John Kennedy

Kennedy was born in Newtownards, Northern Ireland. He attended a rugby-playing school, but played association football for Boys' Brigade and church teams. When he was 18, he signed for Distillery as an amateur. He made his first-team debut in 1958, and soon became the club's regular goalkeeper. He helped Distillery win the Irish League title in 1962–63 – their first championship in 60 years – in a 4–2 defeat of their nearest rivals, Linfield, on the last day of the season, and played on the losing side against the same opposition in the 1963 Irish Cup Final. The League win afforded qualification for the preliminary round of the European Cup, in which Distillery were drawn against Portuguese champions Benfica, who had reached the final the previous year. Kennedy kept goal as Distillery, captained by the 41-year-old former England international Tom Finney, who was reportedly paid £500 to come out of retirement to play in the game, held the twice European champions to a 3–3 draw. They lost the second leg 5–0. By the end of his Distillery career, Kennedy had played 241 games in the Irish League, and had won the County Antrim Shield in 1964 and the City Cup twice. In March 1965, Kennedy turned professional and became Jock Stein's first signing as manager of Celtic, for a £5,000 fee. He played only one first-team game for the club in two seasons. He replaced regular goalkeeper John Fallon for the second leg of a League Cup quarter-final against Raith Rovers, and kept a clean sheet…

Northern Ireland Amateur XI

British Championship: 1964 Distillery

Irish League winners: 1962–63 Irish Cup runners-up: 1962–63 City Cup winners: 1959–60, 1962–63 County Antrim Shield winners: 1963–64 County Antrim Shield runners-up: 1958–59