CELTIC all-rounder and captain John McPhail, ''Hooky'' to his legion of friends and admirers, died on Monday night aged 76 after a short illness. He was one of two brothers who made a considerable impact on Scottish football. In style they were very different. Billy was a graceful, slight player, particularly strong in the air. John was burlier but tall with it and possessed of a real gift for the old fashioned process of leading a forward line. He came from that great scholastic nursery for Glasgow players, St Mungo's Academy and had a few months with Strathclyde before signing for Celtic in October 1941. He at once showed himself a player to be reckoned with despite his having joined the club at a time when it was being abysmally run.

Some of the great 1930s Celtic side were still in place - Malcolm MacDonald, Jimmy Delaney, and Bobby Hogg for example. John McPhail was an outstanding player in his early days at right-half and he was one of the very few defenders, John Charles and Andy Kerr being perhaps the only two other examples, who could play the centre forward position not as a stop gap but as though the position was naturally theirs. He was apt to say that his versatility cost his caps but it is hard to sustain this belief when one remembers that his team mate Willie Fernie was capped in five different positions just about that time.

Where the selectors could be criticised was in going for battering-ram centres such as Billy Houliston rather than the sophisticated skills of McPhail. In November 1951, he had two of the six goals by which Northern Ireland were torn apart in a 6-1 rout. His distribution that day was exemplary but then for once in a way the Scottish selectors had gone for out and out skill and his inside forwards were Jimmy Mason and Billy Steel. Incredibly, the lesson was not learned. It was not as if it was the first time that this had happened.

A year before he and Alex Linwood, then with Clyde, had proved a formidable combination against Wales and each had scored in a 2-0 win. Over the piece, his time with Celtic coincided with a rather careless approach by that club but his distinctions were very real, if few. In 1951 he scored a gem of a goal in a Scottish Cup final against Motherwell. He could boast a league championship win in 1954 and he turned out for Scottish League sides. Several times when he seemed to be about to establish himself as a regular Scotland player illness or injury supervened.

He was unlucky in the matter of injuries and he was not a quick healer. Despite this he attained veteran status at Parkhead and completed 15 years as a Celtic player. He was a memorable one. If there were players whose feet worked faster there was no-one whose brain did. He was a great ''keep it on the deck'' disciple and over 10 yards he was certainly as fast as he needed to be. He often regretted that he did not play alongside his brother Billy for his beloved Celtic.


The miss was all the more galling because it was by a matter of weeks rather than months. He had a long fuse although against the Italian side Lazio the Romans discovered that there was a limit to his tolerance. He and an Italian had to leave the field. How good was he? Think of his rivals and that will give you an idea. He competed with Ian McColl or Bobby Evans for the right half berth and with Willie Bauld or Lawrie Reilly for the centre forward spot.

They were really good.

So too was the hugely talented and ever courteous John McPhail and when later he moved to journalism his judgments were not only perceptive but merciful.