PADDY BUCKLEY 1925 - 2008
26th July 2016
St Johnstone Football Club are saddened to learn of the death of former player Paddy Buckley who, during his four seasons with St Johnstone between 1948 and 1952, had a phenomenal scoring record.
Signed in the summer of 1948 from junior club Bo’ness United Paddy made a scoring debut against Dundee United in a 3-0 win at Muirton Park and it proved to be the first of a remarkable 105 goals in four seasons – a statistic which not surprisingly saw him finish as the club’s top scorer in each of those campaigns.
Paddy had some truly remarkable goal scoring runs – from October 1948 to January 1949 he scored in eight consecutive matches and only his failure to find the net in the next match against Airdrie prevented him from enjoying a run of 13 consecutive goal scoring games.
His other seasons were no less impressive and in January 1950 he netted 13 goals in just six games including two hat tricks and a Saints career best of four in one game in a 7-3 win against Leith Athletic.
Despite his remarkable goal scoring record Saints were never able to get out of Division’B’ and a move to a bigger club became inevitable – the £7,500 fee received from Aberdeen was a Saints record at the time.
He scored regularly for The Dons in 1954 and 1955 and gained three international caps against Norway, Wales and Northern Ireland before a serious knee injury brought his career to and end.
He remains fourth in St Johnstone’s list of all-time goal scorers behind John Brogan, Ian Rodger and Henry Hall.
Photo: Paddy Buckley in action for Saints at Dens Park