Niall McGilp tells the story of Morton legend Neil Mochan

Seventeen-year old Mochan was spotted by Morton’s Billy Steel whilst watching his former club, Dunipace Thistle; Steel recommended him to manager Jimmy Davies, who signed him in June 1944.

He played a couple of war-time games for Morton in 1945, but post-war conscription kept him out of the game for three years; he missed the chance to play for Morton in the 1948 Scottish Cup final, finally joining-up for the start of the 1948/49 campaign.

'Neilly’ played his first official game for Morton in the league opener against Celtic at Parkhead, on August 14, 1948, watched by 50,070 spectators; it finished 0-0. The season became a nightmare for the club, but not for Mochan.

Cappielow was declared unplayable and closed, with many of Morton’s home games played in Paisley, Dumbarton or in one case, in Glasgow, at Ibrox. Add to that the premature retirement of international right-half Billy Campbell, diagnosed with tuberculosis, and Morton finished 15th in Division A and were relegated.

However, Mochan netted 22 goals in 33 games. He scored all three against Albion Rovers, who featured Jock Stein at centre-half. Press reports indicate that he set his first club record, with a strike just 10 seconds after kick-off, away to Hibernian on November 13, 1948. It was his 11th game for Morton, who won 4-3, despite keeper Jimmy Cowan finishing the game with a broken arm!

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Nicknamed the 'Cannonball Kid', because of the ferocity of his shots and driven crosses, Mochan had a wonderful second season in Division B, as Morton won their first Championship, clinching an immediate return to the top-flight.

With 34 goals in 40 games, he was attracting a great deal of attention, prompting bids from several clubs including Manchester City and Preston; he was also touted for a Scotland call-up.

There were three hat-tricks that season, including five second half goals against Alloa in a League Cup tie in September 1949. This performance set his second club record; his final t goals came in just two minutes, in the 86th, 87th and 88th minutes - Morton’s fastest ever hat-trick!

His third, and final season at Cappielow continued in the same vein; 25 goals in 36 games for an overall Morton record of 81 goals in 109 games. The season featured four more trebles, including one in a memorable performance in the opening match, again at Parkhead against Celtic.

The Morton squad of 1950, including Neil Mochan (front row, third from right). Back row L-R:  Jimmy Davies (manager), J. Mitchell, G. Mitchell, J. Cowan, A. Boyd, A. Batton, J. Hunter, Jimmy Gourlay (trainer). Front row L-R: W. Westwater, J. Farquhar, T. Orr, N. Mochan. T.  McGarrity, T.  Alexander. (Image: Morton 1874-1974: T. Robertson) More than 50,000 saw Mochan equalise just two minutes after McPhail had scored Celtic’s 30th-minute opener, and he put Morton 2-1 ahead in the 52nd minute, hooking home a Tommy Orr cross.

McPhail equalised from the spot in 60 minutes, and after Orr had restored Morton’s lead in 80 minutes, also from a penalty, Celtic were awarded another one just two minutes later, McPhail converting again.

Not to be outdone, Mochan netted the winner for his hat-trick in 85 minutes, rounding keeper Bonnar to slot home. The reporter stated, rather patronisingly, “the fact he did it in the unfashionable and provincial blue and white hoops of Greenock Morton is the stuff of legend”.

Mochan scored three more trebles that season, against Partick, East Fife and Motherwell, in the last game of the season and his final appearance for Morton.

He was hotly tipped to move to Celtic, but no bid materialised, and he headed south instead, after a £14,000 bid from Middlesborough. It was the beginning of Morton’s 1950s decline; big-name players moved on, the club was relegated again in 1952, and it would be 12 long years before a return to the top-flight.

Neil Mochan and George Young competing in a Celtic v Rangers match in the 1950s. (Image: Contributed) Neil Mochan’s two years in England were not particularly successful; he scored 14 goals in 38 games, before a more modest fee of £8,000 finally took him to Parkhead in 1953.

He played 271 games for Celtic over the next eight years, netting 112 times, winning silverware, including a League and Cup double in 1953/54. He was also capped three times that season, appearing in both Scotland’s games in the ill-fated 1954 World Cup Finals campaign.

After three seasons at Dundee United and one at Raith Rovers in the early 1960s, 'Smiler', as he was known, teamed up again with Jock Stein as Celtic’s 'trainer' in 1965. The squad he trained won the European Cup in 1967, and nine League titles on the trot.

In 1978, his role changed when Billy McNeill took over from Stein, but he remained with Celtic as kit-man until his death in 1994, aged 67.