Best keeper You’ve ever seen at Celtic.

Steviebhoy67

Steviebhoy67

Well-known member
Guys I was just reading a post elsewhere that prompted this thread.
We're all at different ages so it will differ on opinion.
I'll kick it of with Frazer Forster.
The guy was immense. A presence and commanded his box. Best example is the game against Barca. Even Messi said he wasn't human on the night. Shame he never stuck around.
 
Steviebhoy67 said:
Guys I was just reading a post elsewhere that prompted this thread.
We're all at different ages so it will differ on opinion.
I'll kick it of with Frazer Forster.
The guy was immense. A presence and commanded his box. Best example is the game against Barca. Even Messi said he wasn't human on the night. Shame he never stuck around.
Click to expand...
He could have stayed and became a legend but for being pure Celtic, gallus and putting in some remarkable saves when it counted, it has to be Artur for me.
 
I think the last few goalies we've had have all been excellent. Boruc, Forster, Gordon & Hart have been terrific for us. Bearing in mind we tend to play a more attacking style of football than most that can often leave us exposed at the back to a quick counter-attack, I think they have been a big step up in class to the goalies I can remember before. Latchford was decent though.

I have to agree with you though as I think Fraser Forster was the best I've seen play for Celtic. Not only the glorious 125th birthday victory over the mighty Barcelona, but when we beat sevco to win the League Cup was the best goalkeeping performance I can ever remember.

Overall, I thought FF had more highs, less lows and was generally most consistent at a higher level for longer than anyone else.
 
Artur and Frazer tied for me.

Other notable mentions, obviously Ronnie Simpson, Craig Gordon also had a great spell with us.... And Magnus Hedman gets an honourable mention just cause of his wife 😂😂😂


I'm surprised nobody has mentioned Dimitri Karine 😉😳😉

(admit it you awe forgot about the great Dimitri) 😂 😂 😂
 
Last edited:
It's gotta be Packie for me!

He had his faults but for shot-stopping and being an intricate part of the defence for ages, great coach as well!
He did flap at crosses at times but I've seen Packie produce some absolutely incredible saves, physics defying stuff! He was a truly great keeper.

Once the passback rule came in early 90s, that was the end for the great man, his kicking was the thing that let him down. Shame about Luigi Macari throwing Shay Given away n getting in Carl Muggleton after Packie giving him years of apprenticeship, shows what he knows!

Packie's a legend for a reason!
 
Maestro said:
It's gotta be Packie for me!

He had his faults but for shot-stopping and being an intricate part of the defence for ages, great coach as well!
He did flap at crosses at times but I've seen Packie produce some absolutely incredible saves, physics defying stuff! He was a truly great keeper.

Once the passback rule came in early 90s, that was the end for the great man, his kicking was the thing that let him down. Shame about Luigi Macari throwing Shay Given away n getting in Carl Muggleton after Packie giving him years of apprenticeship, shows what he knows!

Packie's a legend for a reason!
Click to expand...
I like Packie a lot, but never really rated him as a brilliant keeper. He was a good shot stopper but not very dominant in the air, which was surprising for such a big fella.

Ironically, he probably would have suited our modrrn style of goalkeeping. I"m not sure if it is our GK coach Woods' style of coaching, or if we deliberately buy goalies who play like this, but Forster, Gordon and Hart more often than not all usually stay very close to their goal line at set pieces to try to save any shot rather than come out to catch/clear crosses. Packie might have flourished even more under this strategy.

Yes, he was not very good with using his feet and the passback rule finished him as he was unable to develop these skills at such a late stage in his career. But if he had grown up playing like this as all current goalies have, then this would have been natural to him and so not a problem.

As I said, a definite Celtic legend, but not one of my top 3 goalies I've seen playing for us in my lifetime.
 
Marky1956 said:
Being of a certain vintage it's got to be Ronnie Simpson.
Click to expand...
How good was Ronnie Simpson? I am interested to know because so little footage exists of him in action for us. Obviously we've all watched the whole Lisbon final lots of times and he was excellent - his (pre-)Cruyff turn is outstanding and very very brave.

But it is only really highlights packages of his era and they never show how well he organised his defence, snuffed out danger or made routine saves.

Obviously he is very highly respected by the slightly older generation who witnessed his performances first hand. And he was voted as our goalie in the "greatest Celtic side ever" at the tirn of the millenium.

But t I was never sure if this was because he was a massive part of our history and other GK candidates weren't so brilliant compared to our options for every other position. Or if it was because he was genuinely brilliant?

I do not mean this to be derogatory to Ronnie or our fans' opinions in any way, but I'm genuinely interested.in learning more about his ability.
 
Got to be Forster for me.

But two questions

1) Why is this in general chat?

2) Why no mention for the guy who helped us stop the 10. He obviously didn't capture the imagination, but did a great job.

I think it was Tom Boyd who said we weren't woried about only scoring one as we KNEW we wouldn't concede.

That wasn't all down to the keeper, but he more than did his bit
 
As a young goalkeeper who was Celtic daft I pretended I was Frank Haffey.
Although the 9-3 defeat by England put a end to his career in Scotland he had many a great game for Celtic, which gave him the opportunity to play for Scotland, of course the huns made fun of him.
Ronny Simpson was my 2nd favourite.

Spending most of my football career in goals, I could never understand why great managers like big Jock could entertain duds like John Fallon in goals for a great Celtic team, who cost us that game in South America.

Same with Martin O Neil settling for Rab Douglas in goal for another great Celtic team who cost us the Europe trophy in Saville.
Although when Celtic was in Oz the last time about 10yrs ago I was chatting to Mark Bosnich who told me MON tried to sign him on loan for the 2003 year but he wanted to stay at ManU & win his place back after his injury.
 
Tarzan Trombone said:
I liked Pat Bonner but I was Goallie at primary school and he was Celtic keeper at that time. But he was very good at world cups imo.

some nice saves in there

Click to expand...
Latchford was goalie when I was a kid , by the time I was old enough to be taken to then going to games it was Bonner.
One thing I remember was packies goal kicks. 8/10 of them went out the park for throw in to the opposition.
Always thought he was better for Ireland than Celtic.
Think I'd have to go for big Forster , big game keeper, but Boruc was also better than good for us.
As was Gordon and now Hart, but being pushed for an answer I'd say Fraser Forster.
I'm surprised he hasn't kicked on to the heights I expected, England no1 though spurs no2 isn't bad .
 
Big Jock went through a lot of keepers like I did with Mars bars😅 Who remembers Denis connachan. Good keeper but can't remember him being there long . Ally Hunter was a Scotland #1Signed from Kilmarnock. Wasn't here long either. Lots of goalies came and went some excellent some so so. For me it has to be Ronnie Simpson. Watched him play many a time. It's amazing when we think about our goalies the names that we have forgotten about crop up in our older Noisers memories. Roy Bains ,Bent Martin some name for a goalie. Caesar rememberd him from his days at Celtic.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Members online

Total: 415 (members: 2, guests: 413)

Latest posts

Share this page

Back
Top