press put it.

Why did Waverley do this? Was it because you played for Celtic?

I actually got on quite well with him. I used to do an article for the Sunday Dispatch – ‘My friends the footballers’ -which was quite funny. And there was a bloke who wrote with the Daily Mail. At that time the Mail was in St Vincent street they shared a building with the Sunday Dispatch. At that time Alex Cameron worked for the Mail and was a copy boy and Willie Gould and Andrew Wallace were the main reporters. But there was a bloke who worked on the Edinburgh edition called Alec Young, not the footballer at Hearts. He always did the Edinburgh sides and when Celtic went through there, Celtic were always lucky this, that and the next thing. And this day I went up and here they all were congregated including Alec Young. And I just said to him, ‘Who ever seen you around a reporter?’ That was all. Nothing nasty about it. And see from that day I was always the worst man on the park. I still have the cuttings up the stair. I played against West Germany in Stuttgart around 1959 and we actually won 3-2 but Evans was the worst man on the park. That’s what Alec Young said. I was centre half and they took the centre forward off in the 44th minute. In those days you could bring on a sub but only before the 45 minutes. In every other paper I was the star man but not to Alec Young.

The same thing happened many years later with Kenny Dalglish at Celtic.

I laugh at it now but it wasn’t a laugh at the time.

You captained Scotland at Wembley?

Oh aye, the Jimmy Cowan game in 1949. 1949 we won 3-1, 1951 we won 3-2 and Bobby Charlton scored the winner in 1959 when we lost 1-0. I also played four times against them at Hampden.

And what about the 7-1 final against Rangers in 1957?

On the day if it had lasted another ten minutes it would have been 10-1 it’s just the way things go but we could have got double figures.

You were actually off the park when rangers scored their goal so it could have been 7-0. Someone had clattered you.

I don’t remember being off it’s so long ago.

You played against the Lisbon Lions when you were with Raith Rovers?

I played against the bulk of them in league cup games.

How did you enjoy it I London with Chelsea?

I played with Greavsie. He was a nuttier in those days as well. But he was good. They had both Bonetti and Matthews who were England international goalkeepers. Ted Drake was the manager. Peter Sillet was right back and his brother John Sillet was left back. Peter Sillet was a big bloke but John would kick anything above the grass. Terry Venables was right half, me at centre half and Bobby Bradbury at left half. Outside right was Peter Brabrook and centre forward was Ron Tindall. On the left wing was Frank Blunstone.

Management, was it not for you?

Not really. It’s just your luck, no matter what job you’re in. It was playing for me.

How did you get on with Mr McGrory?

Oh he was a great man. He was a gentleman really.

Too nice to be a manager?

Probably, but you couldn’t meet a nicer bloke. He used to tell you just to go out and enjoy yourself. In fact the year we won the double we would head for Ferraris, we would get the old car to St Enoch square and then you would walk up Buchanan Street. And if we were on a winning streak and someone waved you would wave back. But if you were losing then rather than nod to them you would look in a shop window until they passed . That the difference between victory and defeat. We didn’t need team talks with the players we had , they were all good players. Mr McGrory was so nice that as we were running out he didn’t know what to say. If eleven players are running out, you’ve got to say something quick to each player. Mike Haughney used to be the last player out and all Jimmy McGrory could say to him was ‘Cheerio then son.’

Final question how would you some up twelve years at Celtic?

Enjoyable. Very much so, no complaints at all in the time I was there it went by like that. I really enjoyed that. I still keep an eye on the results.

Do you ever go to Parkhead?

Not really. My friend is a Motherwell supporter of all things and the back end of last season I went to some of their games and enjoyed going there. I find very few ex players actually watch games. The excitement is not there. I used to go up to Celtic park at one o’clock for a 3 o’clock kick off. The trophy room there now used to be the billiards room and I would go up and play billiards just to relax before the match.

Thanks for your time Bobby.

My pleasure.

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