Selkirk FC are raising money to fund a memorial statue of Selkirk, Hibs and Manchester City Legend Bobby Johnstone to be located in his home town Yarrow Park Ground.
The statue designed by award winning sculpture Alan Heriot has already been produced in a scale model form and has been endorsed by Bobby’s daughter Nicola as a fantastic likeness of her famous father.
Many regarded the diminutive Johnstone, a double Championship winner with Hibs, as the brains behind the side.
An intelligent two-footed player with a deft touch and fantastic vision, Johnstone played 219 times for Hibs, scoring 116 goals over two spells.
Johnstone would be the first to leave the club when he joined Manchester City for £22,000 in 1955. At City he would become the first player to score in consecutive FA Cup Finals in 1955 and 1956, the latter as a winner against Birmingham City.
Achieving superstar status while with the Manchester club, he would return briefly to Easter Road in 1959, his influence being a major factor in Joe Baker scoring a record club total of 42 league goals that same season.
Following a disagreement with Hibs he joined Oldham in 1960, a crowd several times the size of the usual attendance gathering for his first game, a testimony to his tremendous and deserved reputation. He finally retired from the game in 1966. Johnstone made 17 full appearances for Scotland, 13 while at Easter Road, the last while a Hibs player a 4-2 defeat by Hungary in 1954.
Former Hibs’ teammate John Ogilvie now aged 89 told the Edinburgh Reporter:“Bobby Johnstone was fantastic player and a really good friend of mine. I used to stay with him in the Borders during the holidays. When he signed for Manchester City he was a bit nervous but I told him to play the best that he could, and he certainly did that. City were delighted with him and he showed the fans what he could do.”
Sadly, Bobby Johnstone died in 2001 aged 72.
John graduated from Telford College in 2010 with an HNC in Practical Journalism and since then he worked for the North Edinburgh News, The Southern Reporter, the Irish News Review and The Edinburgh Reporter. In addition he has been published in the Edinburgh Evening News and the Hibernian FC Programme.
