Weir, Jock

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Personal

Fullname: John Britton Weir
aka: Jock Weir, John Weir
Born: 20 Oct 1923
Died: 9 Jan 2003
Birthplace: Fauldhouse, Scotland
Signed: 17 Feb 1948 (from Blackburn Rovers)
Left: 16 Oct 1952 (to Falkirk)
Position: Outside-Right/Forward
Debut:
Celtic 1-0 Motherwell, Scottish Cup 21 Feb 1948
Internationals
: none

Biog

“One with my left, one with my right and one with my head, the perfect hat-trick to win the match and guarantee safety from relegation”
Jock Weir on his hat-trick v Dundee to save Celtic from relegation

Jock Weir has a curious place in the history of Celtic. Larsson, McGrory and Lennox are remembered for many fine goals in finals, trophies and titles. Jock Weir is remembered for scoring some pivotal goals but not in a final but rather to save Celtic from the ignominy of relegation.

Post-WW2 Celtic had hit a low and were easily superceded by Rangers and the Edinburgh pair. In season 1947-48, Celtic were staring potential relegation in the face and it all went down to the wire, Celtic simply had to win the last match of the season (against Dundee away) else the mathematical probability of relegation could have seen Celtic humiliatingly amongst the minnows in the lower tier division.

Into this mire stepped up a most unexpected hero on the day for Celtic: the ‘dashing’ Jock Weir.

Jock Weir was bought from Blackburn as a big money signing for £7000 (a huge amount in those days). Said to be fast (too fast for the rest of the team at Blackburn apparently) and strong; this tireless performer was hoped to be a great signing for the club.

Just prior to his signing, Celtic had been humiliated 5-1 at home on 2nd January 1948 against Aberdeen, with the press report criticising “futile Celtic forwards” and “[the] complete lack of ability in the Celtic line”. So likely that result forced the move to go for Jock Weir.

However, he alone was insufficient to halt Celtic’s continued slide from grace, and the aforementioned Dundee game became a vital day for the club. Dundee had gone 2-1 up in the match to likely seriously worry the Celtic board, but late on Jock Weir popped up with an equaliser and then with only minutes to go, Jock Weir miraculously grabbed a winner in the final two minutes to seal a hat-trick for himself and a relieving victory for the club to safeguard the situation.

“One with my left, one with my right and one with my head, the perfect hat-trick to win the match and guarantee safety from relegation.”
Jock Weir

Ironically, Jock Weir hadn’t really impressed much as a goal scorer for Celtic up to this match, so what a time for him to repay back his transfer fee. Notably, for this game he was moved positions to ‘outside-right’ from his usual forward position. He was a hat-trick hero and an invaluable timely lot it was too.

He then helped cement his name with the Celtic support by scoring a double in the 1948 Glasgow Cup final v Third Lanark in a 3-1 win, awarding the beleaguered support some silverware after a year of torment. Up to this game, Jock Weir had his best form for Celtic, scoring eight goals in all competitions (includes three in the Glasgow Cup). This run included a 3-1 victory v Rangers with Jock Weir grabbing a goal too.

However, Celtic then went on to lose the next four games in a row so were brought back down to earth with a thud, and Jock Weir never recovered this great consistent goal scoring form again for some reason.

The team didn’t exactly cover itself in glory thereafter in following seasons, but there was a recovery of sorts, and in 1951 Jock Weir played in the first Celtic side (post-war) to lift a major senior level trophy: the Scottish Cup (although Celtic had won the lesser regarded Glasgow Cup). He may not have scored in the final (1-0 win v Motherwell), but he was pivotal to this success, scoring a goal in the 3-2 semi-final v Raith Rovers, and five goals in total in the seven match run to the title.

One (in)famous incident involving Jock Weir was in the Schaeffer Trophy (in Germany) where after trouble broke out on both the pitch and off of it, he turned to his marker and said: “I was paid two bob a day during the War to kill ****** like you!” A bit of a character with a gob.

As can be seen from the records, his scoring record was not outstanding (around one goal in every four league matches), and his goal scoring was generally sporadic over the seasons. The frustration for Celtic was to once again look out to find that forward player who would make the difference.

Anyhow, there have been many finer and more prolific strikers than Jock Weir in Celtic’s history, but Jock Weir for what he achieved on that one day v Dundee in 1948 alone will be fondly remembered for what he helped do to save the first team.

He passed away in 2003.


Anecdote

Celtic in Ireland at mass, Jock Weir asks Charlie Tully at the collection what should he do. Charlie Tully says “Here’s half a crown just drop it in the plate and shout out Charlie Tully 2/6d!”. Jock Weir does this and passes the plate to Charlie Tully. Charlie Tully then takes it from him, drops in the coins and shouts out “Jock Weir Tuppence!”.
(provided by David Dee 67 via twitter)

Playing Career

APPEARANCES
(goals)
LEAGUE SCOTTISH CUP LEAGUE CUP EUROPE TOTAL
1948-52 81 15 n/a n/a 106
Goals: 22 9 31

Honours with Celtic

Glasgow Cup

Scottish Cup

Pictures

The Herald (United Kingdom): Jock Weir

Herald and the Sunday Herald, The (Glasgow, Scotland)
January 11, 2003

IN MANY respects Jock Weir could scarcely be considered a major Celtic player. He spent only some four years with the club and was a regular rather than a prolific goalscorer. Yet on April 17, 1948, he held the fortunes of the club in the palm of his hand.

Those immediate post-war days were grim. Relief that the war was over was tempered by the almost universal shortages of food and other essentials. Petrol was rationed, football teams travelled by coach if they could get one and by train if they could not. It therefore gladdened the hearts of Celtic supporters to see that apparently their club had realised the error of its ways in its attitude to war-time football. Celtic

This was taken by the supporters to indicate that their team had decided to rejoin the ranks of serious football clubs. This had certainly not been the case in the previous 10 years. Under Willy Maley and Jimmy McStay had at last entered the transfer market in a pretty big way. They had signed Jock Weir from Blackburn Rovers for the highly respectable sum of (pounds) 7000. Celtic had treated war-time football with contempt and in pursuance of this policy players such as Matt Busby, Willy Buchan, and the brothers O’Donnell, Frank and Hugh, all of international calibre, all of them with the exception of Busby ex-Celts on offering their services, were turned down with scarce a word of thanks.

The one player of undoubted international class that Celtic’s war years produced was goal-keeper Willy Miller, who significantly was considering his options. He would be the one player who would not be going full time on the arrival at Parkhead of Jock Weir.

The latter could not halt Celtic’s dramatic slump immediately and by the end of April relegation stared Celtic in the face. Well perhaps not so much stared in the face as peeped shyly round the corner. For relegation to happen some 20 results had to work out in a particular way. There were those of us who thought it unlikely that things would be allowed to work out in that particular way. Nevertheless, a crowd of 31,000 was sufficiently trusting to turn up at Dens Park and with half an hour to go Dundee were 2-1 up and visits to Alloa and Cowdenbeath were a distinct possibility for Celtic.

Oddly enough, Celtic used the dapper Weir better on that day than at any time afterwards. He was not a very thoughtful leader of a forward line, such as John McPhail. But Mcphail suffered from a fatal lack of pace. Weir was uncomplicated, very speedy, and possessed of a good shot but Celtic always vacillated between playing him on the right wing and turning him loose through the middle.

That spring day at Dens Park he scored two late goals to complete his hat-trick and restore the cynical smile to the faces of those who had always doubted the relegation scenario.

In football, however, there are certain transfers which are more important than their mere statistics. Such was the transfer of Pat Stanton from Hibernian to Celtic, a path also trodden by Jock Weir though indirectly. Celtic began to realise the potential of their support. Jock Weir scored two goals in the Glasgow Cup final against Third Lanark in 1948 and if that seems small potatoes let me give you the attendance. Eighty seven thousand, yes, you read it correctly, 87,000.

The adjective most frequently applied to Weir was ”dashing”. He was not a heady player and this was the exact opposite of John McPhail. But his signing was influential. Suddenly Tully, Collins, Fernie, and Mochan were in the side. The team was still a collection of talented individuals who essentially played off the top of their heads.

A player can be unlucky and it is my contention that Jock Weir was so during his time at Parkhead. By a matter of weeks he missed Jock Stein who was to transform everything. By an even unkinder cut, he was on his way, via Falkirk to that part of south Wales which Jock Stein had briefly made his own.

Just more than 100 matches played for Celtic, 38 goals scored and no caps at a time when the direct opposition for the job included Willy Thornton, Willy Bauld, and Lawrie Reilly and we have not begun to mention the Anglos. Yet in a way he was one of the most important post-war signings. If you could get 87,000 to Hampden to watch an indifferent side, what might a good team not attract?

Football fans are fuelled by hope and the hope with Jock Weir was that an end was in sight to the policy of signing young and basically untalented players. In Jock Weir’s exuberance the fans saw the possibility of a better future.


Relegation D-Day for Celtic!

By Editor 28 March, 2018 No Comments

Relegation D-Day for Celtic!


SEVENTY years ago the thought of Celtic winning 7 in a row would have been a very unlikely dream, the facts were that Celtic might actually be relegated.

During the run of the Celtic Show at the Pavilion Theatre in Glasgow in 2002, I had arranged to meet my brother in Molly Malones for a drink after the show.

My brother Benny had tickets to the show and I was in the pub listening to one of my other brothers, George signing.

After the show finished the bar started to fill up with the theatre goers, but amongst the new arrivals in Molly Malones was a man who had written his name into the Celtic history books.

In 1948 Celtic came perilously close to relegation from the top flight of Scottish football, a poor season had meant that Celtic needed to win their final match of the season – away to Dundee – to guarantee their top flight survival.

The club had just suffered three heavy defeats to Hibs (2-4) and Third Lanark twice (1-5, 1-3) conceding 12 goals, leaving us with the mathematical possibility of being relegated if we lost at Dens Park.

Jock gave Celtic an early lead with 14 minutes gone but Dundee equalised just before half-time. Then after the re-start, Dundee went two-one up to sink the hearts of the large Celtic support.

However Jock Weir popped up with an equaliser, and with only minutes to go Weir miraculously grabbed a winner in the final two minutes to seal an historic Celtic hat-trick.

The Celtic fans celebrated as if we had just won the league. It shouldn’t hide the fact that Celtic were poor, but humiliation was averted.

In the end other results went the way of Celtic and the 3-2 victory turned out to be an added bonus. But this was the closest Celtic had ever come to being relegated.

Jock had been the special guest at the Celtic Show earlier in the evening. There was an announcement in the bar that an ex-Celt was there and he had brought along his Scottish Cup winning medal from 1951.

My brother waited for the small group of supporters to clear and he went over to speak to Jock and his wife.

Jock told Benny about being part of the first Post war Celtic team to win a major honour when they beat Motherwell 1-0 in the final. Jock showed his medal which turned out to be his only major honour during his career with Celtic.

Benny then asked him about the crunch match of 1948 against Dundee. Jocks eyes lit up as he shared the story of his goal scoring hat-trick on the final day of the season.

“One with my left, one with my right and one with my head, the perfect hat-trick to win the match and guarantee safety from relegation,” Jock recalled.

Over the years Celtic have had some world class goal scorers, from James McGrory and Jimmy Quinn to Bobby Lennox and Henrik Larsson, but those 3 goals from Jock Weir ensured Celtic maintained their unbroken status within the top flight of Scottish football which continuous to this day.

Martin Donaldson