Robertson, William

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Personal

Fullname: William Smith Robertson
aka: Willie Robertson, William Robertson
Born: 7 June 1887
Died: 24 Aug 1960
Birthplace: Stirling
Signed: 30 Oct 1909
Left: Sep 1910 (to Preston NE)
Position: Outside-left
Debut:
Celtic 2-1 Kilmarnock, League, 4 Dec 1909
Internationals
: none

Biog

An outside-left, Willie Robertson signed for Celtic from Denny Hibernian in October 1909. He was reported to be “clever and promising“.

He made his first team debut in a 2-1 league victory at home to Kilmarnock on 4th December, and won a run of three games that month.

Stirling-born Robertson couldn’t force himself into the first team picture on a regular basis, and he moved on to Preston North End in September 1910 after four league & Scottish Cup appearances for Celtic.

He had played his three league games in batch in December 1909, but after his last league game he was dropped for the great Davie Hamilton, who scored the equaliser v Rangers from a 40 yard run. It was never going to be easy to displace him. He returned in the side for a final appearance in the 3-1 win over Third Lanark in the Scottish Cup.

He actually had a very good record for Celtic, with 3 victories (1 in the cup v Third Lanark, 2 v Kilmarnock) and one draw (v St Mirren). His second victory over Kilmarnock was actually on Christmas Day, 25th December 1909, a fixture date that was not uncommon until the 1970s with Scottish clubs across the board playing games on Christmas Day. In Scotland it was New Years that used to be the big holiday day event during the winter period.

Celtic went onto win the league that season (by just two points ahead of Falkirk), so he helped to play his small part in that triumph. So respect to him for that.

He passed away in Preston in Aug 1960 (source: Scottish League player records). A long innings.

Playing Career

APPEARANCES LEAGUE SCOTTISH CUP LEAGUE CUP EUROPE TOTAL
1909-10 3 1 4
Goals: 0 0 0

Honours with Celtic

Scottish League

Pictures

  • Player Pics

Notes

  • Might be able to find a pic of him via Preston North End fans. No luck so far