Celtic Player of the Day – “Best player? Why that was Tom McInally” Willie Maley

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The Celtic Star

·25 May 2025

Celtic Player of the Day – “Best player? Why that was Tom McInally” Willie Maley

Tommy McInally was a personality player in an age which badly needed one…

He played for Celtic in two spells from 1919 to 1922, and from 1925 to 1928 with a three year interval at Third Lanark.. After 1928 he went to Sunderland but never quite made it there because his heart was always with Celtic. He “pined for home” according to Willie Maley, as he brought him back from Third Lanark.

He was a brilliant inside forward and centre forward and it was the opinion of many Celtic supporters and even Willie Maley himself that he could have been even better than Patsy Gallacher – but he didn’t know how to apply himself or to behave. He kept falling out with Maley but Maley “always had a soft spot for the boy” and went the extra mile for him many times, not always wisely.

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McInally’s best year was undeniably 1925/26 when the League title was won with a great deal to spare, and then the following year Celtic won the Scottish Cup.

This is from a match played on 10 June 1923 in Buenos Aires, and features Tommy McInally in the bottom row of players in the pictures.

“Best player? Why that was Tom McInally!” Willie Maley (Celtic manager of 50 years)

But he must take at least some of the blame for 1928 when a talented Celtic team were on the cusp of a League and Cup double, and won neither thanks in part to the shenanigans of the Barrhead Bhoy who had the ability to upset so many of his team mates. After his return from Sunderland, Tommy became a well known Glasgow character and much loved by everyone, but his career was one of sad under-performance.

David Potter

*Article from The Celtic Star archives featuring the outstanding Celtic writing from the late Celtic Historian David Potter. Potter

Tommy McIntyre Quotes

Celtic’s Tommy McInally in action against East Fife

Opposition Centre-Half: “I’ll eat you!” Tommy McInally: “Well at least that will get some football into you!”

Willie Maley: “I saw you coming out a pub at half past nine last night!” Tommy McInally: “Aye, I had to boss, they were shutting at that time!”

Willie Maley: “Tommy, you pick the ball up from midfield and run with it” Tommy McInally: “But boss, I`ll get sent off for handba if a dae that.”

Tommy McInally

“You’ll go to the big bad fire son!” Tommy McInally abhorred bad language and on hearing any on the park or in the changing rooms would turn to the culprit, wag his finger and quip with the above line!

Bob McPhail (Rangers): “Tommy, is God a Catholic?” Tommy McInally: “I don’t know, Bob. After all I don’t get to hear his Confessions!”

‘Fair enough, but whit’s the other team daein’ a’ this time?’ Tommy McInally’s response when manager Maley tinkered for a time with blackboard tactics.

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