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Fullname: William John McStay
aka: Willie McStay
Born: 16 Nov 1961
Birthplace: Hamilton, Scotland
Signed: 1981-1987
Position: Defender
Internationals: none

Biog

From Larkhall Willie the elder brother of Paul and Raymond and part of the famous McStay family Celtic dynasty Willie was a Celtic ‘S’ Form signing in December 1977.

He had shown great form as an orthodox right back in a successful Celtic reserve side between 1979 and 1981 and when Danny McGrain sustained a leg injury in September 1981 it was a surprise when Billy McNeill opted to play young centre half Davie Moyes at right back as McGrain's replacement at Willie's expense.

A ball playing defender McStay had to wait until April 2nd 1983 to make his debut as a substitute in a 3-0 home league win over Motherwell. Without coming close to the immense passing ability of his younger brother, Willie was himself a clever user of a ball and his distribution from the back was good.

Davie Hay took over as manager in 1983 and appeared to take a shine to him and he played as an emergency centre half against Rangers in a 2-1 victory on September 3rd 1983. He had posed proudly before the game with brother Paul for the media. On November 5th 1983 he replaced the suspended Roy Aitken as sweeper and had an excellent game again as Celtic won 2-1. On April 2nd 1984 he scored a memorable long range effort in a 3-0 win over Rangers, brother Paul scoring that night also. In the 1984 Scottish Cup Final against Aberdeen he replaced the suspended Tom McAdam at centre half and played well despite losing controversially by 2-1.

In August 1984 he actually replaced Paul McStay at inside right against Arsenal at Parkhead in a friendly as Celtic won 3-2 but the rest of his appearances were in defensive positions. The highlight of Willie's time at Celtic came in the 1985 Scottish Cup Final against Dundee United when the Celts won 2-1. United had led 1-0 and only some valiant defending by the Celtic defence had saved the team from falling further behind before Davie Hay's inspired substitutions saved the day.

He won a league medal in 1986 although he had fallen out of the first team after being controversially ordered off at Ibrox, after incidents with Rangers' Ted McMinn, in March in a 4-4 draw.

The 1986/87 was difficult for him in that Celtic were constantly linked with expensive replacements such as Steve Clarke from St. Mirren and Joe McLaughlin from Chelsea, although neither materialised due to the parsimonious behaviour of the then Celtic board. On January 10th 1987, at centre half, he made a terrible blunder which cost Celtic the game in a 3-2 defeat. Shortly after that Willie moved on to Huddersfield Town for a fee of around £25,000.

During four seasons in the first team picture McStay made 90 appearances and netted twice. In 1992 he went to manage Sligo Rovers in Ireland where he enjoyed a hugely successful reign before returning to Parkhead in a coaching capacity. Having had massive success at youth level Willie is at time of writing in charge of FC Ujpest in Hungary, after being a very respected and successful youth and reserves coach at Celtic from 1994-2009.

Willie McStay comes from real Celtic stock and was a wholehearted Celt.

Playing Career

Honours

Scottish League Cup (1984) Runners Up medal
Scottish Cup (1985) Winners medal
Scottish League Champions (1986) medal
1993-94 Eircom First Division Champions with Sligo Rovers
1993-94 Eircom First Division Shield
1994 FAI Cup

Return to Celtic

After a very successful period with Sligo Rovers as Player Manager between October 1992 and July 1994, Willie McStay returned to Celtic as a Youth Coach.

He was promoted to reserve coach upon Kenny McDowall's defection to Rangers in 2007, then took charge of Újpest in 2009.

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