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Fullname: Andrew Young
aka: Andy Young
Born: 21 June 1925
Died: 17 October, 2008, Dunfermline
Birthplace: Oakley, Fife, Scotland
Signed: Feb 1943
Left: 1945 (free); 17 Sep 1945 (to Raith Rovers)
Position: Forward, Inside-right
Debut: Celtic 2-2 Hibernian, League, 12 Feb 1944
Internationals: none
Biog
Andrew Young spent little more than a year at Celtic before going on to enjoy a long career at Raith Rovers.
The Fife-born inside-right had signed for the Bhoys in February 1943 from Steelend Victorias for £2 for a first team game and £1 for reserves. He made his debut in a Regional League 2-2 draw at home to Hibs on February 12 1944, taken off with blood streaming from a gash over the eye.
A talented and creative attacker Andy Young’s talents were obvious. However his wartime work as a miner in Fife meant it was near impossible for Young to work long shifts down the pit at Oakley on night shift and play for the Bhoys. The War Years were understandably difficult, and Andy Young is an example of the cost to Celtic of lost talent due to the circumstances (as much as due to anything else).
Consequently after just three games the gifted Andy Young was allowed to join Raith Rovers in September 1945.
He was said at one time in 1953 to be “the most neglected player in Scottish football“, when some regarded that he deserved recognition with an international cap. Luck wasn’t on his side.
“Andy Young is the most neglected player in Scottish Football… serves up tremendous stuff… not a better right-half in Scotland… when asked to move forward has unfailingly put new life in the Raith front line. Yet never a glance from the selectors despite one storming game after another” (1953)
Andy Young went on to become one of the Kirkcaldy sides’ all time greats, and we’ll never know what Celtic missed out on and what further possibly Celtic could have achieved with him.
He helped Raith Rovers in a golden period for the club, helping them to the second tier title and so promotion to the top tier, where they remained for a long time. Incredibly in season 1951-52 they even finished 5th in the final league standings way ahead of a woeful Celtic side, and similarly in season 1956-57 they finished 4th, just above Celtic who had won the league cup that season. So his transfer worked out very well for Andy Young.
He may have come in mighty handy especially in the following years after his transfer when Celtic really hit their nadir and narrowly escaped from even being relegated. Celtic were poorly run throughout the War Years and for a long time beyond, and possibly the loss of Andy Young is another example of this poor management although poor luck due to circumstances is another argument too in his case.
In time, Andy Young was to return to Celtic acting as a scout, and then had the same role for Leeds Utd. He was said to have brought on Tommy Callaghan, Bud Johnston, Doug Rougvie and Ian Porterfield.
He passed away in 2008.
Playing Career
| APPEARANCES | REGIONAL LEAGUE |
SCOTTISH CUP | LEAGUE CUP | EUROPE | TOTAL |
| 1944-45 | 3 | – | – | – | 3 |
| Goals: | 0 | – | – | – | 0 |
Honours with none
none
Pictures
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Andy Young: Footballer
Scotsman Obituary: http://www.scotsman.com/news/obituaries/andy-young-footballer-1-1138030
Published on Tuesday 21 October 2008 20:36
Born: 21 June, 1925, in Oakley, Fife. Died: 17 October, 2008, in Dunfermline, aged 83.
THERE are Raith Rovers supporters of a certain age who insist that, while Willie McNaught was undoubtedly a fine footballer, deserving of more Scotland caps than the meagre five he collected, their favourite Rovers player was Andy Young. Versatile, consistent, enduring and a match-winner, he was the complete footballer in all but pace. It is no accident that the club’s golden years coincided with Young’s 16 years at Stark’s Park.
There have been few more effective players in the club’s history than the former miner from Oakley. He was comfortable in any position, such was his all-round ability, and outstanding in midfield or attack.
To everyone’s astonishment, he did not receive a representative honour. One can only speculate how many caps he would receive in the present day, and he probably suffered from a belief among selectors that one Raith Rovers player in the team was sufficient.
A powerful header of the ball, with a blistering shot as well as a deft touch, he was a consistent goal scorer through his long and loyal service to the club.
He attended Blairhall School, near Oakley, and was one of a handful of outstanding players who emerged from this small corner of west Fife. Within four years of his birth, Blairhall also produced future footballing luminaries Charlie Fleming and Tommy Wright, both of East Fife, Sunderland and Scotland, and the Rangers goalkeeper George Niven.
Young rose to prominence first at Wellwood Juveniles, and then at Steelend Juniors. At 17 years of age, he was recommended to Celtic, played a trial for them at Dumbarton and signed for them, along with Bobby Evans, after the game.
During his two-year spell at Celtic Park, he made regular first-team appearances but was hampered by the demands of his day job – he had to combine playing football with working in Blairhall pit, which often meant doing a night shift followed by travelling to Glasgow, or places such as Aberdeen, to turn out for Celtic.
The travelling forced Young to leave Celtic and go on loan to Raith Rovers in February 1945, making his debut in a 2-1 Northern League defeat to Arbroath. He signed permanently for Raith in September that year, and over the next 16 seasons he would play in every position, including a 20-minute stint as goalkeeper.
But it was in the half-back line that Andy Young would make his name, firstly as part of the Ernie Till, Young and Tommy Brady partnership that would win the Second Division championship and finish runners-up to Rangers in the League Cup final in 1949.
The partnership of Young, Harry Colville and Andy Leigh in the early part of the 1950s, and latterly the even more famous Young, McNaught and Leigh trio, were to serve Raith well in an era when the Kirkcaldy club were one of Scotland’s leading lights, and the half-back line revered throughout the country.
During a discussion about his career and the game in general in the 1950s, Young said: “There wasn’t much by way of tactics or changing positions during a match. If things weren’t going right, no-one thought about how they might change the formation or anything like that. You were picked for your ability to play in a certain position, and you went out and played as well as you could.
“There can be little doubt that the three wing halves, myself, McNaught and Leigh, would have won many caps for Scotland had we played for a more fashionable team. Andy Leigh got a representative cap against the Army at Newcastle, and McNaught got a handful of caps, but I got no further than being a reserve. We were as good a defensive unit as there was in the game at the time but never got the international recognition we deserved.
“I often wondered why I was never picked. I watched as players were selected who were no quicker than me and certainly not as good all-round footballers. I could score goals, and others who were picked couldn’t.”
The highlight of the 1950s golden era was undoubtedly the 5-1 destruction of Rangers at Stark’s Park in December 1956. It was the peak of the greatest Raith Rovers team in 30 years and, for a while, they looked genuine championship contenders, eventually finishing in fourth place, their highest position since 1922 and one that has not been bettered since.
In all, Young played 611 times for Raith Rovers, his last appearance being a Fife Cup tie against Dunfermline Athletic in May 1960. Only Willie McNaught has played more games for Raith, while Young scored an incredible 141 goals. Not bad for someone who would nowadays be called a defensive midfielder.
Although he had a three-year stint as manager of Fife junior club Lochore Welfare, it was talent-spotting that Andy loved more than anything else in his post-playing days. As manager at Lochore, he won three Fife Championships and launched the careers of Willie Johnston (Rangers, West Brom, Hearts and Scotland), Ian Porterfield (Raith and Sunderland, then manager of Aberdeen and Chelsea), Arthur Mann (Hearts), Tommy Callaghan (Celtic), Willie Renton (Dunfermline) and Jocky Richardson (Raith Rovers).
He also scouted for Celtic and Dunfermline Athletic and it is down to Young that Jim Leishman was given his first break in Scottish football.
Later, he would join his great friend Don Revie at Leeds United, and it was Young who was responsible for Gordon McQueen moving from St Mirren to Elland Road. While on the payroll at Leeds, Young was a guest at the 1973 FA Cup final against Sunderland. It was ironic that one of his protgs – Porterfield – should score the winning goal for Sunderland.
Young retired from football in 1994, having resisted Jimmy Nicholl’s attempts to lure him back to Raith Rovers in a scouting role. He did return to Stark’s Park many times as a member of the newly formed Raith Rovers Former Players Association, in which he held the post of honorary president. Lauded by fans young and old, he made his last appearance at the home game with Airdrie United on 20 October, 2007.
Away from football, Young was a popular resident of Lochgelly, where he and his wife, Jessie, lived in the same house since 1951. He is survived by Jessie, their son, Ian, daughter-in-law, Marilyn, and granddaughter, Gemma.
Andy Young in action for Raith Rovers.
6th November 2008 Andy Young
Footballer; Born June 25 1925; Died October 17 2008 Andy Young, who has died aged 83, was a former miner who went on to become one of the best uncapped Scottish footballers of the post-war era. He spent 16 years as a Raith Rovers player – his time at Stark’s Park being an era among the finest in the club’s history.
He was born in the Fife mining village of Oakley and was educated at the nearby Blairhall School. Mining communities frequently produced outstanding footballers and, following in Young’s footsteps, Charlie Fleming and Tommy Wright (East Fife, Sunderland and Scotland) and the Rangers goalkeeper George Niven were born in Blairhall. Young, almost inevitably, went down the mines, but found an outlet in football, first, at Wellwood Juveniles, and then at Steelend Victoria. Aged 17, he played a trial for Dunfermline Athletic before being recommended to Celtic, signing on February 5, 1943, in former manager Willie Maley’s Bank Restaurant in Queen Street, Glasgow, following a trial match at Dumbarton. A wing-half or inside-forward, it was 12 months before the Fife youngster made his Celtic debut, partnering the legendary Jimmy Delaney on the right wing in a 2-2 home draw with Hibernian in a Southern League fixture on February 12, 1944. He had received a signing-on fee of £20 from manager Jimmy McStay and earned £2 in the first-team, £1 in the reserves – but opportunities were somewhat restricted during the war, with Young working full-time down the pits. Two more appearances the following season were his lot at Parkhead and he was freed in the summer of 1945. He would find his spiritual home in Kirkcaldy, having joined Raith Rovers on loan the previous February, making his debut in a 1-2 North-Eastern League defeat at Arbroath, then signing for the club on a permanent basis the following September in return for a £75 signing-on fee. Young would develop into a consistent footballer of outstanding ability – resourceful, strong in the air and with a powerful drive, an attacking midfielder to use the modern parlance. He was also more than capable of adapting to several positions, including that of goalkeeper, taking his turn between the posts at Dumfries for 20 minutes. The Second Division Championship was won in 1948-49, while at the same time Rovers reached the League Cup final – going down 0-2 to Rangers. By then Young had evolved into a superb wing-half, perhaps a lack of pace being his only failing. In January 1951 Derby County offered £10,000 for his signature – but the player was reluctant to leave his native Fife. He would be a member of not one but two truly outstanding half-back lines with Raith, first with Harry Colville and Andy Leigh, then with Willie McNaught and Leigh. That League Cup final of 1949 was the closest Young would come to major trophy success – suffering semi-final defeat in the Scottish Cup of 1951, 1956 and 1957 and the St Mungo Cup of 1951. Season 1956-57 was perhaps the summit of that fine Rovers side. On one never-to-be-forgotten winter’s day on December 8, 1956, reigning league champions Rangers were overwhelmed 5-1 at Stark’s Park. Rovers would eventually finish in fourth position that season, their highest league placement since 1924, and one that has not been equalled in the past half-century. A controversial Scottish Cup semi-final replay defeat to Falkirk at Tynecastle was a bitter pill to swallow, and Raith would never come so close again. In all, Young played 611 games for Raith, an appearance record bettered only by Willie McNaught, scoring a remarkable 141 goals. He was one of the most popular players in the club’s history, yet incredibly did not receive a single representative honour. It has been said that had he played for a bigger club, he would surely have received international recognition – but how can a club that produced players of the class of Alex James and Jim Baxter be described as unfashionable? In his later years at Stark’s Park he had an influence on the young Jim Baxter, and after retiring in 1960 he was manager of junior club Lochore Welfare for six years, helping to develop the careers of Willie Johnston, Tommy Callaghan, Arthur Mann and Ian Porterfield, and winning three consecutive Fife Junior League titles. He later scouted for Celtic, Dunfermline and Leeds United (under manager Don Revie). He took future Scottish internationalist Gordon McQueen to Elland Road and at Wembley in 1973 he saw one of his “old boys” – Porterfield – score the winner for Sunderland in the FA Cup final. He was honorary president of Raith Rovers Former Players’ Association, continuing to live in the same Lochgelly house he and his wife had occupied since 1951.
Young died in Queen Margaret Hospital, Dunfermline, after a short illness and is survived by his wife Jessie, son Ian and granddaughter Gemma. By Robert McElroy