Samuel Johnston (born 13 April 1967) is a Scottish former

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

midfielder 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 ...

for clubs including

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 ...

Partick Thistle Partick Thistle Football Club are a professional association football, football club from Glasgow, Scotland. Despite their name, the club are based at Firhill Stadium in the Maryhill area of the city, and have not played in Partick since 1908. ...

and

Glenavon Glenavon Football Club is a Northern Irish semi-professional football club that competes in the NIFL Premiership. Founded in 1889, the club hails from Lurgan and plays its home matches at Mourneview Park. Club colours are blue and white. Gar ...

Career

Johnston began his professional career as a teenager with

, playing over 200 times for 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 ...

club including the semi-final of the

1988–89 Scottish Cup The 1988–89 Scottish Cup was the 104th staging of Scotland's most prestigious football knockout competition. The Cup was won by Celtic who defeated Rangers in the final. First round Replays Second round Replays Third round Replays F ...

when the part-time, second-tier side took champions-elect

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 ...

to a replay, and a match described as '

McDiarmid Park McDiarmid Park is a stadium in Perth, Scotland, used mainly for association football. It has been the home ground of Scottish Premiership side St Johnstone since its opening in 1989. The stadium has an all-seated capacity of . As well as St Jo ...

's greatest' when closest challengers

Airdrieonians Airdrieonians Football Club is a Scottish professional football team in Airdrie, North Lanarkshire, who are members of the Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL) and play in Scottish League One. They were formed in 2002 as Airdrie United ...

were defeated to virtually confirm the

1989–90 Scottish First Division The 1989–90 Scottish First Division season was won by St Johnstone, who were promoted four points ahead of Airdrieonians to the Premier Division. Albion Rovers and Alloa Athletic were relegated to the Second Division. Table References ...

title and promotion to the Premier Division. Johnston's contribution for the ''Saints'' in the top flight consisted of one appearance as a substitute against Dundee United in August 1990 before he quickly returned to the First Division upon being signed by Ayr United. He stayed at Somerset Park for less than a season before switching to

in a swap deal involving Cammy Duncan in March 1991.Sammy Johnston
The Thistle Archive He was involved in another successful promotion run with the ''Jags'' as they finished runners-up in the

1991–92 Scottish First Division The 1991–92 Scottish First Division season was won by Dundee, who were promoted along with Partick Thistle to the Premier Division. Montrose and Forfar Athletic were relegated. Table References {{DEFAULTSORT:1991-92 Scottish First Divi ...

, followed by a solid Premier Division campaign in 1992–93, although by then Johnston was out of favour. After departing from

Firhill Firhill Stadium is a football and former rugby union, rugby league and greyhound racing stadium located in the Maryhill area of Glasgow, Scotland which has been the home of Partick Thistle since 1909. The stadium is commonly referred to as simp ...

, he had short spells with Ballymena United in Northern Ireland and

Stranraer Stranraer ( , in Scotland also ; gd, An t-Sròn Reamhar ), also known as The Toon, is a town in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland. It is located in the historical parish of Inch in the historic county of Wigtownshire. It lies on the shores of L ...

in Scotland, before crossing the Irish Sea for a longer period, playing in the Irish League for

– where he had a car park fistfight with opponent

Pat McAllister Patrick McAllister (born 3 February 1972Marshall Gillespie, ''The Northern Ireland Football Yearbook'', UTV, 1996, p. 194), commonly known as Pat or Packie, is a Northern Irish former football midfielder or defender who subsequently worked in fo ...

, scored in the

1995–96 UEFA Cup The 1995–96 UEFA Cup was the 25th season of Europe's then-tertiary club football tournament organised by UEFA. It was won by German club Bayern Munich on aggregate over Bordeaux of France. Girondins de Bordeaux went to the finals all the way f ...

and won the Irish Cup in

1997 File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; ''Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of t ...

– and

Coleraine Coleraine ( ; from ga, Cúil Rathain , 'nook of the ferns'Flanaghan, Deirdre & Laurence; ''Irish Place Names'', page 194. Gill & Macmillan, 2002. ) is a town and civil parish near the mouth of the River Bann in County Londonderry, Northern I ...

, and in the League of Ireland for Finn Harps. In 1998 he returned to Partick Thistle, now in the third tier, then dropped into the Junior leagues to join Pollok. After retiring from playing, he later managed

Neilston Juniors Neilston Football Club are a Scottish football club based in Neilston, East Renfrewshire who currently play in the . History The club was formed on Monday 4 June 1945 when a public meeting was held in the old wooden clubhouse at Brig O’Lea. ...

for three years (leading them to the SJFA West Region Premiership) and was assistant to Mark Cameron at

Arthurlie Arthurlie is an area of the town of Barrhead, East Renfrewshire, Scotland. History of Arthurlie The lands of Arthurlie were held in medieval times by the Stewart family, a branch of the noble Stewarts of Darnley. Later the lands became the prop ...

.Sammy Johnston ready for dogs abuse when he swap sides as Arthurlie Legends take on Pollok
Daily Record, 25 September 2009

Personal life

His younger brother

Allan Allan may refer to: People * Allan (name), a given name and surname, including list of people and characters with this name * Allan (footballer, born 1984) (Allan Barreto da Silva), Brazilian football striker * Allan (footballer, born 1989) ...

(a Scottish international with 18 caps) and nephew

Max Max or MAX may refer to: Animals * Max (dog) (1983–2013), at one time purported to be the world's oldest living dog * Max (English Springer Spaniel), the first pet dog to win the PDSA Order of Merit (animal equivalent of OBE) * Max (gorilla) ...

also played professionally.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Johnston, Sammy Living people 1967 births Men's association football midfielders Footballers from Glasgow Scottish men's footballers St Johnstone F.C. players Glenavon F.C. players Coleraine F.C. players Ballymena United F.C. players Finn Harps F.C. players Scottish expatriate sportspeople in Ireland Partick Thistle F.C. players Stranraer F.C. players Pollok F.C. players NIFL Premiership players League of Ireland players Scottish Football League players Scottish Junior Football Association players Scottish Junior Football Association managers Scottish expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's association footballers in the Republic of Ireland Scottish football managers Neilston Juniors F.C. managers

Career

Personal life

See also

References