John Fallon obituary: Celtic goalkeeper and Lisbon Lion

Times

7 days ago

John Fallon was the only Lisbon Lion not to see action in Celtic's historic 2-1 European Cup Final win against Inter Milan at the Estadio Nacional in Portugal on May 25, 1967.
At that time only a goalkeeper substitute was allowed on the bench, but Ronnie Simpson was managing perfectly well between the posts, leaving Fallon to watch the match in frustration. 'I was both a friend of Ronnie and a Celtic supporter. So I certainly did not want Ronnie to let in soft goals or get injured so that I could get a chance, yet I did feel that I wanted to be part of it more,' he wrote in his memoir, Keeping in Paradise, published in 2015.
Nevertheless, he shared the team's elation at becoming the first British club to lift the cup. 'Those of us who were alive at the time can recall with vivid clarity just exactly where we were and what we were doing after the second goal went in,' he wrote.
The win entitled Celtic to compete in the Intercontinental Cup, with a two-leg match against Argentina's Racing Club.
While warming up in Buenos Aires for the second leg, Simpson was injured on the head by a piece of metal thrown from the crowd. Fallon recalled Jock Stein, the manager with whom he had a difficult relationship, shouting: 'Don't just stand there. Get on that park. You're f***in' playin'.'
It was a scrappy match, though Fallon's string of saves caused one commentator to remark: 'If that's the reserve keeper, what must the other guy be like?' Some accounts suggested that when Celtic tried to get their 2-1 defeat declared void because of Simpson's injury, Racing Club used Fallon's performance as evidence that the result should stand. It did.
With his flaming red hair and ice-cool temperament, Fallon was an outstanding goalkeeper, making 195 appearances and hundreds of saves for the green and white hoops. During his time at Celtic they won six league titles, five League Cups and two Scottish Cups, the latter including Stein's first trophy as manager in 1965 when they beat Dunfermline Athletic 3-2 before a crowd of 108,800.
Celtic had been 2-1 down at half-time. The second goal got over the line because Fallon was distracted by a loudspeaker announcement, but early in the second half they scored an equaliser. 'Then came my own great moment, when I saved a shot from Alex Edwards,' he wrote.
A journalist from the Evening Times described Fallon making 'a brilliant leap to his right at a rising shot from Edwards. The ball looked as though it had beaten the keeper, and it was actually behind him but not over the line when he made his brilliant save'.
In Lisbon all 12 of the Celtic squad received medals. However, Stein asked Fallon to return his, saying that he would be given another in due course. 'This did in fact happen, but it was a replica medal struck by Celtic themselves,' Fallon said. It was not until 2019 that the original was returned to him, having been tracked down by Peter Lawwell, Celtic's chief executive at the time.
None of this distracted from his recollection of the celebrations in Lisbon. 'We were wading through scores of fans to get off the park and into the dressing-room,' he told The Scotsman. 'It's such a great memory. We'll never forget it and it's something everyone should be proud of.'
John James Fallon was born in Cambuslang, southeast Glasgow, in 1940. He was the youngest of five children born to Patrick, a coal miner, and his wife, Jane (née Murray). He was educated at St Bride's Junior Secondary School, where he was obsessed with football and was soon playing for the school team and St Cadoc's Boys' Guild.
He also 'started my lifelong love affair with Glasgow Celtic, that most demanding and tantalising of mistresses', walking or taking the number 17 tram to Celtic Park. After leaving school in 1955, he worked as a butcher's delivery boy before starting an engineering apprenticeship with Foden Trucks, near Celtic Park.
Football continued to occupy much of his time and on his 18th birthday he made his debut for Fauldhouse United against Bathgate, breaking the opposing centre forward's collarbone in a shoulder-to-shoulder collision. Four months later he signed for Celtic, making his name in the reserves before his first team debut against Clyde at Parkhead in September 1959 when Frank Haffey, then the regular keeper, was injured at work. 'He was cool, confident and his clean handling of the ball and astute clearances made a great impression on the fans,' the Daily Record reported.
In March 1962 Fallon married Esther 'Essie' Daley, 'just before Lent, for the priest would not marry anyone after Ash Wednesday'. She died in 2018 and he is survived by their children: Thomas, John, Brian, Stephen and Elaine.
Before long he had replaced Haffey as Celtic's first-choice goalkeeper, taking part in the Uefa Cup Winners' Cup in 1964 when they lost 4-3 to MTK Budapest in the semi-finals.
However, he was dismayed when in 1965 Stein signed Simpson, who two years later served in goal in Lisbon. 'I gritted my teeth and bided my time,' he wrote. He described the 1968-69 season as his finest hour, thanks to Simpson's injuries and his own remarkable saves. Yet the relationship with Stein continued to deteriorate and he left Celtic in 1971, thereafter paying for his own match tickets until Billy McNeill, the Lisbon Lions' captain, replaced Stein as manager in 1978.
Fallon went on to play 12 first-team matches for Motherwell and four for Morton before hanging up his boots. He turned down coaching offers in South Africa, the US and Cyprus, retreating instead to 'the traditional haunt of the ex-football player', running a pub in his home town of Blantyre. He continued to be 'a committed, even obsessive, Celtic supporter', but seldom partook of the club's official hospitality 'because, as I tell them, I prefer to live among the fans'.
John Fallon, former Celtic goalkeeper, was born on August 16, 1940. He died on July 22, 2025, aged 84