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Personal
Fullname: John Donoghue
Born: 22 January 1903 *[TBC, See notes]
Died: 11 July 1971
Birthplace: New York, USA
Signed: June 11th 1926 and August 12th 1932
Left: 13 July 1930 (to Wrexham); 29 Sep 1932 (to Excelsior de Roubaix)
Position: Left-Back
Debut: Hibernian 3-2 Celtic, League, 25 Sep 1926
Internationals: none
Biog
Born in New York to Irish parents John Donoghue was signed by Celtic in June 1926 from Shawfield Juniors.
The left-back made his debut in a 3-2 league defeat at Hibernian on 25th September 1926 and he would prove a solid and versatile defender for the Hoops over the following seasons.
Jimmy McStay said of him:
“I liked in particular the way he covered for colleagues in moments of pressure… he will go far”.
He won a Glasgow Cup medal in Oct 1926, playing in what were described as hurricane conditions, a 1-0 victory.
His only goal came in a 3-2 league win over Motherwell in April 1927, scoring the first one for Celtic, with the Glasgow Herald report stating: “Donoghue headed a fine goal“.
He had a long run of matches in the his first season having deputised for Jimmy McStay, but he then played few games for the first team till season 1928-29 when he took over from Jean McFarlane, and became a regular starter. Although the next season he was displaced by Graham Robertson and thereafter his time in the Celtic first team was over. In fairness to the management, John Donoghue had started in the first four league games of season 1929/30, but the defence had conceded 8 goals in those games! Something had to change.
He had played in the Scottish Cup title winning run in 1927 but only played in the first & second round matches. Despite that he did get to play with Celtic in two Glasgow Cup final winning sides, including the 1926 final when Celtic defeated Rangers 1-0 at Hampden.
He remained at Parkhead until the summer of 1930 when he joined Wrexham. He appears though to have played very little for Wrexham, in only a handful of games.
He would briefly return to Celtic in 1932 although he did not get to play in a first team match. In a pre-season trial match, Johnny Falconer came off with a sciatic nerve issue after five minutes and John Donoghue came on in goals for the ‘Greens‘, and then played centre-half for the reserves four days later at Pittodrie.
He soon went on to join French side Excelsior de Roubaix (obtained via ex-Celt Johnny Paton).
He was unfortunate in his time at Celtic in that despite having arrived at Celtic when they had just won the league title, the first team then began a decline and would not win a league title again for another decade.
John Donoghue played in 50 league & Scottish Cup games for Celtic, scoring one goal.
He passed away in 1971.
Playing Career
| APPEARANCES | LEAGUE | SCOTTISH CUP | LEAGUE CUP | EUROPE | TOTAL |
| 1926-30 & 1932 | 42 | 8 | N/A | N/A | 50 |
| Goals: | 1 | 0 | – | – | 1 |
Honours with Celtic
- 2 (1926, 1928)
Note
- Birthdate: Alphabet of the Celts states 22 January 1903; Wikpedia claims could be 8 December 1902. [TBC]