Top 100 Appearances for Celtic

If Joe Hart stays fit and plays until end of 2025/26 season he will join the list

 

CalMac tonight draws level with the Late Great Lisbon Lion Tommy Gemmell

 

Forrest 24th and CalMac 27th on list with CalMac moving 1 place ahead of Late Great Lisbon Lion Tommy Gemmell.

 

That’s Forrest moved up to 23rd and next game puts Cal Mac up to 26th.

 

Today is CalMac’s 440th game for Celtic.

 

If Forrest plays remaining matches of season, however unlikely, he will finish this season in 17th position just 1 place and match behind the Celtic great and legend Tommy Burns.

 

If CalMac does the same he will finish this season in 25th place and will need to play a minimum of 29 matches next season to get into top 20

 

Jesus, if Calmac dies…

 

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Let's not forget there are a lot of notable names between the number of appearances that Forrest currently has and where Burns is on the all time list.

First off, he could pass Andrew McAtee later this month. McAtee was in many ways the prototype for the sort of winger that Forrest is. In fact, it could be said that McAtee, along with Davie 'the Dancer' Hamilton pretty much set the standard for these type of players. It's notable that while Hamilton preferred to stay out wide, drive to the byline and cross, McAtee was much more inclined to cut inside from the right, much like Forrest does. It is these type of players that we as a support have always loved, for their skill, speed and trickery, not only to help themselves but working with the likes of Jimmy Quinn, Patsy Gallagher and Jimmy McMenemy.

Potentially, he could also surpass Charlie Shaw this season, who statistically is the greatest 'keeper the club has ever had - and it's not even close. Shaw had 240 clean sheets in 436 league games. Noone with more than 20 games has close to bettering his clean sheet percentage of over 55%. Packy Bonner holds the Celtic clean sheet record (254), but he had to play roughly 200 more games than Shaw for those extra 14 more clean sheets.

Shaw set all manner of GK records, some of which stand to this day. In 1913 he set the British record of 1287 minutes without conceding that stood for 96 years until 2009 when Edwin Van Der Sar beat it with 1311 min playing for Manchester Utd. In 2014, Fraser Forster finally broke Shaw's record of league minutes without conceding (1259 min), but Celtic's overall consecutive record is still Shaw's 1287min (10 league & 3 ScCup) to this day, 110 years later and counting! Shaw also still holds the record for fewest league goals conceded (13) and most league clean sheets (26) in a single season.

A couple more games beyond that and Forrest will be on the same mark as Alec Thomson; one of McGrory's 'wizards of the wing', along with Adam McLean and Tommy McInally. McGrory's scoring record speaks for itself, but in an era where assists were rarely mentioned or recorded, and stats were not kept on, we can't go past taking into consideration who it was that was providing so many of those chances for McGrory. Thomson's 12 years of service deserves recognition.

Same with Bertie Peacock. It was Peacock who had to do all the graft, the fetch and carry that allowed Charlie Tully to shine and have the headlines. The skipper through much of the dark days of the 50's and early 60's, it was Peacock who instilled the work ethic and commitment of so many, including the likes of Billy McNeill, Bertie Auld and Bobby Murdoch. In an era when Celtic were continiously being undermined, the 'Little Ant' stood tall and should never be forgotten.

Then there is Lisbon Lion, Bobby Murdoch. If it were left at that it would be enough of a legacy but Stein recognised Murdoch as such a key and pivotal part of his plans that he changed the entire structure of the team so as to get the best from Murdoch as the powerhouse who dominated the midfield engineroom for the most celebrated era in Celtic's history.

And then there is the one and only Jimmy McGrory. His goal scoring feats are unlikely ever to be equalled for Celtic, or indeed, in all of British football. One of the true immortals of the Celtic story, who like Shaw, has set so many records that have never been matched. Most goals (472 - Bobby Lennox is next best with 273), most hatricks (55) and fastest hatrick for starters. Larsson in his best ever season scored 53 goals and is still a long way short of McGrory's mark of 62 in a single season. Or the 8 he scored in a single game against Dunfermline in 1928 is also likely never to be equalled. Insane!

 

McGrory is the one player from a distant past I’d love to see proper footage of. Football is a different sport now but he must’ve been one of the best in the world at the time.

 

I know what you mean although I get the impression he was a total penalty box predator type. Although, considering how many more goals he may've potentially had if he could take a penalty, lol. Think he only scored like 2 or 3 in his entire career. Some things never change with Celtic, I guess, lol.

As it happens the one moment of football I wish there was footage of is of Patsy Gallagher's legendary 'sommersault goal' in the 1925 Scottish Cup Final.

 

The highest possible positions this season for Forrest is 17th and CalMac 25th

 

So do I.
Had the chance in high school to get picked by Celtic scouts but the guy I replaced came back from injury and got picked. Wasn’t part of the clique so didn’t get picked even though on rare time I was picked I always scored at least a hat trick.
Closest I ever got to playing professional football was serving in the pie shop when I was 11 at Cumbernauld United.

 

Best British goalscorer in 550, 39 goals ahead of Englands top goalscorer Jimmy Greaves who scored 511 career goals.

 

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 James Forrest
511 Tommy Burns
501 Jimmy McGrory
498 Bobby Murdoch
497 Alec Thomson

21-30
497 Bertie Peacock
495 Charlie Shaw
486 Andy McAtee
481 Callum McGregor
480 Peter Grant
456 Adam McLean
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 Aiden 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 16th on list with Cal Mac 24th

 

Hope jamesy gets 15 more appearances before the end of the year to get into that top 20. Will be some achievement for him. And also look a lot more sensical with his trophy haul! Haha. Can’t remember if it had been posted before, if he’d not had as many niggling injuries I wonder how many appearances he could be on


Edit: just worked out if he had played 30 games total in each of his seasons he didn’t do 30+ (apart from his debut season) he’d have made 38 more appearances.

McNeils total appearance record is truly incredible

 

Hope Forrest gets 17 more appearances to put him into the position of making 500 Celtic appearances a feat only 17 others have achieved.

 

Didn’t make that connection haha! Was too busy looking at your 11-20 list