Personal
Fullname: Patrick Edward Rodgers
aka: Patrick Rogers, Paddy Rodgers, Pat Rodgers
Born: 9 September 1924
Died: […]
Birthplace: Grangemouth
Signed: 4 September 1944
Left: 1946 (free) 1946 (to Workington Town)
Position: Outside-left
Debut: Dumbarton 0-3 Celtic, Regional League, 16 Sep 1944
Internationals: none
Biog
Patrick Rodgers signed for Celtic in September 1944 from Bowhill St Ninian’s. It came on the back of a humiliating 6-2 defeat to Hamilton which was another measure of how low Celtic had sunk during the war years. Celtic could have gone for Hamilton’s left-winger Billy McCall (who had destroyed the Celtic first team) but instead opted for the young Pat Rodgers.
The outside-left from Inverkeithing was a promising junior player and he made his Hoops debut on 16th September 1944 with Celtic winning a wartime Regional League clash 3-0 at Dumbarton.
Pat Rodgers was a fully committed player who never gave anything less than his all but unfortunately that wasn’t enough to ensure him of a regular start.
Must add, that Celtic were poorly managed due to the board meddling during the war (and for long after) and if the first team had better management then who knows how it could have turned out for Pat Rodgers.
His solitary goal for Celtic came in a 6-1 victory over Morton in January 1945, and he helped Celtic to come second in the league in the 1944/45 season which was quite a recovery for a team that had mostly floundered during the war years.
He played a handful of games at the start of the 1945/46 season, and Celtic were unbeaten in the games that Pat Rodgers played in but then Pat O’Sullivan from Airdrie was brought in to replace him. Celtic had a poor season thereafter, and remained in the doldrums for a number of years thereafter too.
After a loan spell at Raith Rovers, Pat Rodgers was eventually released by Celtic in the summer of 1946 having made 19 league & league cup appearances and having also scored one league goal. He actually had a relatively good record at Celtic which is not something that many of his peers from the time could similarly boast.
After spells elsewhere, mainly with lower tier clubs, he was sadly forced to retire from play in 1954 due to arthritis.
Playing Career
| APPEARANCES | REGIONAL LEAGUE | REGIONAL LEAGUE CUP | LEAGUE CUP | EUROPE | TOTAL |
| 1944-46 | 18 | 1 | – | – | 19 |
| Goals: | 1 | 0 | – | – | 1 |
Honours with Celtic
none