Top 100 Appearances for Celtic

If Forrest plays every match this season including getting to Scottish Cup final he will be in 17th place just behind the legendary Patsy Gallagher.
Cal Mac, if does same will move to 29th on the list

 

Gradually updating the list

 

A lot of players on the list are going up and down on the list due to different places saying different amounts of matches played.
I am using the 125 years stats book which lists every competitive match played including team sheets.
For each player I am counting every match played by each player.
For matches outside the stats period I am using soccer way and Celtic website for those matches

 

So far I’ve done top 20 in the list and they are accurate as can be.
Taken from Celtic book 125 years of competitive matches written by David Potter and Marie Roman.

 

I’ve got 3 more to do in 21-30 section before carrying on with the rest.
At moment because of this Cal Mac has moved up 1 place into 30th position.
Also holy goalie has so far moved out of top 100.

 

Top 30 done although that may change once I start on next section.
Hopefully I will be finished before end of week.
When looking through the stats book I have noticed some players mentioned that weren’t on the list so once list is done I will go through the book again and check those players which means that some currently at bottom will be deleted from top 100. One so far has been the holy goalie

 

1-10
809 Billy McNeill
718 Alec McNair
680 Paul McStay
675 Roy Aitken
673 Danny McGrain
647 Pat Bonner
619 Scott Brown
607 Bobby Lennox
605 Bobby Hogg
600 Bobby Evans

11-20
589 Jimmy McMenemy
526 Jimmy Johnstone
522 Patsy Gallacher
519 Jimmy McStay
513 Jim Young (1903)
511 Tommy Burns
500 Jimmy McGrory
498 Bobby Murdoch
497 Alec Thomson
497 Bertie Peacock

21-30
495 Charlie Shaw
486 Andy McAtee
483 James Forrest
480 Peter Grant
456 Adam McLean
442 Callum McGregor
440 Peter Wilson
434 Tommy Gemmell
427 Joe Dodds
426 Stevie Chalmers

31-40
424 John Hughes
405 Murdo McLeod
405 Tom Boyd
393 Jimmy Quinn
390 Willie McStay (1912)
381 Charlie Geatons
376 Malcolm MacDonald
367 Tom McAdam
361 Peter McGonagle
360 Willie Loney

41-50
355 Jackie McNamara
351 Charlie Tully
347 Bobby Collins
345 Jim Brogan
344 Jimmy Delaney
336 John McFarlane
335 John Clark
334 Paddy Connolly
332 Davie Adams
327 Kenny Dalglish

51-60
322 Joe Kennaway
321 George Paterson
316 Harry Hood
315 Henrik Larsson
310 Willie Fernie
310 Johnny Crum
309 Stiliyan Petrov
307 Johnny Campbell
305 Willie Miller
304 Neil Lennon

61-70
303 Sandy McMahon
303 Davie Provan
300 Davie Hamilton
298 James Hay
294 Neil Mochan
287 Bertie Auld
285 Peter Latchford
285 Tommy Callaghan
284 Davie Hay
275 Derek Whyte

71-80
274 John Collins
273 Paul Lambert
273 Mikael Lustig
273 Tom Rogic
271 Sean Fallon
271 Nir Bitton
271 Emilio Izaguirre
269 Peter Somers
264 Frank Murphy
261 Leigh Griffiths

81-90
260 Peter Johnstone
259 Mike Haughney
258 Roddy MacDonald
257 Jim Kennedy
256 George Connolly
252 Georgios Samaras
252 Auden McGeady
249 Charlie Nicholas
248 Frank McGarvey
248 Duncan McKay

91-100
244 John Divers(1959)
242 Craig Gordon
241 Willie Cringan
240 John Browning
239 John McMaster
239 Willie Wallace
238 Tommy McInally
236 Jim Craig
236 Fraser Forster
234 Bobo Balde


Currently Forrest 23rd on list with Cal Mac 26th

 

All checked using the 125 years of competitive matches Celtic book.

 

Not counting cup replays there are a maximum of 22 matches left to play this season.
If both Forrest and Cal Mac play in all of them Forrest will move up 1 place and Cal Mac 2 places

It’s possible that CalMac will play his 400th Celtic match against Livi on 1st February at Celtic Park

 

I suspect that there are more players that belong on the list but it would mean checking every player that played in the almost 6,500 matches Celtic have played since their formation.
That would mean checking almost 80,000 stats.
* that.

 

Don't be lazy......get it done

 

Age is McGregor? 29? You’d think he’s got 4 years still in his legs. That could be another 200 appearances no bother. Could potentially break the top 10.

 

Not to mention in the pre-WWI era, and especially the period between 1888-1900 where 'shamatuers' (professionals masquerading as amatuers which happened a lot in the early 1890s), 'phony' registrations under different names (suhch as players being registered at different clubs at the same time) and even ignorance played on the part of both the press and officials in misspelt names on teamsheets or match reports, et al.

All of which was rampant at the time all across Britian, but something like amatuer v professional was very much prominant in the Scottish game and the lists that exist are best estimates of identifying players with various/alternative spellings or known psuednyms etc.

 

Still fearful one of the EPL teams will actually see what a player he is and tempt him away soon

 

McGregor will go nowhere I don’t think.

 

It’s amazing that in this day and age we have a captain that has played just over 400 matches for Celtic but our greatest ever captain Cesar has more than DOUBLE that tally.

 

Still can’t fathom how that was. Don’t we now over the course of a season play like nearly 60 official games? Was it not about 40/45 a year max they could play back then in all official comps?

 

More competitions

 

Several things.
Players weren't rested as much then were they? You had 1 sub so you couldn't risk putting a top player on the bench and bringing them on if things go sour so best xi week in week out. League Cup at the time had minimum 6 games for group stage then 2 legs after in knockouts but now 4 games to win. Also we didn't buy as many players, we used youth and those good enough were usually regulars before ages 20.

This season we we will only play 53 maximum. 60 games was only really due to getting to so many finals and European qualifying matches