Thomas Curley (born 11 June 1945) is a Scottish retired professional

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 an

outside right Forwards (also known as attackers) are Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield positions in an association football team who play the furthest up the pitch and are therefore most responsible for scoring Goal (sport)#Association footbal ...

. As a footballer, he made over 90 appearances in the

Football League The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, the league is the oldest such competition in the world. It was the top-level football league in Engla ...

for

Crewe Alexandra Crewe Alexandra Football Club is an English professional association football club based in the town of Crewe, Cheshire, that competes in League Two, the fourth tier of the English football league system. Nicknamed 'The Railwaymen' because of ...

and

Brentford Brentford is a suburban town in West London, England and part of the London Borough of Hounslow. It lies at the confluence of the River Brent and the Thames, west of Charing Cross. Its economy has diverse company headquarters buildings whi ...

and as a politician he was a member of the

Scottish Labour Party Scottish Labour ( gd, Pàrtaidh Làbarach na h-Alba, sco, Scots Labour Pairty; officially the Scottish Labour Party) is a social democratic political party in Scotland. It is an autonomous section of the UK Labour Party. From their peak o ...

for 30 years, before spending his final year in office (2016 to 2017) as an

independent councillor An independent or non-partisan politician is a politician not affiliated with any political party or bureaucratic association. There are numerous reasons why someone may stand for office as an independent. Some politicians have political views th ...

outside the party.

Football club career

Celtic

, Curley began his career in the

youth system In sporting terminology, a youth system (or youth academy) is a youth investment program within a particular team or league, which develops and nurtures young talent in farm teams, with the vision of using them in the first team in the future if ...

Portsmouth Portsmouth ( ) is a port and city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. The city of Portsmouth has been a unitary authority since 1 April 1997 and is administered by Portsmouth City Council. Portsmouth is the most dens ...

in 1960, but suffered with homesickness and transferred to

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 ...

in his home city after just a few months. He had to wait until September 1964 to make his senior debut, which came in a 4–2 defeat to Heart of Midlothian on 26 September 1964. It proved to be Curley's only appearance for the Bhoys and he departed

Celtic Park Celtic Park is the home stadium of Celtic Football Club, in the Parkhead area of Glasgow, Scotland. With a capacity of 60,832, it is the largest football stadium in Scotland, and the eighth-largest stadium in the United Kingdom. It is also ...

in September 1965.

Brentford

Curley moved to

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

to sign for Third Division strugglers

on a one-month trial in September 1965. He made his debut in a 1–0 defeat to Gillingham on 30 October 1965 and impressed enough during his trial to win a contract. He failed to make a breakthrough into the first team during the 1965–66 season and made just 14 appearances as the Bees suffered relegation to the Fourth Division. He improved his appearance tally in the basement and made 27 appearances during the 1966–67 season. The stricken club's dire financial situation saw Curley released in 1967 as a result of cost-cutting measures. He made 41 appearances and scored 6 goals during his two seasons with Brentford.

Crewe Alexandra

Curley moved to Fourth Division club

in August 1967. Though he made just 19 appearances, he was part of the team which secured automatic promotion to the Third Division at the end of the 1967–68 season. He broke into the team on a regular basis in the following season and made 33 appearances and scored seven goals, as Alex pushed for a second successive promotion. Curley left

Gresty Road Gresty Road or the Alexandra Stadium, currently known as the Mornflake Stadium for sponsorship reasons, is a football stadium in Crewe, Cheshire, England. The home ground of Crewe Alexandra, it has an all-seated capacity of 10,153. History Cre ...

in August 1969 and made 52 league appearances and scored seven goals in his two seasons with Alex.

Hamilton Academical

Curley moved back to

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 ...

to sign for

Second Division In sport, the Second Division, also called Division 2 or Division II is usually the second highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Following the rise of Premier League style compet ...

club

Hamilton Academical Hamilton Academical Football Club, often known as Hamilton Accies, or The Accies, is a Scottish association football, football club from Hamilton, South Lanarkshire, Hamilton, South Lanarkshire who currently compete in the Scottish Championshi ...

on 16 August 1969. He made just five appearances before being released.

Football chairman career

Curley had a spell as chairman of Central Scottish Amateur League Premier Division club Bankhall Villa. The club won the 1992–93

Scottish Amateur Cup The Scottish Amateur Cup is a nationwide knockout tournament supported and organised by the Scottish Amateur Football Association. The Scottish Amateur Cup is contested by hundreds of football clubs every year. The first and second rounds are reg ...

under his chairmanship.

Political career

Curley was a member of the

for 30 years and until 2017, was a

councillor A councillor is an elected representative for a local government council in some countries. Canada Due to the control that the provinces have over their municipal governments, terms that councillors serve vary from province to province. Unl ...

, latterly for the Airdrie South ward. He held positions of Junior Whip, Deputy Provost and Provost. He was provost of

North Lanarkshire North Lanarkshire ( sco, North Lanrikshire; gd, Siorrachd Lannraig a Tuath) is one of 32 council areas of Scotland. It borders the northeast of the City of Glasgow and contains many of Glasgow's suburbs and commuter towns and villages. It also ...

until May 2012. He resigned from the Scottish Labour Party in October 2016 and became an

, not standing for re-election in the

2017 North Lanarkshire Council election Elections to North Lanarkshire Council were held on 4 May 2017, on the same day as the 31 other local authorities in Scotland. The election utilised twenty-one wards with 77 Councillors being elected. This represented an increase of 7 seats and ...

Career statistics

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Curley, Tom 1945 births Footballers from Glasgow Scottish men's footballers Portsmouth F.C. players English Football League players Southern Football League players Men's association football outside forwards Living people Brentford F.C. players Celtic F.C. players Crewe Alexandra F.C. players Hamilton Academical F.C. players Scottish Labour councillors Provosts in Scotland British football chairmen and investors Politicians from Glasgow Councillors in North Lanarkshire