Celtic Player of the Day – John McPhail, Pride of Parkheid

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The Celtic Star

·10 June 2025

Celtic Player of the Day – John McPhail, Pride of Parkheid

John McPhail joined Celtic in the dark years of World War II and was with the club for 15 years. He could play all over the forward line and even at wing half, but eventually settled down to be a centre forward…

John McPhail: Scottish cup final – Celtic v. Mothervell at Hampden. Goal scorer McPhail – Captain of the Celtic team – Holds the Scottish cup Aloft. – Players faces from left: Weir, Boden, Fallon and Peacock. April 1951

He was big, strong, bustling and awkward but he had a tendency to put on weight and to suffer from injury. It was difficult enough in the war years, and things did not really improve even after the war, for Celtic, frankly, had a dreadful team.

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John was made captain but the quality players were not there in sufficient numbers to make a difference. They won the Glasgow Cup in 1950, but it was the Scottish Cup in 1951 which at last brought welcome relief to the beleaguered Celtic support, and it was “big captain John” who scored the only goal of the game against Motherwell that sunny and windy April day to give Celtic their first major honour since 1937.

Glasgow Celtic captain John McPhail (right) with his American counterpart prior to the match against the American All Stars soccer team at Triborough Stadium in New York City on 20th May 1951. Celtic won 5-1. (Photo by Popperfoto via Getty Images/Getty Images)

After that, his appearances became more sporadic, missing out on the Scottish Cup final of 1954, for example. He lasted until the 1955/56 season, but his contribution to Celtic did not finish there, for he became a journalist for The Celtic View under the pseudonym of Kerrydale.

Back: Charley Tully, John McGrory, John McPhail, Joe Bailey, Jimmy Mallan, Jock Weir Bobby Evans, Roy Milne, Alec Rollo, Bertie Peacock. Front: Bobby Collins, Sean Fallon, John Milsopp, Willie Fernie. Photo The Celtic Wiki

He played five times for Scotland, and died on November 2000.

David Potter

More in John McPhail from David Potter…

The Celtic Legend of John McPhail…

John McPhail. Photo The Celtic Wiki

Fifty years after the floruit of this great man, it remains difficult for us to appreciate just how much of a Legend he was. Times were hard then. Most of us remember with horror the early 1990s, and the early 1960s were not a great deal better, but the 1940s were the worst of all. In desperate times, the support needs a hero. In the 1940s, they found one in John McPhail.

John joined Celtic as an 18 year old in 1941, and thus he spent his first few years with Celtic in the dark days of World War 2, dark days which only the occasional touch of brilliance from Jimmy Delaney could enlighten.

McPhail’s apprenticeship was thus a hard one, but he did play brilliantly in the 1-0 win at Ibrox on New Year’s Day 1945, only to see the team relapse into complacent mediocrity almost immediately afterwards.

John McPhail. Photo The Celtic Wiki

Injury and illness plagued John McPhail as well – he missed almost all of the 1946-47 season – but he was there in 1948 when after Celtic’s worst ever season, they rescued themselves from relegation at Dens Park.

The next three years were probably the best of John’s career, although many supporters testify to the intake of breath as the teams were read out over the tannoy, then the release of pent-up emotion when “McPhail” was read out. Proof that John was not the victim of yet another injury.

John McPhail. Photo The Celtic Wiki

Yet he did not seem injury prone. He was big and burly, and more than a little capable of looking after himself on the field. But a centre forward must expect more than his fair share of knocks.

The fact that John McPhail was in what was undeniably a poor Celtic team meant that all the more seemed to depend on him. Supporters lyricised about him. He was called John McNever-Phail, and even “Erin ‘s Green Valleys ” (the favourite anthem of the time) was adapted for John.

“All Hail John McPhail,

The pride of Parkheid

We worship, we love you

And the team that you lead!”

Yet success would not come for the Celtic fans, some of whom with children who had never in their lives seen Celtic win a Scottish trophy. 1938 had been the last time. This is why the feelings concerning the 1951 Scottish Cup Final were possibly more intense even than those we experience today.

John McPhail. Photo The Celtic Wiki

The 1951 Scottish Cup Final opposition was Motherwell, the weather was glorious and it was McPhail who put Celtic ahead, running on to a through ball and lobbing the goalkeeper in the style of Henrik Larsson (versus Rangers in August 2000) to release bedlam on the King’s Park terracing.

But only 15 minutes had gone, and the remaining 75 were passed in grim, tension-ridden anxiety as the very fine Motherwell team turned on the pressure. McPhail, the captain, had to re-deploy himself as a defender, but marshalling his defence. And with Fallon and Rollo, their hair brushed back in the style of 1951, “kicking everything that came over the half way line”, and Alec Boden and Joe Baillie playing the games of their lives, the final whistle at last came and it was “big captain John” who received the trophy.

“For there’s Jock Weir and Collins – and big Captain John

With Peacock and Tully to carry us on!”

But the success was not maintained and John McPhail was injured so often that he had to be relieved of the Celtic captaincy. This eventually passed to Jock Stein, and alongside Jock, McPhail would have one other moment of glory. This was in May 1953 when he played at left half – Evans, Stein and McPhail – to defy the Famous Five forward line of Hibs in the Coronation Cup Final.

John McPhail. Photo The Celtic Wiki

At times the Celtic defence were overwhelmed that day, but they never gave in, McPhail keeping Bobby Johnstone quiet and keeping up the spirits of the desperately tired defence.

Injury kept John McPhail out of most of the triumphant 1954 season, and his last big game was the Scottish Cup Final of 1955 when a goalkeeping error direct from a corner kick cruelly robbed Celtic and McPhail of another Cup medal. For the Replay, Collins was dropped, the forward line was re-jigged and McPhail was illogically played at inside-left.

In 1956 John McPhail retired, a couple of days before his younger brother Billy joined the Club.

Nobody seems to know why John was called “Hooky”. His nose was not particularly aquiline, and it may be because once in his early career he scored a goal with a “hook”. He also on one infamous occasion in Rome managed to land a right “hook” on a Lazio player! It may have been a reference to the way that he flighted a cross, but however, he was called “Hooky” and was much loved by the fans.

John McPhail. Photo The Celtic Wiki

John played five times for Scotland , but never against England . This was a shame, for he might have scored in 1950 the goal that would have taken Scotland to the World Cup.

In later years until his death in November 2000, John was a football journalist, and was very much involved with “The Celtic View” on its foundation in 1965. He remained very fond of the team that he had served so well.

The author well recalls one day at the barber’s in 1953. An amiable drunk was shouting the odds about “John McNeverPhail” while waiting his turn to be taken.

This author, not yet at school, but even then precocious, ventured the opinion that “McNeverPhail” played for Celtic. He was rewarded with half a crown (12 pence, and an absolute fortune in 1953) for knowing this!

David Potter