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Personal
Fullname: Patrick Gordon Stanton
aka: Pat Stanton, Patrick Stanton
Born: 13 September 1944
Birthplace: Edinburgh, Scotland
Signed: 1 September 1976
Left: 5 August 1978 (retired through injury)
Position: Defender/Midfielder
First game: 4 September 1976 Rangers home 2-2 League
Last game: 13 August 1977 Dundee United home 0-0 League
Internationals: Scotland
Internationals: Caps: 16 caps
International Goals: 0
Biog
| “When Jock Stein signs you, you’re not doing too bad.” Pat Stanton (2013) |
Pat Stanton was a Hibernian legend when he signed for the Bhoys in a shock swap deal in September 1976 with Celtic’s Jackie McNamara (sr) moving in the opposite direction.
The veteran had spent 13 years with the Edinburgh side – his first and true love – and was just a couple of weeks short of his 32nd birthday when he made the surprise switch to Parkhead. The signing would prove to be a Jock Stein masterstroke.
As a Hi-Bee he played mostly in midfield and was named Scotland’s Player of the Year in 1970, the season Celtic made it to a second European Cup final. He had played briefly under Stein at Easter Road, captained the club for six years and scored one and created the other goal in the 2-1 League Cup final victory over Celtic in 1972 and led his Hibs side to two Drybrough Cup victories, both against Celtic, in 1972 and 1973. He was inspirational for Hibs in their 7-0 thrashing of Hearts at Tynecastle in January 1973 and was also a regular in the Scotland squads between 1969 and 1974.
Stanton was a class performer. Stein deployed him in a sweeper role and his quality and experience would prove invaluable to a young Celtic side desperately struggling to reach the standards and expectations set by the Lisbon Lions. A decade after European Cup glory the Celts’ had failed to qualify for the European Cup for the second successive season. After years in the shadow of Stein rivals Rangers were now top of the tree. Thankfully Stanton’s impact and influence was immediate.
The classy defender brought a calm assurance to the Hoops’ defence and helped the young Roddy MacDonald progress into an excellent player. Leading by example, Stanton encouraged the Bhoys to play a confident passing game. Suddenly players who had struggled just months before were turning in accomplished performances. With Stanton marshaling the defence and Kenny Dalglish inspirational in attack Celtic fans began to wonder if Stein had built another side capable of challenging in Europe.
The Bhoys won back the championship, ironically won at Easter Road, and the then Hibs chairman Tom Hart banned the television cameras from filming that day and it was felt he was still smarting from Stanton’s loss. Joe Craig scored the winner in a 1-0 win. Celtic then underlined their domestic dominance by completing a League and Scottish Cup double and with a 1-0 victory over Rangers at Hampden and Pat Stanton now had a full set of domestic medals. Pat Stanton had received a good luck telegram in the dressing room before the final from his old Easter Road team mates. Only a defeat to Aberdeen in November 1976 had cost Celtic the treble when their inspirational defender was cup tied. Had he been eligible to play it is likely Celtic would have won.
Stanton played a major part in Celtic’s successful tour of the Far East in the summer of 1977 where they defeated Arsenal and Red Star Belgrade although Pat blotted his copybook by being sent off against Red Star for retaliation, which was a rare occurrence.
Sadly for the Celtic support it would prove to be a false dawn. Dalglish departed for Liverpool on August 10th 1977 and just three days later at Parkhead against Dundee United, Pat Stanton suffered a knee injury which would eventually end his career. The injury required cartilage surgery but complications set in after surgery (see article in Player Photos) and Stanton did not play for the rest of the season and retired at its end. It was a double blow which destroyed the Bhoys season and Pat Stanton’s steadying influence in defence was to be sadly missed.
Pat Stanton retired a year after sustaining that injury against Dundee United having played 44 times for Celtic. He will always rightly be remembered first and foremost as a true Hibernian hero but the wonderful talent he displayed in his Celtic cameo will ensure a deserved place in the history of the Bhoys. Pat Stanton was, first and foremost, a magnificent footballer.
Playing Career
| APPEARANCES | LEAGUE | SCOTTISH CUP | LEAGUE CUP | EUROPE | TOTAL |
| 1976-78 | 37 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 44 |
| Goals: | 0 | 0 | 0 | – | 0 |
Honours with Celtic
Scottish Premier League
Scottish Cup
Quotes & anecdotes
1) Pat On Signing For Celtic: “I was at home, resting before an evening derby with Hearts, when I got a call from Eddie Turnbull ,” recalls Stanton. “Eddie had Jock with him, and he came on and said: ‘Would you like to join my team?’ I said yes, and travelled to Parkhead that night. I found out later that Celtic had tried to buy me a few times.”
So Stanton signed on September 1 – with Jackie McNamara moving in the opposite direction – and was introduced to his new teammates wearing a classic Arthur Montford-style checked jacket (“It was so loud you needed volume control, but I was proud of it”).
Generally a midfielder at Hibs, Stein told him to play sweeper, and three days later he made his debut against Rangers at Parkhead. “All I could think was: ‘Please don’t make a mistake’, but the game ended 2-2 and it was a great experience.”
2) “When Jock Stein signs you, you’re not doing too bad.”
Pat Stanton (2013)
3) “I thought Hibs were a big club, and they were and are, but Celtic are something else again. I just loved that everyone from the woman that made the tea to the fella that cut the grass were all supporters of the team. That was the Celtic.”
Pat Stanton
4) (Caltonbhoy of KDS forum): Of all the players I have watched playing football in Scotland against Celtic, Pat Stanton is the best I have seen – He was Class Personified in everything he did on the park.
The time I was growing up watching Celtic was a privileged one being The Lions and then the QSG – You saw players in the opposition who you knew were good (particularly with Hibs) but rarely did you see one who you thought could genuinely improve Celtic and whom you wished played for Celtic – For me Stanton was the one – I loved the way he played football and wished I could emulate the way he played (chance would be a fine thing. ) – In a week where Kds has discussed Paul McGrath it is a coincidence that a similar player has cropped up – Another magnificent reader of football and how to play the game by anticipation.
Stanton is undoubtedly a Hibee but he loved playing for Celtic and Celtic for that short time loved having him – Pat is actually descended from a Hibee Founding Father – He is the great ,great nephew of Whelahan so I suppose they were entitled to have him first – Big Jock as others have said tried repeatedly for Pat and you have to take into account when Jock was at the peak of his powers he rarely ventured into the market – Joe McBride .Willie Wallace, Harry Hood.Tommy Callaghan, Dixie and a few others and he brought Bertie Auld back though Jimmy McGrory signed him – Really it wasn’t that often he did go for a player as what we had even in the Reserves was better than most of what other clubs had – I think although we eventually got Pat you could argue Stanton and Narey were the two that got away as far as the Big Man was concerned.
I still maintain Dalglish staying c/w Stanton not getting injured and Danny not being out for so long Jock would have got his third great team – All if and buts and probably nowhere as good as the Lions or QSG but a great team nonetheless
Testimonial
Player Pics
KDS forum
The Bhoy in the Picture: Pat Stanton
Written by St Anthony
Sunday, 26 July 2009 08:01
One evening in the long hot summer of 1976, my Father called me in from playing football ‘roon the back’. Reason was that Archie McPherson was on television and relayed us with the news that the Hibs captain Pat Stanton had signed for Celtic. This was surprising to say the least because in the early 1970’s, to all intents and purposes, Billy McNeill was Celtic, John Greig was Rangers and Pat Stanton was Hibs. Pat had been at Easter Road for his entire career since 1962 and was now 32 years of age. My first thought was ‘Aw Naw’ as I perceived him as an old man who was past it. My Dad, however, was ecstatic as he was a long time admirer and knew Stanton’s experience would be an asset to the Celtic team. Jackie McNamara senior moved to Hibs in an exchange deal between the two clubs.
In all the articles I have written so far about ex Celtic players I have generally excluded details of their careers at previous clubs, but I am making an exception with Pat Stanton, because to appreciate how truly good he was you have to know about his time at Hibernian. The Hi-Bees had decent teams in Pat’s time there but he saw many of his contemporaries leave in big money deals to bigger clubs. Peter Marinello, Peter Cormack, Colin Stein and Alex Cropley all moved on but Pat, always Hibs’ greatest asset, remained loyal. Make no mistake if Pat Stanton had moved to a decent English side at the peak of his career then he would have been the Scots version of Bobby Moore.
He made twelve appearances for the Scotland international team and he is on record at expressing his disappointment at not gaining more caps. However, there was stiff competition for the right half position with Dave Mackay, Pat Crerand, Bobby Murdoch, John Greig, Billy Bremner and Davie Hay all vying for that role through the years that Pat was at Easter Road.
He was, arguably, the greatest Captain in Hibs’ history and led his team to six Hampden finals within five years and the huge irony is that they were ALL against Celtic with Hibs winning three and Celtic three, although it’s worth pointing out that the three Celtic won were by the scorelines of 6-2, 6-1 and 6-3. In the 1972 League Cup Final Pat was the man of the match and inspired Hibs to victory over a great Celtic side by scoring once and creating another spectacular goal for Jim O’Rourke. On the European stage Hibs had several notable performances also. In 1968 they beat Napoli by 5-0 in the old Fairs Cup competition with the legendary Italian goalkeeper Dino Zoff in goals for the Italians (one wonders if Zoff ever lost five goals again). In 1972 Hibs hammered Sporting Lisbon 7-1 which was a spectacular result which made all of Europe sit up and take notice.
In 1973 Hibs held Don Revie’s great Leeds side 0-0 in both legs and lost narrowly by 5-4 on penalties, Pat Stanton having the agony of missing the vital kick, and in 1975 Hibs were six minutes away from knocking Liverpool out of the uefa cup until a defensive blunder cost them the tie. Liverpool actually went on to lift the trophy later that season. Between 1972 and 1975 Hibs were desperately unlucky not to win a league title and had it not been for Jock Stein and his excellent Celtic team of that period they would almost certainly have done so. Also, this Hibs team played with a flair that few Scottish clubs have matched before or after.
Their forward line of Edwards, O’Rourke, Gordon, Cropley and Duncan remains one of the best that I have seen in my lifetime of watching football. However, towards the end of his time at Easter Road, Pat had fallen out with Hibs’ manager Eddie Turnbull, who, by all accounts, could be a difficult character, although it was still a shock when Turnbull agreed to Pat’s move to Parkhead.
Pat made his Celtic debut in the heat of a Glasgow derby against Rangers and inspired Celts to a creditable draw after they were 2-0 down. After a short settling in period he began to show his true worth and was a great help to Peter Latchford and Roddy MacDonald who had chequered Celtic careers up until that time. Pat was a superb organiser and Celtic’s defence improved considerably. The only disappointments in the season were the defeats to Aberdeen in the League Cup final and in Poland against Wisla Krakow in the uefa cup and it’s fair to say that had Pat not been cup tied for those games then the outcome could have been in Celtic’s favour. In his earlier career Pat had been a fine attacking right half (old fashioned term for a central midfielder) but Stein knew that he was perfect for the role of sweeping up behind a centre half.
On April 16th 1977 Pat travelled to Easter Road knowing that Celtic required one point to lift the title. Hibs chairman Tom Hart banned the television cameras from the game citing his protest against extensive television coverage but he fooled no one as old Tom just couldn’t bear the thought of Celtic and Stanton lifting another title on his patch. He was so spiteful that he even banned the Celtic film club from filming it for posterity. Celtic won 1-0 and Pat had at last got his hands on a League winners medal.
A month later he had the chance to complete a domestic set of medals against Rangers in the Scottish Cup final. As the Celtic team sat in the dressing room before kick off with Jock Stein giving them instruction, a ball boy delivered ‘a telegram for Pat Stanton.’ Somewhat confused, he opened it, and it was from his old Hibs team mates O’Rourke, Blackley and Gordon wishing him good luck for the big game. It was a magnificent gesture and Pat was faultless for Celtic and played a big part in the 1-0 victory. The domestic set of medals was now complete.
That summer Celtic won a prestigious tournament in Australia by beating Arsenal and Red Star Belgrade (Pat was sent off against Red Star for retaliation) and Celtic looked forward to the future with optimism and a decent run in the European Cup. The league flag was raised on August 13th against Dundee United and in that game Stanton suffered a knee injury and despite his best efforts he could not recover and retired from playing in 1978. It was a huge loss to Celtic and they could never truly replace someone of his character and ability in central defence for a long time.
On April 30th 1978 Celtic travelled through to Easter Road to play in Pat’s testimonial game. Despite the unseasonal freezing cold weather, 25,000 fans turned out in tribute to Pat with around 10,000 Celts travelling through to bolster the attendance. The curious team line ups are often a source for quiz questions as Ralph Callachan (then of Newcastle United) and Eamon Bannon (Hearts) appeared for Celtic with Jimmy Johnstone making a cameo appearance as a substitute, whilst Alan Rough (Partick) and Joe Jordan (Man Utd) played for Hibs with Tommy Gemmell and Willie Wallace coming on as substitutes for the Easter Road men. Stanton had the privilege of scoring the winning goal from the spot although Roy Baines jumped out the way of the ball, such is the way with these things sometimes in testimonial games.
Despite only being at Parkhead for a short time Pat made a huge impression on the Celtic fans and is fondly remembered. It was a huge disappointment when he retired as he had years of good football left in him. Pat Stanton was a footballer of the highest pedigree who the purists amongst the Celtic support admired greatly.
Interview: Hibs icon Pat Stanton on a final flourish at Celtic
Hibs legend Pat Stanton alongside busts of Hibernian co-founder Canon Edward Hannan and Michael Whelahan, the club’s first captain. Picture: Greg Macvean
http://www.scotsman.com/sport/football/teams/celtic/interview-hibs-icon-pat-stanton-on-a-final-flourish-at-celtic-1-4529749
Andrew Smith
Published: 06:00 Saturday 12 August 2017
To a certain cultural cognoscenti, 13 August 1977 is merely the midway point between Kenny Dalglish leaving Celtic for Liverpool and Elvis leaving the building. To Pat Stanton the date – the 40th anniversary of which arrives tomorrow – brings memories of an altogether different leaving behind.
That afternoon, only a year on from departing his beloved Hibernian following 14 years and almost 400 league appearances, Stanton stood proudly in his Celtic colours – controversially sporting a badge for the first time competitively – as a title winner at last.
He did so as acknowledgement of his pivotal efforts during a debut season that underpinned the Glasgow club’s first championship in three years. Stanton, playing as a sweeper, had been a revelation as Celtic also won the Scottish Cup.
As is tradition, the league flag was unfurled on the opening day of the new season, with Jean Stein, wife of Celtic manager Jock, performing the honour. Little more than an hour later, the 32-year-old Stanton’s football career had the curtain yanked down on it, the injury sustained against Dundee United marking the beginning of the end.
“Early on, I started feeling wee things I hadn’t felt before that led me to think things weren’t as smooth as they should be. I had a tackle with Paul Sturrock and my knee was sticking a wee bit. That was it. I waved over to the dugout and [physio] Bob Rooney had a look at it. I came back out for the second half but I couldn’t risk it for the team. I limped off and that was it. That was it.”
Stanton never played a competitive senior game again. Stein never won another honour. The legendary manager was replaced by Billy McNeill at the end of the 1977-78 season in which Celtic, favourites to retain their crown, could only finish fifth. The placing meant that for the first time in 18 years they failed to qualify for Europe, an arena in which they had, of course, excelled under the stewardship of Stein. So often a figure that seemed imbued by magical powers across 13 trophy-laden seasons, in his final campaign that witnessed the club’s lowest league finish since 1964-65, he and Celtic seemed bedevilled.
Stanton’s predicament, wherein complications developed after a cartilage operation as he was hospitalised with hepatitis, symbolised the crumbling of the Stein empire. It made for a season that could not have been more acutely removed from what proved his one and only playing for the club.
Before Stanton was lost in that opening game stalemate against United, Alfie Conn, another architect of the previous season’s double, was removed on a stretcher. Dalglish had signed for Liverpool in a £440,000 British record transfer days earlier, and by October Danny McGrain was lost to an ankle problem that would sideline him for a year.
“Just as everything had gone right all at once the previous season, so everything just seemed to go wrong at once,” said the ceaselessly affable Stanton.
“If you were looking at the players you really wouldn’t want to be losing from the team, Kenny, Danny, and Alfie would have been the ones.”
As would Stanton have been, after a profound impact at Celtic that meant his removal from the side proved every bit as destructive in Stein’s last season as the departure of Dalglish.
Indeed, with the Scottish Cup won courtesy of a final defeat of Rangers only months before, the cup-tied Stanton’s absence from Celtic’s League Cup run in season 1976-77 is cited as all that probably stood between the club and a treble. The second knockout trophy was claimed by Aberdeen who beat Stein’s team in the Hampden decider after extra time.
Stanton is proud that across his 44 games for “the Celtic” – as he often calls then – he only lost four times. And he is a tad rueful over missing the Parkhead club’s League Cup run. “I was cup-tied because I was brought on as a substitute as Hibs were on their way to beating St Johnstone 9-2 in a League Cup sectional game. I don’t know why I was put on.”
Stanton’s only appearance for the Easter Road first team that season came four days before he signed for Celtic on 1 September 1976. The transfer unfolded after a phone call from his manager Eddie Turnbull. Hibs may be his club but that did not make it a wrench to cut his ties professionally. “I was preparing for a reserve game that night when Eddie called. I knew something was up right away. He said ‘I’ve Mr Stein here to talk to you’. Jock came on and simple said: ‘How would you like to come and play for Celtic?’ He knew my answer. I wasn’t playing for Hibs at the time and me and Eddie weren’t seeing eye-to-eye.
“I wanted to drop back to defence because in my 30s midfield was becoming a hard shift for me. Eddie wouldn’t hear tell of it. The irony was that only when Jock was at Hibs [as manager from 1964-65] did I play at the back, with the club for some reason seeing me as a midfielder. I couldn’t believe that not only did Jock want me, but he wanted me to play where I thought I should be playing. All he said to me when I signed was; ‘we are losing silly goals, and I’ve brought you here to stop that’.”
As a cultured sweeper and almost clairvoyant reader of the game, Stanton did everything that was asked of him. The symmetry of Stein’s influence on his career at either end could also be considered in reverse. Stanton witnessed the early sure-footed certainties and visionary methods of Stein as a young manager. In then attempting his rehabilitation, he was around at Celtic as the title winners disintegrated and the fates mocked the mastery of the aged Stein. The waning of the great manager’s powers is often attributed to the near-fatal car crash that meant assistant Sean Fallon had to take charge for the trophyless 1975-76 season. Stanton believes that is too simplistic a theory.
“What happened to Jock would have affected anyone and, like everyone, time moved on for him, and changed him. I was going to say people mellow, but I have to say I didn’t notice very much of that. To me, he was still as sharp as ever, as committed as ever. It just seemed to be that it was a period for Celtic to struggle, as all the biggest clubs sometimes must. But even then I liked the way that, even in the bad times, there was a togetherness at Celtic. I thought Hibs were a big club, and they were and are, but Celtic are something else again. I just loved that everyone from the woman that made the tea to the fella that cut the grass were all supporters of the team. That was the Celtic.”
So much delight does Stanton take in his swansong with “the Celtic”, he does not feel cheated that he didn’t get the “two or three years” playing in defence that he felt was within him. He was part of the squad with which McNeill started to prepare for the 1978-79 season, but not for long. “I played a few pre-season friendlies, but things weren’t happening as quickly with my body as they should have been. I didn’t want to kid myself, or anyone else, on. I went to see Billy and said I had decided to give up.
“The gentleman that he was, he offered me time to think about it. But I didn’t need time. There was no great annoyance because I felt so lucky to have achieved what I did in my short time there.”
It just had to be that Celtic would win the 1977 title at Easter Road, which would mean Stanton taking the acclaim of a support that wasn’t the one with which the 16-time capped Scotland international will have an everlasting affinity. He admits there was a slight disconnect, one which hasn’t been preserved for posterity by television because Hibs chairman Tom Hart would not allow the cameras in. It has been speculated it was down to Hart being hacked off that Celtic had stolen Stanton from his club. The man himself chuckles at that conspiracy theory.
“I did think, when I was walking round in the post-match celebrations, that if someone had told me at the end of the previous season I could be a title winner with Celtic at Easter Road 11 months later, I would have said they were dreaming. Sometimes, though, dreams come true.”
The dream period seemed to continue into the start of the following season. For pre-season, Celtic headed to the Far East – an unsettled Dalglish refusing to attend because he said was tired after a Scotland summer trip – and won a tournament that involved them beating Arsenal and Red Star Belgrade. A game against the latter brought that almost unheard of sanction for the placid, gentle Stanton: a red card for retaliation.
“I remember sitting in the dressing room and Jock came in and said; ‘Long way to come to get sent off.’ I lashed out at a guy after he had thumped me in the penalty box and, though Jock wasn’t a man to answer back to, I said: ‘what would you have done boss?’ He and I knew fine well what he would have done.”
Eight months later, the pair again had another simple, quiet exchange that remains imprinted on the mind of Stanton. It came on 30 April 1978, as Celtic provided the opposition for Stanton’s testimonial wherein, despite still being a signed Celtic player, he played for the Hibs, naturally. It turned out to be the last Celtic game Stein took charge of before he was replaced.
An afternoon that brought guest appearances for Celtic from Lisbon Lions Tommy Gemmell and Jimmy Johnstone – “aye, the wee right-sided winger wasn’t half bad,” said Stanton – the joker that was Gemmell conducted the Celtic support in chanting his name, before whipping off his hooped shirt to reveal a Hibs shirt before getting the home crowd to big him up.
“He was the sort of character who could get away with everything, and anything,” recalls Stanton. “I remember big Joe Jordan playing hard for the Hibs and scoring. I think we forgot to pay him but he didn’t seem to mind. He just liked getting stuck in wherever he got the chance to play.”
A huge success of a benefit game, Stanton had earlier been concerned that a lashing wet day would dampen any enthusiasm from supporters for coming to honour him. It didn’t, with an astonishing crowd close to 40,000 turning up.
“I was standing in the tunnel with Jock, looking at the miserable weather on a day there was certainly no sunshine on Leith, and said to him it didn’t look good. ‘Don’t worry,’ he said, ‘they are coming’, which the Celtic support did in their absolute droves.”
Just as Stanton had come through for them, and Stein.