Weir, Jock

IN MANY respects Jock Weir could scarcely be considered a major Celtic player. He spent only some four years with the club and was a regular rather than a prolific goalscorer. Yet on April 17, 1948, he held the fortunes of the club in the palm of his hand.

Those immediate post-war days were grim. Relief that the war was over was tempered by the almost universal shortages of food and other essentials. Petrol was rationed, football teams travelled by coach if they could get one and by train if they could not. It therefore gladdened the hearts of Celtic supporters to see that apparently their club had realised the error of its ways in its attitude to war-time football. Celtic

This was taken by the supporters to indicate that their team had decided to rejoin the ranks of serious football clubs. This had certainly not been the case in the previous 10 years. Under Willy Maley and Jimmy McStay had at last entered the transfer market in a pretty big way. They had signed Jock Weir from Blackburn Rovers for the highly respectable sum of (pounds) 7000. Celtic had treated war-time football with contempt and in pursuance of this policy players such as Matt Busby, Willy Buchan, and the brothers O’Donnell, Frank and Hugh, all of international calibre, all of them with the exception of Busby ex-Celts on offering their services, were turned down with scarce a word of thanks.

The one player of undoubted international class that Celtic’s war years produced was goal-keeper Willy Miller, who significantly was considering his options. He would be the one player who would not be going full time on the arrival at Parkhead of Jock Weir.

The latter could not halt Celtic’s dramatic slump immediately and by the end of April relegation stared Celtic in the face. Well perhaps not so much stared in the face as peeped shyly round the corner. For relegation to happen some 20 results had to work out in a particular way. There were those of us who thought it unlikely that things would be allowed to work out in that particular way. Nevertheless, a crowd of 31,000 was sufficiently trusting to turn up at Dens Park and with half an hour to go Dundee were 2-1 up and visits to Alloa and Cowdenbeath were a distinct possibility for Celtic.

Oddly enough, Celtic used the dapper Weir better on that day than at any time afterwards. He was not a very thoughtful leader of a forward line, such as John McPhail. But Mcphail suffered from a fatal lack of pace. Weir was uncomplicated, very speedy, and possessed of a good shot but Celtic always vacillated between playing him on the right wing and turning him loose through the middle.

That spring day at Dens Park he scored two late goals to complete his hat-trick and restore the cynical smile to the faces of those who had always doubted the relegation scenario.

In football, however, there are certain transfers which are more important than their mere statistics. Such was the transfer of Pat Stanton from Hibernian to Celtic, a path also trodden by Jock Weir though indirectly. Celtic began to realise the potential of their support. Jock Weir scored two goals in the Glasgow Cup final against Third Lanark in 1948 and if that seems small potatoes let me give you the attendance. Eighty seven thousand, yes, you read it correctly, 87,000.

The adjective most frequently applied to Weir was ”dashing”. He was not a heady player and this was the exact opposite of John McPhail. But his signing was influential. Suddenly Tully, Collins, Fernie, and Mochan were in the side. The team was still a collection of talented individuals who essentially played off the top of their heads.

A player can be unlucky and it is my contention that Jock Weir was so during his time at Parkhead. By a matter of weeks he missed Jock Stein who was to transform everything. By an even unkinder cut, he was on his way, via Falkirk to that part of south Wales which Jock Stein had briefly made his own.

Just more than 100 matches played for Celtic, 38 goals scored and no caps at a time when the direct opposition for the job included Willy Thornton, Willy Bauld, and Lawrie Reilly and we have not begun to mention the Anglos. Yet in a way he was one of the most important post-war signings. If you could get 87,000 to Hampden to watch an indifferent side, what might a good team not attract?

Football fans are fuelled by hope and the hope with Jock Weir was that an end was in sight to the policy of signing young and basically untalented players. In Jock Weir’s exuberance the fans saw the possibility of a better future.

Relegation D-Day for Celtic!

By Editor 28 March, 2018 No Comments

Relegation D-Day for Celtic!

SEVENTY years ago the thought of Celtic winning 7 in a row would have been a very unlikely dream, the facts were that Celtic might actually be relegated.

During the run of the Celtic Show at the Pavilion Theatre in Glasgow in 2002, I had arranged to meet my brother in Molly Malones for a drink after the show.

My brother Benny had tickets to the show and I was in the pub listening to one of my other brothers, George signing.

After the show finished the bar started to fill up with the theatre goers, but amongst the new arrivals in Molly Malones was a man who had written his name into the Celtic history books.

In 1948 Celtic came perilously close to relegation from the top flight of Scottish football, a poor season had meant that Celtic needed to win their final match of the season – away to Dundee – to guarantee their top flight survival.

The club had just suffered three heavy defeats to Hibs (2-4) and Third Lanark twice (1-5, 1-3) conceding 12 goals, leaving us with the mathematical possibility of being relegated if we lost at Dens Park.

Jock gave Celtic an early lead with 14 minutes gone but Dundee equalised just before half-time. Then after the re-start, Dundee went two-one up to sink the hearts of the large Celtic support.

However Jock Weir popped up with an equaliser, and with only minutes to go Weir miraculously grabbed a winner in the final two minutes to seal an historic Celtic hat-trick.

The Celtic fans celebrated as if we had just won the league. It shouldn’t hide the fact that Celtic were poor, but humiliation was averted.

In the end other results went the way of Celtic and the 3-2 victory turned out to be an added bonus. But this was the closest Celtic had ever come to being relegated.

Jock had been the special guest at the Celtic Show earlier in the evening. There was an announcement in the bar that an ex-Celt was there and he had brought along his Scottish Cup winning medal from 1951.

My brother waited for the small group of supporters to clear and he went over to speak to Jock and his wife.

Jock told Benny about being part of the first Post war Celtic team to win a major honour when they beat Motherwell 1-0 in the final. Jock showed his medal which turned out to be his only major honour during his career with Celtic.

Benny then asked him about the crunch match of 1948 against Dundee. Jocks eyes lit up as he shared the story of his goal scoring hat-trick on the final day of the season.

“One with my left, one with my right and one with my head, the perfect hat-trick to win the match and guarantee safety from relegation,” Jock recalled.

Over the years Celtic have had some world class goal scorers, from James McGrory and Jimmy Quinn to Bobby Lennox and Henrik Larsson, but those 3 goals from Jock Weir ensured Celtic maintained their unbroken status within the top flight of Scottish football which continuous to this day.

Martin Donaldson