“I’d read of those heroes…” Fifties’ Player of the Day No.2 – Bertie Peacock…
When Celtic manager Jimmy McGrory snapped up 20-year-old amateur inside-forward John Robert Peacock from Belfast-based Irish League side Glentoran in May 1949, little would he have anticipated the gem he had just unearthed. Over the next 12 years, the hugely talented Peacock, known as ‘The Little Ant’ because of his workrate and industry, would be involved in every major Celtic event in a near 500-game career.
The first of those was a home League Cup sectional tie against Aberdeen on the final day of August 1949, Bertie partnering the superstar Charlie Tully in an all-Irish left wing. Fellow new Bhoy Mike Haughney scored Celtic’s goal that day in a 3-1 defeat.
Peacock was used sparingly in that debut season, but he again lined up alongside Tully in the ‘Danny Kaye’ Glasgow Charity Cup final win over Rangers at Hampden in May 1950 to earn his first medal as a Celt. It would become a habit over the next few years.
Bertie scored his first goal in the Hoops in the opening match of the new season, setting Celtic up for a 2-0 League Cup victory over holders East Fife at Parkhead. He would go on to feature in all 50 matches of that campaign, the highlight being the 1-0 Scottish Cup final win over Motherwell in April 1951 which brought the grand old club its first major post-war honour.
The next season kicked off with another trophy for Celtic, this time Bertie part of the team which fought back from two goals down to beat Aberdeen 3-2 in the Hampden final on the opening day of August 1951 and lift the St Mungo Cup, a one-off tournament involving the top 16 Scottish sides to mark that year’s Festival of Britain.
The glory in 1952/53 arrived most unexpectedly at the end of an uninspiring campaign. With recent signing Neil Mochan providing the vital spark up front, underdogs Celtic shocked the football world by beating Arsenal, Manchester United then Hibernian to win the Coronation Cup at a Hampden ‘covered in banners of green.’ It was Bertie who scored the opener against Matt Busby’s United in the 2-1 semi-final victory.
That success would provide the perfect platform for another assault on the major domestic honours, Bertie by now having reverted to wing-half alongside Bobby Evans and skipper Jock Stein as Celts landed a first League and Cup double in 40 years within eight days in April 1954.
The next three seasons saw Celts endure a series of near misses as they sought to build on that, losing successive Scottish Cup finals to Clyde and Hearts then the semi-final replay to Kilmarnock in 1957, but Jimmy McGrory’s men finally won a maiden League Cup, with a 3-0 replay victory over Partick Thistle at Hampden in October 1956. And 12 months later, it was Celtic captain Bertie who lifted the trophy again after an unforgettable 7-1 win over Rangers.
That would be Bertie’s final major honour as a Celt, although he continued as an ever-present captain until sustaining an injury against Hibernian in the quarter-final of the Scottish Cup in March 1961. A young John Clark stepped in to replace him for the replay at Easter Road and Bertie did not feature in the first team again. Within two months, and after almost 500 games and more than 50 goals, Peacock had left Parkhead to become player/manager at hometown club Coleraine, where he had started his senior career.
Bertie would enjoy further success at Coleraine, leading the club to its first-ever Irish Cup win in 1965 and thus into its maiden European adventure that autumn. That saw them paired with Russian cracks Dynamo Kiev, who were also playing their first continental tie, in the first round of the European Cup Winners’ Cup. The Soviets would win comfortably on aggregate, but Peacock was able to provide valuable information and insight to his old friend Jock Stein, by that time manager of Celtic, who faced Kiev in the quarter-final in January 1966. Bertie did lead Coleraine to a famous victory over Kilmarnock in the 1970/71 Inter Cities Fairs Cup and a second Irish Cup success the following season. His final act at the club was to deliver their only Irish League title to date in the spring of 1974.
Bertie was also a hugely important figure with regard to international football in the Six Counties. He received the first of his 31 caps playing alongside Charlie Tully and against Celtic teammate Bobby Evans in Scotland’s 3-1 win at Windsor Park in October 1951 and took part in three World Cup qualifying campaigns. The most successful of those was for the 1958 finals in Sweden, where the Irish memorably beat Italy and Portugal to win their qualifying group. Bertie played against Czechoslovakia (twice), Argentina and holders West Germany in Sweden as the Irish reached the quarter-finals, but an injury sustained in the play-off win over the Czechs saw him miss the last-eight clash where they were knocked out by France, thanks in part to a brace from the tournament’s top goalscorer, Just Fontaine.
The West Germans would prove too powerful in the qualifying matches for the finals in Chile in 1962 and Bertie would receive his final international match in October 1961, back where it all began almost a decade to the day, against Scotland at Windsor Park. By this time Peacock was playing at Coleraine as the Irish were crushed 6-1 by a strong Scottish side including Celtic stars Dunky MacKay, Billy McNeill and Pat Crerand.
Bertie would then succeed the legendary Peter Doherty as Ireland’s manager, whilst still continuing his player/manager role at Coleraine, handing international debuts to such world stars as George Best and Pat Jennings. Both men would be wearing the green at Windsor Park in October 1965, as Peacock came up against his old friend Jock Stein, temporarily doing the same job for Celtic and Scotland, as this time the Irishmen secured a last-gasp 3-2 victory.
Peacock was succeeded as Six Counties’ manager by Billy Bingham in 1967 but was recalled in 1982 to assist former Everton winger Bingham as the Irish shocked hosts Spain in Valencia to top their section in the finals tournament, before once again succumbing to a powerful French team at the second group stage.
That same year, Bertie added to his wonderful legacy by instigating an international youth football competition in his native Coleraine, the Milk Cup. That would grow to become a world-renowned tournament involving some of the biggest clubs on the planet.
Bertie Peacock passed away in Belfast on 22 July 2004, aged 75, but his memory will live on forever, a statue erected in his honour in Coleraine’s main square three years later.
Matt Corr
Follow Matt on X/Twitter @Boola_vogue
Celtic in the Fifties: Volumes One and Two, by Matt Corr. Published by Celtic Star Books.
Signed copies available now at celticstarbooks.com/shop
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