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Fullname: Ronald Campbell Simpson
aka: Ronnie Simpson, ‘Faither’
Born: 11 October 1930
Died: 19 April 2004
Birthplace: Glasgow, Scotland
Signed: 3 September 1964
Left: 7 May 1970 (retired)
Position: Goalkeeper
Debut: Barcelona away 1-3 Fairs cup 18 November 1964
Last game: Clyde home 6-1 league 1 May 1971
Internationals: Scotland
International Caps: 5 caps
Biog
| “The only worry I had out there in the Lisbon final was the danger of sunstroke.” Ronnie Simpson on 1967 European Cup Final |
Ronnie Simpson, goalkeeper, member of the Lisbon Lions who won the European Cup in 1967.
Ronnie Simpson is the elder statesman of the the Lisbon Lions, dubbed lovingly as “Faither“. Things could have been much different. Firstly, he was actually the son of an ex-Rangers player. He actually was on loan to Rangers in April 1947 but didn’t play for their first team and was marked by them as not good enough. How he was to show them up in time!
Mainly remembered for his time with Celtic, but prior he played for Queen’s Park, Third Lanark, Newcastle United and Hibernian. Ronnie Simpson made his debut for Queen’s Park 15 days before his 15th birthday in 1945 (a record age). Next, Ronnie Simpson completed National Service in Catterick before joining Third Lanark in 1950.
However, within a year, he had moved to Tyneside where he went on to win the FA Cup with the Magpies in 1952 and 1955 – the last domestic silverware won by Newcastle to time of writing. He is still lauded amongst the Newcastle faithful for his part in this golden era. On announcement on Ronnie Simpson’s later passing away they mourned his loss as much as any Celtic fan.
One other notable addition to his CV is his having competed in the 1948 Olympics in London, playing for the Great Britain team, the last time a unified team had represented the four nations (until the 2012 Olympics in London). Quite a record.
Ronnie Simpson returned to Scotland in 1960 when he joined Hibs (a move much mourned by the Newcastle fans after ten years of sterling service). He played a strong role for the club before Jock Stein took the reins at Hibs, but disputes between them put him on the transfer list. At this point, at the grand old footballing age of 33, he thought about moving on from football, but Sean Fallon stepped in and brought him to Celtic much to everyone’s surprise. He made his debut in a Fairs Cup tie at Barcelona’s Nou Camp stadium, when Celtic lost 3-1. Despite this inauspicious start, Ronnie Simpson generally held down the main role but was later in competition with John Fallon. Celtic were a poor side back then and Jock Stein’s arrival as manager was to change everything for Celtic and Ronnie Simpson. His new golden age was just about to begin.
The romanticised story is that Jock Stein moved Ronnie Simpson on whilst both were at Hibs in anticipation of greater days at Celtic Park. That is actually far from the truth. On announcement of Jock Stein’s appointment at Celtic, whilst all others were cheering the good news, Ronnie Simpson apparently turned to his wife and told her that they were going to have to back their bags again. He and Jock Stein had a fallout whilst at Hibs and he didn’t expect a reconciliation at Celtic on Jock Stein’s return. Thankfully it didn’t come to this, and Ronnie Simpson in the twilight of his footballing years became the no.1 goalkeeper for the club. An amazing achievement for someone at his age.
The peak of his career was to come as Celtic began to finally achieve what the club could always offer. Domestic league and cup triumphs galore whilst playing great football, ably defending all attacks with Ronnie Simpson as the bulwark in goals. His ability made his defence more confident and allowed them to fully express themselves on the pitch to their fullest ability.
The best was still to come with the run to the European Cup final in 1967, and the big one against Inter Milan: Celtic won 2-1, an incredible achievement. The conceded goal was due to a penalty (no easy task for any goalkeeper to tackle), but as Celtic bombarded the Inter Milan goal with shot after shot, Ronnie Simpson became more of an onlooker in the game than anything else.
Then came the heart-in-the-mouth moment for all Celtic fans. Ronnie Simpson found himself isolated outside his box against an attacking player running at him, but with some fancy footwork he back-heeled the ball to deal with it and got himself out of trouble. It was one moment to make everyone’s heartbeat jump, but in reflection when it pays off you don’t half applaud it. Not a move that many would generally recommend any goalkeeper to do. It has gone on to be one of the finest moments in European Cup final history and a major highlight of the match (and one he admittedly looked back on thinking “What if it had gone wrong?“). A winner’s medal was the least he deserved after that experience.
In reflection, that last moment demonstrated another aspect of Ronnie Simpson’s ability. He was very adept with his footwork as much as with his hands. “Ronnie was as much a footballer as he was a goalkeeper,” explained Billy McNeill, “Anything that went behind the defenders, Ronnie would come out and deal with it. In training, he always wanted to play as a striker“.
That wasn’t enough for Ronnie Simpson, and next he played for Scotland becoming their oldest ever debutant (for Scotland) at the age of 36 in the famous game at Wembley in 1967 when they beat the then world champions England 3-2, in what is regarded by many as Scotland’s greatest match. Ronnie Simpson was cramming many of the best moments of his career in his final years.
It’s easy to eulogise about past players being so good whilst modern ones are easily slaughtered, but you just have to look at the statistics for Ronnie Simpson. He managed 91 clean sheets out of 188 games over four seasons at Celtic whilst picking up his medals, that’s around one every two games. As for medals: one European Cup, four League winners medals, three Scottish Cups and five League Cup medals. Says it all.
He was though only human and it wasn’t all easy to deal with. He may have been a mature and experienced player but as Bobby Lennox recalled in his biography, Ronnie Simpson was shaken by nerves before matches. At Celtic, a bottle of whisky was kept for a quick drink (likely far away out of the sight of the teetotal Jock Stein who only barely tolerated this), and prior to matches Ronnie Simpson used to take a dram or two to help settle himself to prepare for a big game. Not an anecdote you’d expect of players in times now, but in those days much more was acceptable (as long as the manager didn’t see you). Anything else? His teeth were false and were kept in his bunnet in the back of the goals. Nothing else about him was false. He was the real deal.
After he retired as a player in 1970 because of a recurring shoulder injury, he became the manager of Hamilton Accies which lasted just a year. He also served on the football pools panel, which guessed results of postponed matches in periods of exceptionally bad weather.
On the pitch, a fairytale career. One that everyone can only read about with pride.
He died suddenly of a heart attack on Monday 19 April 2004, aged 73, much mourned by his former colleagues and the fans at all the clubs he had played at.
He will be fondly remembered as one of our greatest ever goalkeepers.
Playing Career
| APPEARANCES | LEAGUE | SCOTTISH CUP | LEAGUE CUP | EUROPE | TOTAL |
| 1964-70 | 118 | 17 | 29 | 24 | 188 |
| Shut-outs | 54 | 10 | 14 | 13 | 91 (48%) |
Pictures
Links
Quotes by himself
Early Years
“I was brought up in King’s Park in Glasgow and from the end of my road you could see Hampden Park, where I launched my football career.
I made my debut in goal for Queen’s Park when I was still at school, aged just 14, in 1944. I turned out for them for about five years.
“As a youngster, confidence is not an issue, you just feel you can play to the required standard and tend not to worry about things.
“I left school during that time and started work as a sub-editor in the sports section of the old Bulletin newspaper. But, as with everybody of my age, I was eventually called up for National Service.
“I was sent to Catterick and stayed there for the entire two-year duration because I played for the British Army team. We had a fair side and Billy MacPhail was one of my team-mates. We had some good games, too, against Luxembourg, Scotland and England.
“Another representative side I played for at that time was Great Britain in the Olympic Games of 1948. I think I’m right in saying we finished fourth at Wembley. There were four or five Queen’s Park players in the side as it was a totally amateur outfit.
“When I came out of the Army later that year, I decided I wasn’t going back into the newspaper business and turned professional. There were a few clubs in for me at that time, but I joined Third Lanark.
“I moved on after about six months, though, to go to Newcastle United. It was a good decision as in those days, they were doing very well. Within months of me joining, they won the FA Cup, although I was in the reserves and not involved.
“So I thought: ”That’s my big chance gone.” But the next season we retained the trophy and I was in the team. We beat a very good Arsenal side 1-0 in the Final. It was a great time for me especially as I had only joined the club the year before.
“We had a strong team – including Bobby Mitchell and Frank Brennan playing important roles – but the club favourite was undoubtedly Jackie Milburn. I loved my time there as the people really loved their football. If anything, more so than they do today.
“There were crowds of 60,000 regularly crammed into St James’ Park. Sometimes they had to close the gates three hours before kick-off at 12 o’clock. I have a suite in the stand named after me.”
Joining Celtic
I was about 35 at that time and, although I was not thinking about retiring, I could feel during games that I was getting on a bit. But I thought I would just keep playing away and was in the reserves for nearly a season at Parkhead.
About six months after I joined, Jock followed me. I feared the worst as he had obviously not been a fan of mine, but I got great backing from Neil Mochan, who was one of the club’s trainers. He gave me some glowing reports after reserve games and I was given my chance.
Training under Stein
The goalkeeping coaching in those days was very lax. I just did laps and training with all of the other players. It was only when I joined Celtic that I started doing any specialised training.
Jock had been out in Italy studying different methods and he came back with some good ideas. He used to put the keepers through their paces when the others were doing laps. He would come in close, and keep me going with shot after shot.
“My career was eventually ended by injury, but I think those sessions kept me sharp and quite possibly helped to prolong my career for a season or two. Jock trained you hard and always kept all the players on their toes.
The Lions
“I KNEW the team Celtic were putting together then was going to be a good one. Jock knew how to blend individuals. We had a great rapport, but I never once thought in terms of winning European trophies.
Bertie Auld was brought back and was a craftsman in his midfield role, Billy McNeill was a solid centre-half, Tommy Gemmell had great shooting ability, wee Jinky Johnstone was his brilliant individual self, Bobby Lennox would run all day for you, Bobby Murdoch was a great passer of the ball, and John Clark was a wonderful sweeper.
“We had a lot of talent throughout that side and a great defence, as well, that didn’t lose many goals. We had our differences on the park, but we always put it behind us when we got off the pitch. We all got on well together.
“When we got to the European Cup Final in 1967, it was just something that happened. The games we played in the run-up to the match with Inter Milan were just regular games for us. When we got to the Final, it was just another match.
“We were all over them and thoroughly deserved to win 2-1. The second picture shows the penalty they scored early on. Mazzola put the ball to my right and there was nothing I could do about it. But my team-mates came good in the end, as I knew they would.
“At one point, I got caught about 30 yards off my line when they played a ball through the middle. I back-heeled it and John Clark collected it. It all turned out fine, but if it had gone wrong I have no idea what would have happened.
“The only worry I had out there in the Lisbon final was the danger of sunstroke”
Retirement
“I PICKED up a shoulder injury at Shawfield one day when I was about 40 and it never really recovered. It kept coming out, so I had to retire. It was sad for me, but I had to call it a day.
“The Pools Panel were looking to have a man in Scotland and one of the football reporters at that time, John Fairgrieve, suggested me. I got the job and did that for many years.
“I also got involved in goalkeeper coaching much later. Alex Totten took me to St Johnstone, where I spent a few seasons, then Bert Paton brought me to Dunfermline. I had an English FA coaching certificate and had done school work in England. I had also been a fitness instructor in the Army. It was simply a case of setting up exercises to get the best out of the players.
“I have enjoyed working as a matchday host at Celtic with some of my fellow Lisbon Lions and it has been great to see the success the club have enjoyed under Martin O’Neill.”
Quotes by others
“You know why he wiz so good on his right side? It wiz because he kept his teeth in his bunnet there! Nothing ever got by him there!!”
Wee Jinky Johnstone (1999) on old Ronnie Simpson
“Ronnie was as much a footballer as he was a goalkeeper. Anything that went behind the defenders, Ronnie would come out and deal with it. In training, he always wanted to play as a striker.”
Billy McNeill on Ronnie Simpson
“I brought Ronnie Simpson in. We’d had a string of goalies who’d been bloody terrible. I also brought back Bertie Auld. Jock said to me: ‘Jesus, you’ve signed trouble.’ but that one worked out fine as well.”
Sean Fallon
