Born on this day in 1877, forgotten Rangers & Scottish football great Jacky Robertson

dh1963

Well-Known Member
Dumbarton born left half John Tait “Jacky” Robertson began his football career in 1892 with junior club Poinfield and played for Sinclair Swifts in 1893 before joining Scottish League Morton in 1894. He moved to Everton in October 1895, not making his Football League debut until September 1897 when he played against Wolverhampton Wanderers at Goodison Park, but he became a regular member of the Everton line up during 1897-98 scoring once in 31 appearances before joining Southern League Southampton at the end of the season. Robertson made his debut for Scotland on 2nd April 1898 while at Everton, in a 3-1 home defeat to England in the Home Nations Championship at Celtic Park.

He spent a single season at Southampton in 1898-99, making 22 appearances as Southampton won the Southern League. His second Scotland cap came in a 2-1 defeat to England at Villa Park on 8th April 1899, while still at Southampton.

Following that, he returned to Scotland to join Scottish champions Rangers, making a scoring debut in a 6-2 victory over Clyde in August 1899, and he won three consecutive Scottish League titles at Rangers in his first three seasons as well as a Scottish Cup winners medal in 1903. He scored 6 times against Celtic, including his last 2 goals for the club. A decisive strike in a 2-0 Scottish Cup semi final win in April 1905, then the Rangers goal in a heartbreaking 2-1 defeat in a League decider playoff in May. That match was to be his last in Royal Blue.
All of his 14 remaining caps for Scotland came during his spell at Rangers, he scored 3 times for Scotland. He captained the Scots in his fourth match, as they beat England 4-1 at home on 7th April 1900 and also he played 6 times for The Scottish League between March 1900 and May 1905, scoring once, all but one of these appearances coming against The Football League.

Overall, he scored 30 goals in 178 games for Rangers before, in May 1905, Robertson was the first player to be signed by the newly formed Chelsea Football Club, and served as their player-manager in their first ever Football League season. Among his first signings were 22 stone goalkeeper William "Fatty" Foulke and George "Gatling Gun" Hilsdon, who would become the club's first 100-goal striker. It was Robertson who scored Chelsea’s first competitive goal, in a 1-0 win at Blackpool on 9th September 1905 and he also played in their inaugural League fixture a week earlier in a 1-0 defeat at Stockport County. In his first season, he led the club to a third place finish in the Second Division, one place off promotion. Robertson then surprisingly resigned from the club (third in the table at the time) on 27th November 1906. Chelsea were promoted to the top flight at the end of that season under caretaker secretary-manager William Lewis, Robertson scored 4 goals in 39 appearances during his time at Stamford Bridge.

In December 1906 Robertson became player-manager of Glossop, where he remained until summer 1909 scoring 10 goals in 49 appearances, when he became reserve team manager at Manchester United, before playing a leading role in the early development of Hungarian football in a spell from 1912 as manager at MTK Budapest.

He died in Wiltshire after a long illness on 24 January 1935 aged 57 and was seen off by many old international teammates at Rutherglen Cemetery, Glasgow.
 
Not a name I had heard of, to be honest but an interesting read!
Imagine being the first player signed by a newly formed club!
Often wondered what these players would think of football nowadays!
 
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Not a name I had heard of, to be honest but an interesting read!
Imagine being the first player signed by a newly formed club!
Often wondered what these players would think of football nowadays!

Thought this one might have been of special interest to the Bears in here who also support Chelsea
 
I have a poster which was a reproduction of an old footballer card which was produced for a Third Eye Centre exhibition about Scottish football which was put on in the 1980s.

 
I have a poster which was a reproduction of an old footballer card which was produced for a Third Eye Centre exhibition about Scottish football which was put on in the 1980s.


When you think about it, he must have been good.
He joined a Rangers who had just gone through a whole season without dropping a point, and immediately became a regular in the days before substitutes and squad rotation.
 
A last bump before his birthday is over.

I must admit, never thought there was such a thing as a player manager as far back as 1905.
 
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