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Personal
Fullname: John William Buckley
aka: John Buckley
Born: 18 May 1962
Birthplace: East Kilbride
Signed: 1 May 1978
Left: 19 Aug 1983
Position: Winger
Only appearance: Arbroath home 4-1 league cup 1 September 1982
Internationals: N/A
International Caps:N/A
Biog
John Buckley made just one first team appearance for the Hoops during a four-year career at Celtic Park. He was dubbed as a cracking player and one of the fastest in Scottish Football. As an understudy for the great Davie Provan, it was a hard challenge to try to take his place.
The East Kilbride-born winger signed for the Celts in 1978 and his solitary appearance came at Parkhead in September 1982 when he started a League Cup group match against minnows Arbroath.
Celtic won the match 4-1, Buckley was heralded with The Daily Record headlining the match report “Top Bhoy Buckley!“:
“Buckley turned out to be one of the spark plugs of a performance which left Arbroath beaten long before half-time.”
Despite the good result and positive press report, he never won any further gametime, only getting a seat as a sub in a match v Motherwell. A tough season with Celtic losing the league title by just one point to Dundee Utd (their only ever top tier title). Celtic did go on to win the league cup that season but disappointingly for John Buckley he didn’t play any further matches in the run, but should be remembered warmly for his fine match in the earlier round.
Buckley was soon to move across Glasgow to Partick Thistle, part of the Brian Whittaker deal, and he never kicked another ball for Celtic’s First Team again.
Post-Celtic
Buckley left Partick Thistle in a £40,000 switch to Billy Bremner’s Doncaster Rovers in summer 1984. He linked up with fellow ex-Celtic kids Jim Dobbin, Billy Russell and Colin Douglas. He did well enough in Division Three for Bremner to take him to Leeds United two years later for a £45,000 fee.
He never nailed down a place at Elland Road and went out on loan to Leicester City and back to Doncaster Rovers. Leeds got their money back on him when he joined Rotherham United early in the 1987/88 season. He was a regular for ‘the Millers’ over the next three years, featuring prominently on either wing.
Spent 1990/91 with Partick Thistle but was on his way back to England with Scunthorpe United in the summer of 1991. He returned to Rotherham United for £10,000 in February 1993 but suffered a fractured skull on 13th March 1993 in a match at Plymouth Argyle.
His life was endangered after suffering a blood clot on his brain when in a coma, and so he then retired from pro football at the end of 1992/93 aged just 31 after having clocked up more than 350 league appearances at his various clubs.
He recovered but a comeback attempt with Yorkshire village-team Hatfield Main ended in another health scare and brain scan after a bump on the head in October 1995. He then ended his playing career for good.
Buckley then moved into coaching and worked with the Leeds United and Hull City youngsters. He became manager of the famous ladies’ team Doncaster Belles in 2003, leaving after ten years in 2013. He has all the UEFA qualifications and ran coaching classes for the English FA, and moved later in other coaching roles.
Buckley inculcated good habits in South Yorkshire…
Quotes
“What a team that was no wonder we all had to move to play.“
John Buckley on Twitter on the Celtic squad in his time at Celtic
Playing Career
| APPEARANCES | LEAGUE | SCOTTISH CUP | LEAGUE CUP | EUROPE | TOTAL |
| 1978-83 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Goals: | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Honours with Celtic
Scottish League Cup
- 1982-83
(played in early round)
Pictures
