Toshney, Lewis

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Fullname: Lewis Toshney
Born: 26 April 1992
Birthplace: Dundee
Signed: 1 Jan 2011
Left: 1 July 2014 (free); 27 Sep 2014 (to Ross County)
Position: Defender
Debut: Aberdeen 0-3 Celtic, League, 1 Feb 2011
Squad No.: 45
Internationals: Scotland U21/19/17
International Caps:0 (for senior)
International Goals: 0 (for senior)

Biog

A product of Celtic’s youth system, joining aged 12, he progressed through the ranks and made his first senior appearance against Aberdeen in February 2011 during an injury crisis. He gave a good performance in the short ten minutes he was on. It gave some hope that he could make the step up more regularly in time. He was a big Celtic fan as a boy and so was a dream come true for him.

A talented player, he had represented Scotland at youth international levels up to and including the Scotland under-21 team.

Sadly, opportunities were to be limited with the surprising improvement of the stalwarts in Celtic’s defence, as well as the new transfers in to the club, hampering opportunities for him.

This environment first saw him move on a loan move to Kilmarnock, and then on 24 August 2012, Lewis Toshney signed for Dundee on a season long loan, returning thereafter to Celtic.

It wasn’t to be at Celtic for him sadly, and the management were not giving youth as much of a chance as they could have (as some critics argued at the time).

He later revealed that his career was almost ended by talcum powder on a surgeon’s glove – after some ended up in the defender’s knee after an operation which lost him valuable time. Thankfully he survived that scare:

“They still don’t know to this day. I’m on different tablets, trying to get rid of it. I had an operation and a specialist said it was a bit of talc off his glove that actually went in my knee and triggered it all. They thought it was arthritis. They tried every blood test in the book — that’s why I was out for so long. It was horrible for me because I never knew what was happening. I just had to keep my head up and now I just want to prove I’m back playing [with Ross County] and show teams what I’m all about.”

Post-Celtic

He was freed from Celtic in the summer of 2014, and after a short time out he won a place with Ross County in September 2014, making an immediate impact as he helped them to their first league win of the season in his debut match.

He ended up being much in demand and well travelled within the Scottish divisions, including stints at Cowdenbeath, Raith Rovers, Dundee Utd, Arbroath, Brechin, Falkirk, Inverness CT and Edinburgh City. Possibly he played for more senior clubs in Scotland than any other player of his generation. Part of the reason was due to the aforementioned knee injury which lost him valuable time.

[…]

We wished him the best.

Playing Career

Honours with Celtic

none

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Toshney achieves Bhoyhood dream

source: Celticfc.net
By: Laura Brannan on 10 Feb, 2011 11:22

LEWIS Toshney doesn’t call himself a Celtic supporter, he’s a step beyond that – he’s a fanatic.

Since the age of six, he would travel down from Dundee with his Granddad for every match in Paradise as well as travelling to most away games on a Tayside supporters’ bus.

So when the U19 defender was handed a place in the first-team squad to play Aberdeen last week and then thrown on for his debut in the final 10 minutes of the 3-0 win, words couldn’t describe the emotions the diehard Bhoy felt. It was a moment he had been waiting for all his life.

“I was absolutely over the moon to get my chance in the first-team, it was really unexpected,” he exclusively told the Celtic View.

“I’d just played Airdrie in the Youth Cup and I was told I was in the squad. Being on the bench was great but to come on for Celtic, that’s my dream come true so it was absolutely brilliant.

“When the third goal went in and Stokes scored the gaffer said “Toshney!” at the top of his voice and looked at me. Thommo told me to go and get warmed up and then shouted at me to come over so I knew from then that was it.”

“There were a few tears shed,” Toshney added. “I saw my family in the crowd and it meant everything to us.

“It’s been my dream for years. I used to go to all the Celtic games with my Grandda since I was six years old. I had a season ticket, so to come on for the first-team is unbelievable and it means the world to me.

“My mum and dad and Grandda were there but I couldn’t get my sister a ticket so she was watching it in the pub and she said she was crying too.”

But while it’s all going right for Toshney just now, he’s adamant he isn’t getting carried away. Despite the gentle banter among the 19s’ squad, the Tayside youngster is keeping his feet on the ground.

He’s now looking ahead to the Youth Cup quarter-final this weekend and remains adamant his priorities are still with Tommy McIntyre and Stevie Frail’s squad.

“I’ll still be down to earth,” he laughed, “Everyone has been joking with me, even the boys, they’ve been calling me ‘Big time’ and ‘Massive Time’ but that won’t get to me, I’ll be the same.

“I was up on merit because I’ve been playing well for the 19s and that’s the only reason I got my chance. The gaffer hasn’t said anything else to me about being up again so I’m just concentrating on doing what I’ve been doing for the 19s.

“Obviously it’s a bonus if I’m up with the first-team and the reserves but that’s all I count it as, a bonus.

“It’s going well at 19s level just now, we’ve got a lot of games to go so there will be a lot of midweek games coming up after Stenhousemuir in the cup. I need to get my head down and hopefully we can get the league and cup double.”