Robert Scott Gibson Neill (24 September 1875 – 2 March 1913) was a Scottish footballer who played for Hibernian,

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...

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 ...

and

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

. He played at

centre half In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield position whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Centre-backs are usually positioned in pairs, with one full-back on either s ...

and at

wing 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 ...

. Record of pre-war Scottish League Players John Litster / Scottish Football Historian magazine, October 2012

Career

Neill started his career in north

Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...

with Juniors

Ashfield Ashfield may refer to: People * Ashfield (surname) Places Australia * Ashfield, New South Wales, a suburb of Sydney ** Municipality of Ashfield, a former local government area in Sydney ** Electoral district of Ashfield, a former electoral dist ...

and seniors

Northern Northern may refer to the following: Geography * North, a point in direction * Northern Europe, the northern part or region of Europe * Northern Highland, a region of Wisconsin, United States * Northern Province, Sri Lanka * Northern Range, a ra ...

, then moved on to Hibernian. He played in the 1896 Scottish Cup Final, which Hibs lost 3–1 against Heart of Midlothian. After a one-year spell with

, Neill joined

in 1897. During his seven seasons there he amassed four

Scottish League championships 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 sout ...

, one

Scottish Cup The Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup,1898 Events January–March * January 1 – New York City annexes land from surrounding counties, creating the City of Greater New York as the world's second largest. The city is geographically divided into five boroughs: Manhattan, B ...

), three

Glasgow Cup The Glasgow Cup is a football tournament open to teams from Glasgow, Scotland. Operated by the Glasgow Football Association, it was competed for annually by senior Glasgow clubs from 1887 until 1989. It is now (since the 2019–20 amended rules ...

s (1897–98, 1899–1900 and 1901–02) and two Charity Cups (1896–97 and 1899–1900). He made 109 first class appearances for Rangers and scored 28 goals, and was part of the club's '

perfect season A perfect season is a sports season, including any requisite playoff portion, in which a team remains and finishes undefeated and untied. The feat is extremely rare at the professional level of any team sport, and has occurred more commonly at the ...

' in the

1898–99 Scottish Division One The 1898–99 Scottish Division One season was won by Rangers by ten points over nearest rival Heart of Midlothian. Rangers won all 18 of their league matches.

where they won all 18 fixtures, featuring in all of those matches. Neill gained two

caps during his career, both coming 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 ...

. He scored two goals on his debut, a 4–0 win for Scotland on 21 March 1896. His second cap, which ended in a 5–2 win for Scotland, was on 3 February 1900. After retirement he became a restaurateur, but died in March 1913 aged thirty-seven.

References

External links

LFChistory.net player profile
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Neill, Bobby 1875 births 1913 deaths Footballers from Glasgow People from Govan Men's association football central defenders Ashfield F.C. players Northern F.C. players Hibernian F.C. players Liverpool F.C. players Rangers F.C. players Scotland men's international footballers Scottish Junior Football Association players Scottish Football League players Scottish Football League representative players Scottish men's footballers English Football League players Men's association football wing halves