Patrick McCabe Buckley (31 January 1925 – 4 November 2008) 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 as a striker for

Bo'ness United Bo'ness United Football Club is a Scottish football club, based in the town of Bo'ness. The team plays in the after winning the East of Scotland and gaining SFA membership in 2020. They presently play their home games at Newtown Park, which ...

St Johnstone St Johnstone Football Club is a professional association football club in Perth, Scotland which is a member of the Scottish Premiership for the 2022–23 season. The club's name is derived from St John's Toun ''aka'' Saint Johnstoun – an old ...

Aberdeen Aberdeen (; sco, Aiberdeen ; gd, Obar Dheathain ; la, Aberdonia) is a city in North East Scotland, and is the third most populous city in the country. Aberdeen is one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas (as Aberdeen City), and ...

and the Scotland national team.

Life and career

Buckley, who was renowned for his speed, started his career with

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club Bo'ness United. He was at the centre of a transfer dispute in 1948, when both

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 ...

and St Johnstone claimed to have signed him. The situation was eventually resolved in St Johnstone's favour and Buckley spent the next four seasons with the

Perth Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth is ...

side. Buckley joined Aberdeen in a £7,500 transfer in April 1952 (£ today) and it is for his time with the ''Dons'' for which he is best known. He helped them to the League championship in 1954–55 and the 1955 League Cup success. He also played in two

Scottish Cup The Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup,1953 Events January * January 6 – The Asian Socialist Conference opens in Rangoon, Burma. * January 12 – Estonian émigrés found a Estonian government-in-exile, government-in-exile in Oslo. * January 14 ** Marshal Josip Broz Tito i ...

and

1954 Events January * January 1 – The Soviet Union ceases to demand war reparations from West Germany. * January 3 – The Italian broadcaster RAI officially begins transmitting. * January 7 – Georgetown-IBM experiment: The fir ...

, both of which were lost. He retired due to a serious

knee In humans and other primates, the knee joins the thigh with the leg and consists of two joints: one between the femur and tibia (tibiofemoral joint), and one between the femur and patella (patellofemoral joint). It is the largest joint in the hu ...

injury in 1957 but briefly returned to the game with Highland League side Caledonian the following year. Buckley was

capped In sport, a cap is a player's appearance in a game at international level. The term dates from the practice in the United Kingdom of awarding a cap to every player in an international match of rugby football and association football. In the ea ...

three times by Scotland, making his debut in a 1–0 win over

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...

in 1954. Initially selected in the squad for the

1954 FIFA World Cup The 1954 FIFA World Cup was the fifth edition of the FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international football tournament for senior men's national teams of the nations affiliated to FIFA. It was held in Switzerland from 16 June to 4 July. Switzerla ...

, injury saw him replaced by club colleague George Hamilton. He scored his only Scotland goal against

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...

in a 1–0 win upon his return to fitness in October later that year. Upon his death in November 2008, the Aberdeen players wore black armbands to commemorate his playing for the club, against St Mirren on 12 November 2008. His son, Pat, was also a professional footballer.

Career statistics

Club

International

''Scores and results list Scotland's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Buckley goal''

References

External links

Obituary
in ''The Herald'' * {{DEFAULTSORT:Buckley, Partick 1925 births 2008 deaths Scottish Football League players Scottish men's footballers Scotland men's international footballers St Johnstone F.C. players Aberdeen F.C. players Sportspeople from Leith Men's association football forwards Scottish Football League representative players Caledonian F.C. players Highland Football League players Place of death missing Bo'ness United F.C. players Footballers from Edinburgh Scottish Junior Football Association players