Celtic in the Thirties: Unpublished works of David Potter – Jimmy Delaney | OneFootball

Celtic in the Thirties: Unpublished works of David Potter today features Jimmy Delaney…

Jimmy Delaney, Celtic in the Thirties by Matt Corr, out now on Celtic Star Books. Image Celtic Curio

Jimmy Delaney, Celtic Fc. Celtic in the Thirties. Photo The Celtic Wiki

If someone were to write the career of Jimmy Delaney as fiction, it would almost certainly be rejected by the publisher as being too far-fetched. Ronnie Simpson is like this as well. So many unbelievable things happened in Jimmy’s life that frankly it is difficult to believe. For example;

• A cup winner’s medal in three different countries, and a loser’s medal in the fourth

• These three medals were won in three separate decades with a major war in the middle of it all

• Scored two goals against Nazi Germany at Ibrox in October 1936 while, controversially, the Swastika flew overhead

• A broken arm which was not so much broken and shattered into smithereens – and from which he recovered with the bone of a pig!

• The hero of Scotland in April 1946 when he scored the winning goal in the Victory International at Hampden which gave such delight to a nation which had gone through so much

• When playing for Aberdeen at the end of his career, he scored a goal at Parkhead, silencing the crowd – until they realised that it was Jimmy Delaney who had scored it! They then broke into loud applause!

• When he was playing for Falkirk in a Scottish Cup game against Celtic, he was badly fouled by a Celtic defender who was immediately booed by his one crowd for fouling Delaney!

• A man who, in spite of all his success and glory, was frightened to go to Celtic v Rangers games in case they lost! His “stress management strategy” consisted of taking the dog for a walk, and timing his return to coincide with the full time whistle, or sometimes looking for supporters’ buses returning home to get a clue from their demeanour as to who had won!

Jimmy Delaney, Celtic in the Thirties by Matt Corr, out now on Celtic Star Books. Image The Celtic Wiki

Jimmy was born in the Celtic mad village of Cleland about a month after the start of World War One. It was clear from an early stage that he was a talented football player, and after a brief spell with Stoneyburn Juniors, he joined Celtic in 1934 and made his debut for the club at the start of the 1934/35 season. Legend has it that one training session was enough to convince Willie Maley that there was talent here. A signing on fee of £20 was agreed, and wages of £2 per week, rising to £4 whenever he reached the first team.

Times were now picking up at Celtic Park. 1935 showed considerable improvement, and 1935/36 was a great season, in many ways because of the boy from Cleland who had speed, ball control and tremendous passing ability. He has fortunate as well in that he had great players round him, and they could all play alongside each other with a particular agreeable ability to interchange positions.

Celtic were particularly fortunate in their wingers, for on the left wing was Frank Murphy, an excellent counter balance to the boy from Cleland who rejoiced in nicknames like “Twinkletoes” “JayDee” and even simply “Baldy” in a reference to his premature loss of follicles.

Celtic Star Jimmy Delaney. Photo The Celtic Wiki

The League was won, and it was the year that McGrory scored his 50 goals in a League season, there was so much more than that to be happy about. A reliable defence, a steady midfield and a classy forward line. The supporters were all delighted and one of their songs that year was “Happy Days Are Here Again”. Not everyone however expressed their delight as Delaney himself would have like.

Delaney himself tells the story of the Glasgow Charity Cup final of that year. It had been a thrilling final won 4-2 by Celtic with Delaney scoring a hat-trick. Rightly proud of himself, Delaney came off the field, grinning like the proverbial Cheshire cat being congratulated by all his team mates and even the sporting Rangers players.

He then met Willie Maley in the corridor. Maley was not going to recognise his existence but Delaney decided to force the issue and said something like “Did you enjoy that, Boss?” Maley looked him up and down, and said “Don’t let that go to your head, now” and walked on, although there may have been a twinkle in his eye as well!

Delaney’s good form brought him International recognition. He played against Ireland and Wales in 1936, but, amazingly, was not chosen for the game against England at Wembley. Even more amazingly, his right wing place went to his own Celtic colleague Johnny Crum – an inside left! Of all the crazy selection decisions of the Scotland International Selectors over the years, this one, it was felt, took the biscuit.

Celtic Star Jimmy Delaney. Photo The Celtic Wiki

But he did play in the somewhat controversial game against Germany in October at Ibrox. Many people felt that Scotland should not have been playing against such opponents who were now playing such an active part in the Spanish Civil War on the Nationalist side, who were already doing so much to reverse the Treaty of Versailles, and who were beginning to persecute their own Jewish population with some ferocity. But Scotland played and beat them 2-0 at Ibrox, and Jimmy Delaney scored both goals!

No record exists of how this news was received in Berchtesgarten or wherever the Fuhrer happened to be living, but it cannot have been well received. Only a few weeks previously the black athlete Jesse Owens had ruined the concept of an Aryan Olympics in Berlin by blowing a hole in any idea of a master race, and now we had a Scoto-Irish Roman Catholic from Cleland in Scotland doing the same!

On 17 April 1937 at Hampden, Scotland beat England 3-1 at Hampden before an International record crowd of 149,145 and a week later on 24 April, 147,365, a record for a domestic fixture, saw Celtic beat Aberdeen 2-1 in the Scottish Cup final. These were the days for attendances! Both figures are disputed and in both cases, there was a fair amount of climbing over the walls! Some people were at both games and insist that there were more at the Scottish Cup final. It matters very little, the important thing being that the “good guys” won in both cases, and one man had the honour of playing in both games. This was Jimmy Delaney.

He didn’t score in either game, but he played a significant part in both. Ex-Celtic Frank O’Donnell now with Preston North End scored once for Scotland and Bob McPhail of Rangers scored twice, and Willie Buchan and Johnny Crum scored for Celtic, but Delaney comes out of both games with a great deal of credit.

Jimmy Delaney played in the Empire Exhibition Cup final win over Everton . Image The Celtic Wiki

That summer saw Delaney on tour with Scotland drawing 1-1 with Austria and beating Czechoslovakia 3-1 with everyone blissfully unaware that (although, possibly, the more prescient were all too aware) that both these countries were soon to be gobbled up in Hitler’s Germany, but before that could happen there was to be one last great hurrah for Celtic in the shape of a season which saw them win the Scottish League, the Glasgow Charity Cup and the all-British Empire Exhibition Trophy. The last named tournament saw Celtic beat Sunderland and Hearts without the redoubtable Delaney but able to call on his services for the final against Everton.

Empire Exhibition Cup, image by Celtic Curio

This made Celtic the indisputable champions of Great Britain, but the next year was not so good. They did win the Glasgow Cup in October 1938, but lost out to Rangers in the Scottish League after a dreadful spell around Christmas and the New Year, and went out of the Scottish Cup to Motherwell at the quarter final stage, the Cup being won this year by Clyde.

But further disaster hit Jimmy on 1st April. It was against Arbroath in a fairly meaningless game (as far as Celtic were concerned, although Arbroath were still involved in a relegation battle) at Celtic Park. Delaney went up for a high ball, fell and as he did do, Arbroath defender Attilio Becci stumbled on top of him and stood on his arm several times, shattering the bone. Becci simply could not help himself and his part in this injury would haunt Becci all his life.

It was a totally shocking injury, so bad that, at one point, amputation was considered. It did not stop Delaney getting married later that summer but it did put him out of the game for two years until 1941. If there was one blessing, it was that it exempted him from military service, and his war related job in Cleland did allow him to pay for Celtic on a Saturday in the difficult circumstances of World War II.

But what a difference in Celtic! Maley had gone, McMenemy had gone, and Jimmy McStay was now in charge. Players had gone, some to the war and a few others to teams like Morton, the Celtic Board being under the misapprehension that men like Johnny Crum were too old. In addition, although many players were available, notably the Celtic daft Matt Busby of Manchester City, because they were stationed in Scotland, the Board refused to take them, compelling Busby for example to go to Hibs.

It was a very poor Celtic team, and although Delaney made a difference when he came back, there were limits to what he could do.

Delaney returned at the start of the 1941/42 season and for a spell at least, there was the dream forward line of Delaney, MacDonald, Crum, Divers and Murphy, but circumstances had changed. In a way, one should not be too hard on players and management in unreal circumstances with serious problems about training, transport and player availability, but nevertheless Rangers seemed to manage it.

Struth was able to get most of his players working in the shipyards or close by in the same way that Maley, at the height of his powers in the First World War, was able to manipulate the situation to his advantage.

The next few seasons are depressing reading. There were the odd moments on triumph eg they won the Glasgow Charity Cup in 1943 which brought a brief smile to a few faces, but general the newspaper reports contain sentences like “Delaney tried his best to coax something out of the team” “Where would Celtic be without Delaney?” and “Celtic are far from the Celts of old”.

It was a thoroughly depressing time, but at least the War was beginning to get better, and Delaney continued to play for Scotland. Tragedy dogged him in the death of his young son Michael (he heard this news after he returned from Hampden where he had been playing for Scotland against England in 1944) but as he himself graciously said, he was hardly the only person struggling at this point.

Peace came in Europe in May 1945 and in the Far East in August 1945, but the 1945/46 season was still an unofficial one, and indeed in most ways, it was as if the war was still on. Jimmy McGrory had now replaced Jimmy McStay as Manager, but there were still no signs of any improvement or even the likelihood of any, and not for the first time, Delaney now 31 and thinking (erroneously) that his best years were behind him, considered his future.

He did not really see any prospects at Parkhead, Jimmy McGrory was a good friend and colleague of his – but Delaney may have had certain qualms about his management ability – and there were a few issues about a benefit game etc.

In January 1946 Matt Busby (who probably would have wanted the Celtic job but was now the Manager of Manchester United) came in with an offer for Delaney. The Celtic Board would, of course, have taken any money, but a more serious issue would have been Delaney himself, reluctant to leave Cleland, his family and of course Celtic.

But Busby did seem to offer the prospect of success and a sort of “Celtic-in-exile” (he would do likewise with Pat Crerand in 1963), and Delaney, to the distress of Celtic supporters everywhere including those being demobbed at this very time, went south.

Manchester United in 1946 were a far cry from the multi-national business that they are now. They did not even have a home, for Old Trafford had been badly damaged by the Luftwaffe and were obliged to share Maine Road with their rivals Manchester City. They had been a good side before the Great War, but they had failed to land a single major honour since 1911.

They were indeed the under-performing club with the large support who expected a lot more, and the recently appointed Matt Busby had a major job on his hands. One of his first steps was Jimmy Delaney.

But before he really got started at Manchester United, there came the moment which in some ways defined his career. It could hardly have been a more high profile game. The Victory International at Hampden on 13 April 1946 was already being talked about on the ships and the trains among discharged soldiers and sailors, in many cases, months before the game.

Scotland had tended to lose to England more often than not in war-time Internationals and it was time to right the balance.

One cannot vouch 100% for the accuracy of the story of how the sausages were listening to the radio and stood up in the frying pan to greet Delaney’s last minute goal, but it would have been typical of how the goal was received in the deprived but heroic nation that Scotland was.

89 minutes had now gone, and Scotland were attacking the Mount Florida End. A free kick from Jackie Husband on the left found Willie Waddell on the right and Willie sent it back to the onrushing Delaney who finished the job. 1-0 for Scotland, and Delaney was immediately elevated to the level of the divine.

But it was hard work building up Manchester United. Liverpool won the English League in 1947 and Arsenal in 1948. The English Cup went to Charlton Athletic for the first time in 1947, but Manchester United forced their way through to the Final in 1948 to play against Stanley Matthews’ Blackpool. Everyone loved Stan Matthews, and everyone wanted Blackpool to win, but in what was claimed to have been one of the better Cup finals of them all, it was Manchester United who won 4-2, and Delaney now had two Cup medals, one Scottish and one English.

In 1950 Delaney returned to Scotland. Now 36 and prone to injuries, he was beginning to feel that his career was coming to an end, and he was wanting to go home. Celtic missed yet another trick by not making an approach for him. He would have loved to go there, but he settled for Aberdeen, a city which loved him after seeing so many good performances there from him for Celtic and indeed for Scotland.

Aberdeen were a decent team, having won the Cup in 1947 and Delaney gave them a season and a half’s great effort, including one funny incident at Celtic Park in January 1951 when in a close and even game, when he scored a great goal.

The goal was greeted with stony, sullen silence punctuated by a few cries of criticism at their defenders for allowing this to happen, when the penny dropped in the 60,000 crowd that the goal had been scored by Jimmy Delaney! The unhappy desolation was replaced by loud cheers as more and more supporters realised the identity of the scorer.

In late 1951 he moved on, this time to Second Division Falkirk. His first game for the Bairns was at Station Park, Forfar. We had the bizarre spectacle of the bigger than usual crowd waiting to see the way the teams were playing, then gathering in large numbers near Falkirk’s right wing, the better to observe the legendary Jimmy Delaney.

In 1953 in a Scottish Cup tie at Brockville made famous for Charlie Tully’s twice taken corner kick, Frank Meechan, Celtic’s left back saw fit to bring down and injure Jimmy Delaney early in the game. Frank, a bhoy from Croy might well have expected the disapproval of the Falkirk crowd, and cannot have been too surprised at his wigging from the referee.

He did not however expect to be booed by his own crowd! Early in the second half, Charlie Tully did the same, and he too got the treatment from those who idolised him. This was no way to treat Jimmy Delaney!

In season 1953/54 he crossed the Irish Sea to play for Derry City, and it was there on May 10 1954 that he picked up his third Cup medal when Derry City beat Glentoran in the second replay of the Cup final. The news of this feat was greeted with great enthusiasm in Scotland, for 1954 had been a great year for Celtic as well with a League and Cup double.

Jimmy Delaney with his medals. Photo The Celtic Wiki

It might have been four Cup medals for Delaney, for he then went down south to play for Cork Athletic and they reached the FAI Cup final in 1956, but sadly lost out to Shamrock Rovers in the final, so Jimmy picked up his first loser’s Cup final medal to go along with three winner’s medals.

He finished his career back in Scotland playing for Elgin City, and then returned to Cleland where he spent the rest of his life, being seen often in the stand at Celtic Park and being easily distinguishable by his bad head! He was not the best supporter in the world, however, and his family often wondered how he was able to play for Celtic when having to watch them could often reduce him to quivering jelly!

Jimmy Delaney with his medals. Photo The Celtic Wiki

In particular he found listening to the radio very difficult. His beloved dog Brandy would be taken for a walk timed to end just as the game was likely to end so that he would not have to listen to hysterical commentators! Alternatively, he would stay away and look at returning supporters’ buses and trying to get an indication from their demeanour of how the game had gone!

He died on 26 September 1989. The following night Celtic played at Celtic Park against Partizan Belgrade. It is to the eternal shame of Celtic FC (but then again possibly typical of those who ran the club at this time) that there was no official remembrance of Jimmy Delaney.

David Potter

Celtic in the Thirties by Matt Corr, Volumes One & Two, Published by Celtic Star Books

CELTIC IN THE THIRTIES, VOLUMES ONE & TWO BY MATT CORR – OUT NOW! Order your signed copies below…

Celtic in the Thirties by Celtic Historian Matt Corr is published in two volumes by Celtic Star Books. OUT NOW!

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