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Fullname: Ian Young
Born: Neilston
Birthplace: ?
Signed: June 1961
Position: Defender

Biog

Defender Ian Young came to Parkhead in June 1961 from Neilston Waverley.and made his debut at Hampden in the final of the Glasgow Cup on May 5th 1962 when the Celts drew 1-1 with Third Lanark.

Originally a centre-half Young switched to full-back and by the autumn of 1963 he had succeeded Dunky MacKay as the Hoops right-back.

Ian is perhaps most famous for his performance in the League Cup Final of 23rd October 1965 against Rangers when in the first few seconds of the game he put in a "crunching" tackle on Willie Johnston the Rangers winger and this set the tone of the match in that there was no way this time that Celtic were going to lie down and be second best to Rangers brute strength.Celtic went on to win 2-1 with Ian putting through his own goal in the dying minutes.

Many supporters to this day believe that this was the game were Celtic finally laid down the marker of dominance to come over Rangers which resulted in Nine Successive League titles in a row - "The Nine in a Row".

He retained his place right up to the early days of the now legendary 1966-67 season when Willie O’Neill and then Jim Craig took over the right-back berth.

Ian was unlucky that Jock Stein eventually settled on Jim Craig as he was possibly a better defender than Jim but certainly not as good at going forward and as Stein used "Cairney" as an overlapping full back he got the nod.If he had kept his place he would more than likely been part of the Lisbon Lions.

An athletic and tough tackling player Young was a fine full-back and won a Scottish Cup winners medal in 1965 and a league championship medal for season 1965-66. After 164 appearances and three goals he left Celtic in May 1968 and went on to play for St Mirren.

Playing Career

Honours with Celtic

Scottish Division One

• 1964-1965

Scottish Cup

• 1965

Pictures

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