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Personal
Fullname: Joseph Ignatious Reilly
aka: J.J. Riley, Joe Riley, Joseph Reilly, Joseph J. Riley
Born: 25th July 1907
Died: 29th July 1987
Birthplace: Airdrie, Lanarkshire *
Signed: 2 June 1928
Left: 2 May 1929 (Loan to Ayr); 2 Oct 1929 & 17 Apr 1930 (loans to Nithsdale Wanderers); 1930 (free); 8 July 1930 (perm to St Mirren)
Position: Inside-forward
Debut: Dundee 0-1 Celtic, League, 11 Aug 1928
Internationals: none
Biog
Joseph Reilly was a member of the Maryhill Hibernian side which lifted the Scottish Junior Cup in 1928, which was a retort to Rutherglen Glencairn after he was rejected by them as “not much use“.
The inside-forward was signed by the Bhoys soon after that victory and he made his debut on 11th August 1928 in a 1-0 league victory at Dens Park, described as having been “sharp and correct“.
It had been hoped that the player would be the man to replace the wayward genius of Tommy McInally. That was though quite a big ask for any player as McInally was a great talent and quite a spark on the field, and players like him have never been ten-a-penny. It’s quite a burden of expectation or hope for any aspiring player.
Regardless of the aim for him to replace Tommy McInally, he did give some some decent performances, including scoring twice in a 4-4 draw v Queen’s Park in only his second game in Oct 1928. Jimmy McGrory got the other two goals that day (“in a spirited rally by Riley and McGrory“), and it saved the Celtic side from a defeat but sadly he couldn’t repeat this feat and didn’t score again for the first team.
He played his games mostly in the first half of the 1928-29 season, after which he was replaced by Willie Hughes.
Celtic lost in only two of the matches Joe Reilly played in, a 3-0 defeat to Rangers and a 3-0 defeat to Partick Thistle, the latter of which was to be his final Celtic first team match. So his record in the first team was fine but Celtic had already begun a slow decline, the club’s domestic hegemony had already ended around a decade back. That season Joe Reilly played in with Celtic’ first team, Rangers were rampant and won the title by a long way.
Having never quite established himself at Parkhead, the Glasgow University student was to be freed in the summer of 1930 (just as he earned his degree), and he later made his way in time to St Mirren. Not really a big stepdown at the time as St Mirren actually finished in the league in 5th place, just one place behind Celtic. Admittedly, St Mirren sunk down the table the next season.
He left St Mirren after just the one season, having been freed in July 1931 and then he moved on to play for Alloa for a short stint from August 1931-January 1932.
Joe married Nan Craig in Bannockburn in 1931. After football, he went on to be a teacher, eventually moving to Australia. He died in Bendigo, Australia, age 80, and is buried at the Kangaroo Flat Cemetery.
* Alphabet of the Celts has Joe’s birthplace as Bonnybridge. One of Joe’s brothers was born there, and Joe himself lived at an address in High Bonnybridge when he was married to Nan. However, Joe was born in Airdrie to Joseph Reilly and Elizabeth Colman.
Playing Career
| APPEARANCES | LEAGUE | SCOTTISH CUP | LEAGUE CUP | EUROPE | TOTAL |
| 1928-30 | 10 | 0 | n/a | n/a | 10 |
| Goals: | 2 | – | – | – | 2 |
Honours with Celtic
none