John Neilson (born 26 December 1874) was a Scottish

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

who played for Abercorn,

Celtic Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to: Language and ethnicity *pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia **Celts (modern) *Celtic languages **Proto-Celtic language * Celtic music *Celtic nations Sports Fo ...

, Third Lanark, Bristol Rovers and

Albion Rovers Albion Rovers Football Club is a semi-professional football team from Coatbridge, North Lanarkshire, Scotland. They are members of the Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL) and play in Scottish League Two, the fourth tier of the Scotti ...

, mainly as a

left half A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

. He won the

Scottish Football League The Scottish Football League (SFL) was a league featuring professional and semi-professional football clubs mostly from Scotland.One club, Berwick Rangers, is based in the town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, which is located approximately 4 km south ...

championship with Third Lanark in

1903–04 Nineteen or 19 may refer to: * 19 (number), the natural number following 18 and preceding 20 * one of the years 19 BC, AD 19, 1919, 2019 Films * ''19'' (film), a 2001 Japanese film * ''Nineteen'' (film), a 1987 science fiction film Music ...

and played in two consecutive Scottish Cup finals – a win over

Rangers A Ranger is typically someone in a military/paramilitary or law enforcement role specializing in patrolling a given territory, called “ranging”. The term most often refers to: * Park ranger or forest ranger, a person charged with protecting and ...

1905 As the second year of the massive Russo-Japanese War begins, more than 100,000 die in the largest world battles of that era, and the war chaos leads to the 1905 Russian Revolution against Nicholas II of Russia (Shostakovich's 11th Symphony i ...

via a replay and a loss to Heart of Midlothian in

1906 Events January–February * January 12 – Persian Constitutional Revolution: A nationalistic coalition of merchants, religious leaders and intellectuals in Persia forces the shah Mozaffar ad-Din Shah Qajar to grant a constitution, ...

. He also won two Glasgow Cup medals, the second of which (from the 1903–04 season) was sold at auction in 2011. John Neilson was selected once for the Scottish Football League XI in 1900, and scored in this match a 6-0 victory over the Irish League XI.(SFL player) John Neilson
London Hearts Supporters Club

References

1874 births Year of death missing Place of death missing Scottish men's footballers Footballers from Renfrewshire Sportspeople from Renfrew Third Lanark A.C. players Bristol Rovers F.C. players Celtic F.C. players Abercorn F.C. players Wishaw Thistle F.C. players Albion Rovers F.C. players Scottish Football League players Scottish Football League representative players Southern Football League players Men's association football wing halves Scottish Junior Football Association players Renfrew Victoria F.C. players {{Scotland-footy-midfielder-1870s-stub