Norrie Innes – A Tribute
Club Historian Gordon Sydney has penned the following tribute to former player Norrie Innes, who played for Clyde in a five-year period in the 1950s, following his recent passing.
Away back in 1956, my dad started a record of Clyde’s results and goalscorers throughout season 1956/57. It turned out to be one of our most successful seasons, with only a single league defeat as we blitzed our way to the Second Division Championship, a Scottish Cup quarter-final place (only to lose to eventual winners Falkirk), a League Cup semi-final and a Glasgow Cup final.
And right in amongst those goalscorers that season was the name of Norrie Innes. A “good player” my dad told me, and that was high praise indeed from a native Glaswegian of that time!
Those records, and of course Norrie, inspired in me the need to find out more; where had these players signed form; how many games had they played, how many goals had they scored, and where had they moved on to.
During Norrie Jnr’s reign as Chairman, I was delighted to sit beside his dad at a game and listen to him relate Clyde stories from the 50’s and compare notes on Clyde players of that era. It was just like listening to my dad, and thankfully I was able to pitch in some of my dad’s stories to Norrie Snr’s delight!
But I digress somewhat, so let’s retrace our steps back to August 1954.
Norrie signed for Clyde from Ashfield Juniors – despite competition from Ipswich Town, who offered to put him through his Civil Engineering degree – in late August 1954, although he was allowed to remain with Ashfield for a few months after signing before himself and Mike Clinton were “called up” to Shawfield in 1955. Clyde won the Scottish Cup at the end of that season, in April 1955, but Norrie hadn’t yet made his Clyde first team debut – instead he had to patiently wait in the reserves until the 3rd of January 1956, when he made his first-team debut in a League match Hibs at Easter Road, a match we lost 0-1.
Norrie played in a good number of the remaining matches that season, and in April 1956 he scored his first goal for Clyde in a 1-0 win over Rangers at Ibrox, when he “headed a beautiful goal from a Robertson free kick”! That result, thanks to Norrie’s goalscoring instincts, incredibly not only ended Rangers unbeaten home record going back just over two years, but also remains to this day the last time we beat Rangers at Ibrox in a league game!
However, that season Norrie missed out on two semi-finals, one in the Scottish Cup and the other coming in the Glasgow Charity Cup, where defeats on both occasions by Celtic denied us any possibility of silverware in those tournaments. In the league, that loss to Hibs on Norrie’s debut was one of twenty league defeats that season, and at the end of the season Clyde were relegated.
The following season, 56/57, was where I came in at the start, with Clyde in the Second Division. A club record was set that season with 122 goals, and only a single defeat in the league. Norrie was a mainstay of the team, and his 22 goals put him 4th in our goalscoring chart that season, an excellent return from an “inside-forward” or midfielder.
That season also saw Norrie more than playing his part in the club reaching another two semi-finals, this time in the League Cup and the Glasgow Charity Cup. In the former we went down to Celtic, the latter to Rangers. We also reached the quarter-final of the Scottish Cup, only losing narrowly to eventual winners Falkirk, but we did reach the final of the Glasgow Cup, with Norrie playing in all six games, but this Rangers were our conquerors on that occasion.
Norrie’s form earned him a trial for the Scotland Under-23 team, against Rangers at Ibrox, where he was “mentioned in dispatches” in match reports after the game, with journalists suggesting he would be in line for a “cap” in the forthcoming “B” international against England. The Selectors also agreed, with Norrie being named as reserve for that game, and he was also named in the Under-23 team to play England on the 26th of February but withdrew the day before through injury.
The League Cup the following season, 57/58, saw Norrie score twice in our 10-0 win over Stranraer, and grab another in our 8-1 win over Dundee United. However, after a few games, Norrie’s appearances were curtailed due to injury; a sprung pelvic bone, in the days when Sports Science simply didn’t exist. An injury which impacted not only on any potential future international honour for Norrie, but on his career as well.
One game he did play in was the League Cup semi-final defeat to Celtic, however, in a season when Clyde again won the Scottish Cup, Norrie didn’t feature in any of the games in that successful cup run. Nor did he manage to play against Rangers in the Charity Cup final, a match won by a very handsome 4-0 margin.
Intermittent appearances would be the pattern for the remainder of that season, and also Norrie’s last season with the club, 58/59, and he was released on the last day of April 1959.
After leaving Clyde he signed for Stirling Albion, and after that went on to play for St Johnstone, Falkirk and Albion Rovers in the senior game.
Over his time with Clyde Norrie played 68 games for the Bully Wee, scoring 27 goals, an excellent set of figures – better than a goal every three games!
One small “claim-to-fame” of Norrie’s was that – as previously mentioned – he played at Ibrox Park against Rangers and scored his first goal for Clyde, and he also played at Ibrox Park against Celtic in the League Cup semi-final of 1957 and scored his last goal for Clyde! This time he “turned on the spot and hammered a great shot into the roof of the net”!
Our thoughts and condolences go out to Norrie Jnr, and his family and friends at this sad time.
Norrie Innes 20 December 1934 – 28 August 2024