Celtic’s Smiler – The Neilly Mochan Story

Throughout Celtic Football Club's illustrious history, no other figure has experienced as many triumphs as Neilly Mochan. As player, trainer and kitman, Mochan was an integral figure in some of Celtic's greatest teams. A hero of the 1953 Coronation Cup winning side and the record-breaking 7-1 team of 1957, Neilly went on to become a trusted lieutenant of Jock Stein after hanging up his shooting boots and was Celtic's first team trainer throughout the nine-in-a-row era when Celtic were feared throughout Europe, winning their most glittering prize in 1967 on an unforgettable afternoon in Lisbon. Neilly's successes continued into the 1970s, when ten men won the league in 1979, and into the eighties, when Celtic won an emphatic League and Scottish Cup double in their centenary year of 1988. From the pinnacle of European success to the depths of 1990s despair and the subsequent Fergus McCann takeover, 'Smiler' tells the unrivalled story of Neilly Mochan and his 40-year Celtic Park odyssey.