“Sid” as he was called was a fine Celtic football player. Like so many, his reputation was tarnished because he quite simply came at the wrong time and therefore did not win nearly as many medals with Celtic as his ability suggested that he should have.
He broke through into the team in that awful season of 1993/94 and was seen as one of the few signs of optimism. He thus lived through the “revolution” of March 1994, and like the rest of the team staggered through 1994/95 when they lost a dreadful League Cup final to Raith Rovers, and then won an equally poor Scottish Cup final against Airdrie.
The football was poor, but it was at least a win
The football was poor, but it was at least a win, and a medal for the deserving Donnelly who had impressed by his good forward play and goal scoring ability.
He was a hero however in the heroic Wim Jansen season of 1997/98 which saw a League Cup victory over Dundee United at Ibrox, and then that painful struggle to prevent ten in a row. Indeed he might have won the League at Dunfermline with a fine strike but the Pars equalised. However, it was all sorted out the following week.
Things became chaotic and unsatisfactory after that
Things became chaotic and unsatisfactory after that at Parkhead, but Simon made a bad mistake by going to Sheffield Wednesday where things were a lot worse. He returned to Scotland where he played for Dunfermline and Partick Thistle. But he will always be known as Simon Donnelly of Celtic, and in other circumstances, he might have become an all time great. He played ten times for Scotland.
David Potter
* Article from The Celtic Star archives celebrating the writing of legendary Celtic historian David Potter
Craig Faulconbridge will go down in history as the man who killed a dream for me,” Simon Donnelly
For their penultimate league game, Celtic had a Sunday jaunt to Dunfermline and knew victory would assure them the title after Rangers had lost to a 95th-minute Kilmarnock goal at Ibrox the previous afternoon.
Celtic looked like doing enough as they headed into the final seven minutes of normal time a goal to the good. A strike netted by Simon Donnelly, whose integral role in Celtic’s famous 1998 championship success has been underplayed. Put that down to Craig Faulconbridge, who netted in the 82nd minute that afternoon at East End Park to ensure it is Brattbakk whose name is synonymous with Jansen’s side getting over the line that year.
“Of course I do,” replied Donnelly when asked if he cursed Faulconbridge for his goal.
“And I curse Gouldy too for not stopping it. It was one of these things – it could have been my goal, but maybe it was a perfect send-off to actually win the league at Celtic Park.
“I do have to say though that it felt as if every Celtic fan in the country was at East End Park. But yes Craig Faulconbridge will go down in history as the man who killed a dream for me,” Simon Donnelly (From the Scotsman 2018).
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