“Football may be a game, but a player has to work at it”- Bobby Collins

“The best signing I ever made”- Don Revie, Leeds United manager.

Standing at 5ft 3inches and a quarter, he was very insistent about the quarter, he got many different nicknames during his career from the “Wee Barra” when he was with Celtic to “The Lord Mayor of Leeds” when playing alongside Eddie Gray and Billy Bremner in Yorkshire.

To give you some perspective, Scotsman, Ryan Fraser who currently plays for Bournemouth is one of, if not the smallest player playing professionally in Britain today at 5ft 4inches and a quarter and rather unsurprisingly plays on the wing. Patrick Roberts, who is 5cm taller than Fraser, is the smallest man in the Celtic first team.

Born in 1931, Bobby grew up as a supporter of Third Lanark, but when given the choice between Everton and Celtic he chose to join Jimmy McGrory’s men at Celtic Park in 1949. He joined the team in a period which was rather bleak and very inconsistent for Celtic in terms of trophies. This was despite the fact that there were some great players on show at Celtic Park such as Charlie Tully, Sean Fallon, Bobby Evans and Willie Fernie. His trophy haul with the club was two Scottish Cups, two Scottish League Cups and a solitary League title.

There could oft be tension in the dressing-room especially if a favourable result had not been gained against Rangers, with Tully sometimes going as far as to point the finger at the Protestant players who played at the club for not trying hard enough. In 1952 a team of great quality but little cohesion finished 9th in the league. Despite this, the next season saw them become the best team in Britain as they beat Hibernian 2-0 in the final of the Coronation Cup.

We could all by now guess as to what was the zenith of Collins’ Celtic career and indeed of most of his teammates. It was of course the 7-1 drubbing of Rangers in the 1957 League Cup Final. Season 57/58 was arguably his best for the club, playing 46 times and scoring 27 goals, whilst between 1957 and 1958 he was capped 15 times for Scotland, scoring 9 goals.

Interest was growing and in a move which typified the annoyance of the fans with the board at the club, Bobby was sold arguably at the peak of the powers and despite the fact that he had not expressed any real interest in leaving. Many people have claimed that the Celtic board had seen Collins only as a way to pay for the ground’s new floodlight system. He signed for Everton for £23,500 at the end of that season, breaking the Liverpool club’s transfer record.

Collins, incredibly, was to play on until 1974, despite having broken his thigh-bone in 1966, something few players came back from in that era, let alone when they were already 35! His career spanned across four decades and 25 years. He had played 346 times for Celtic scoring on 122 occasions and over the course of his career played 825 games and scored 208 goals, the last coming against Finn Harps when playing for Shamrock Rovers.

Similarly to Kenny Dalglish he is one of few players associated with Celtic who managed to gain hero status with both Celtic and a team south of the border.  He was for example, the first Scotsman to win the English Footballer of the Year award in season 64/65 with Leeds. When you think through history it is rare that a player is remembered as a legend at more than one club, but that was the effect Collins had on the punters that watched him play. Even his four year stay with Everton is still remembered very fondly by their older supporters. His ability coupled with his terrier like grit and determination despite a rather underwhelming physical presence won him his acclaim. World Cup winner and ex-Ireland boss Jack Charlton summed him up perfectly when he said that “Bobby Collins set the standard that you could do anything to get a result, and it rubbed off on all of us. It was win at all costs. And why not?”

After football he coached at a variety of different levels and worked for Don Revie as a scout, his most famous spot being a young Joe Jordan, who was playing for Morton at the time. Joe went on to become the only Scotsman to score in three different World Cups. His last stint in coaching came in the late 1990’s behind the scenes at Leeds.

Bobby passed away in 2014 at the age of 82 having been troubled with Alzheimer’s for many years.

A legend of Celtic and of football in general.

RIP

Hail Hail

KEVIN JOHN THOMSON

2 COMMENTS

  1. Bobby was a Pollokshaws Man and was big park of the community. He started at PollokFC and went on to Celtic where he was great. Coronation Cup and 7-1 among them

    To show the difference between yesterdays players and todays over paid stars my Late Father was a tram driver and was driving along Haggs Road and there was the bold Bobby walking Home to Pollokshaws from Ibrox. My Dad stopped and let him on the tram and had a chat about the game.

    Can you imagine one of todays stars walking back from Ibrox with his boots under his arm. More likely speeding off in a Ferrari

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.