John Johnston (footballer)

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Personal information
John Johnston
Full name	John Shand Johnston
Date of birth	1878
Place of birth	Lennoxtown, Paisley, Scotland
Date of death	1955
Playing position	Wing half
Senior clubs¹
Years	Club	App (Gls)*
1898–1901 1901–1907 1907–1911 1911–1915	Stalybridge Rovers Bury Southampton Stalybridge Celtic	180 (2) 110 (2)
Teams managed
1911–1915	Stalybridge Celtic
¹ Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. * Appearances (Goals)

John Shand Johnston (1878 – 1955) was a Scottish footballer who played as a wing half and won the FA Cup with Bury in 1903.

1 Playing career
2 Honours
- 2.1 As a player
3 References

[edit] Playing career

He was born in Lennoxtown and started his career with Stalybridge Rovers before joining Football League First Division Bury in May 1901. He remained with Bury for six seasons making 180 league appearances, scoring twice. He also appeared in all of Bury's matches in the FA Cup in 1902–03, reaching the final where they defeated Derby County in one of the most one-sided finals ever played. Bury's 6–0 victory still stands as the record Final win. Bury also equalled another record, winning the Cup without conceding a goal in any round.

In May 1907 he moved, along with Bert Hodgkinson, to the south coast to join Southern League Southampton. In his first season at The Dell he made 33 Southern League appearances and helped the "Saints" to reach the FA Cup Semi Finals where they went out to Wolverhampton Wanderers, beating First Division Everton en route. He remained with Southampton for four seasons during which the team struggled in a vain attempt to regain their former success. Johnstone was a "distinct individual; through all the heat and bustle of the game he was never seen without a blade of grass or some convenient substitute protruding from his mouth."^[1] He had a strange gait but was a natural leader and tended to coach the forwards while the game was in progress.

In 1911 he moved back to Stalybridge, this time to join Stalybridge Celtic as player-manager. He guided them to success in the Lancashire Combination and into the Southern League in 1914.