Maurice Johnston
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Maurice Johnston
Maurice Johnston
• Maurice Johnston, 1983 (SPC)

born in Scotland

Maurice John Giblin Johnston was born on Saturday, 13th April, 1963, in Glasgow.

The 5' 9 (9st 8lbs) forward signed for Bertie Auld's Thistle on Friday, 15th August, 1980, having most recently been with Partick Thistle U-18.

Aged 18, he made his debut appearance on Wednesday, 19th August, 1981, in a 2-1 defeat at home to Dundee United in the League Cup.

That day, Maurice became a member of our scoring debutant's club.

He scored the last of his 64 goals on Saturday, 12th November, 1983, in a 5-0 win at home to Alloa Athletic in the SFL First Division.

That turned out to be his last game for the club, having clocked up 116 appearances as a Jag.

Maurice's club-list included Partick Thistle, Watford, Celtic, Nantes, Rangers, Everton, Heart of Midlothian, Falkirk and Kansas City Wizards.
Bio Extra

Mo Mo Super Mo,

Mo Mo Super Mo,

Mo Mo Super Mo,

Super Maurice Johnston!

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Over three or four yards you really have to be sharp in your head and with your feet. 9 times out of 10 my goals were all side footed or off my head. It wasn’t blasting things at the goalkeeper or putting it over the bar. Everything was clinical. It was everything I had worked out at an early age. We had a certain technique at Partick Thistle where it was a case of timing for everything. There was a certain area where you had to go up and head the ball and they were all hanging. I was one of three who could hit the last one. I was never afraid. I felt I was getting respect from defenders. I would give them respect back. I didn’t mind putting my head in there.

So spoke Maurice Johnston in an interview for Front Row Soccer in 2020. Whether it was the songs or the skills, EVERYTHING started at Firhill for Super Mo who was adored by the Thistle support - we weren't long in realising that a star was born. We kinda knew we wouldn't have him forever, but he stroked or headed them in for fun, and it was great while it lasted for just over 2 years in first team terms from 1981 to 1983. It could all have been all so different had he been left to his own devices mind you. As a boy, Maurice was a Celtic fan and legend has it that he often used to sneak in to Celtic Park without his parents’ permission. As the Celtic Wiki tells, the 7-year-old Maurice was once the subject of a ‘lost boy’ announcement when he went to a European Cup tie against Kokkola with some friends and ended up on his own. No-one claimed him! Celtic scouts actually watched the youngster when he was playing juvenile football with Milton Battlefield but his Dad - a Rangers supporter - was best friends with Thistle assistant manager Pat Quinn, and the 16-year-old Maurice was swiftly drafted in to the Partick Thistle youth team in 1979.

Maurice signed his first proper contract with Thistle in August 1980 and, as part of his apprenticeship, did a lot of the tidy-up work around the stadium in-between training sessions. He was a regular in the Thistle Reserves during 1980-81 but it wasn't until 19th August 1981 that new manager Peter Cormack handed the 18-year-old his first-team debut. Only 1,760 fans were at Firhill for the midweek League Cup match against the holders, Dundee United. It was match day four in the section and back-to-back defeats had effectively killed qualification chances already. Thistle were two down at half-time, and that remained the case after 72 minutes when Mo was introduced at the expense of Alex O'Hara. Within 15 minutes, he had volleyed in a beauty against Hamish McAlpine to make it interesting in the last few minutes. If only he'd come on a little sooner!

It wasn't all instant sunshine and roses though. After scoring on his debut, Maurice appeared in 7 of the next 12 games but failed to score. All of that changed on Halloween '81 at Ibrox though. League wins in Govan don’t come around too often for Thistle – there have been a measly six of them in our history – so our 2-0 win there on Saturday, 31st October, 1981, was certainly one to savour. Thistle had started the season poorly, with 5 straight League defeats and a sloppy Glasgow Cup exit at the hands of Queen’s Park, but, went into this game on a run of 4 without defeat in the League. If George Clark's first-half strike had us dreaming, Mo Johnston's second-half counter made it a reality. Former-Ger Kenny Watson pulled a foul from future-Jag Colin Jackson and, from 25-yards, Brian Whittaker drove a strange free-kick hard-and-low into the middle of the penalty box. The most alert player in the throng was 18-year-old Maurice who did well to use the pace, re-directing the ball into the corner of the goal, leaving Jim Stewart helpless. Sportscene’s Archie McPherson was even slower than the Rangers defence that day and called it “a deflection”. Rangers boss John Greig was more in touch with reality: “Thistle deserved their win”.

Building doubts about manager Peter Cormack were suddenly cast aside, and there was no real sense of the miserable season that lay ahead. Alas, Thistle won only 6 of the 36 League games all term, and were duly relegated to the second tier. Unbelievably, however, Maurice and Thistle went on to repeat the Ibrox story again in a February League match at Firhill, again winning 2-0, again with a goal in each half, again with a second half goal from Super Mo. Yes, of Thistle’s 6 League wins this term, 2 came against Rangers; it’s the Thistle way. We had great joy against the Govanites at this time, with 6 competitive wins in 3 seasons. Thistle may have been relegated, but to contribute to two wins away to Rangers must have been a huge confidence-booster for young Maurice, not to mention the fact that he finished top scorer in his breakthrough season with 11 goals in his 36 competitive appearances.

If 1981-82 showed promise, then 1982-83 blew it out of the water. Once again Maurice was top scorer, this time with an astonishing tally of 35 goals in 55 appearances, a 100% turnout. That tally stands today as the 3rd best of any Thistle player in history, behind only Sandy Hair (49 competitive goals in 1926-27) and Willie Newall (36 competitive goals in 1941-42). Highlights included hat-tricks in a 6-0 Scottish Cup win away to Clyde in February 1983 and in a 4-2 league win at home to Falkirk in April 1983. Alas, all of this wasn't quite enough to regain a Premier Division place, the Jags finishing 4th, 5/6 points off the required Hearts/St Johnstone pace. It was a personally succesful season for Maurice all the same and, in March 1983, he was handed his debut for Scotland's high quality U-21 side of the day, featuring in a 2-1 Euro Qualifiers win over Switzerland.

For around a year from late 1982 onwards, a staggering number of English clubs were being linked with Mo, including the likes of Chelsea, Everton, Fulham, Coventry City and Stoke City. Despite this, Thistle fans were secretly hoping we could go another full season and we were all set for a repeat dose in 1983-84. In early August '83, Mo single-handedly slayed Leeds United and Swansea City with 4 goals in 3 days in two of the pre-season friendlies. Things were looking great when a new club-record of 7 straight wins to kick-off the league campaign were registered. Theoretically, all of this augured well, but, in reality, it just served as another great advert to the scouts from down south. Unfortunately, manager Peter Cormack was forced to give in to financial pressures, and put a £200,000 price tag on his head. We Thistle fans always complain that we sell our talents too cheaply, but it seems that this valuation did put a few clubs off. After 17 appearances, Mo was inevitably sitting as top scorer again with 10 goals, but the building transfer speculation finally became reality in November. It was while he was with the Scottish Under-21 team in East Germany that Mo learned a deal had been agreed with Elton-John-backed-Watford who were the only ones willing to pay the asking price.

Watford got full value for their money. At the time they were struggling against relegation from the First Division, just a season after finishing second. Mo's arrival revived their season as they recovered well to finish mid table, Mo scoring 20 goals in just 29 league games. Having proved that he could score regularly in the English top-flight, Mo had thoroughly earned his call-up to the full international squad and Jock Stein handed him his debut on Tuesday 28th February 1984 in the British Championship match versus Wales. Mo came on at half-time, replacing Frank McGarvey. His 78th minute strike won the two points for the country and he was overjoyed. There's a good chance he'll stand forever as the only guy to score as an oncoming sub in debuts for both Partick Thistle and Scotland. There have been three others, all of whom played the full 90 in both instances; John Campbell (1899), Wattie Aitkenhead (1912) and Adam McLean (1933). On the back of that, the good vibes continued for Mo at Watford as he helped them reach their first ever FA Cup final, albeit they lost out by 2 goals to nil to Everton.

Mo began the 1984–85 season still at Vicarage Road and got three goals in nine First Division games before returning to Scotland for a fee of £400,000, Celtic paying a record transfer fee for the club at the time. There, he netted 72 goals in 128 matches, won the Scottish Cup in 1985 and the Scottish league championship in 1986. On one of the finest nights of his footballing career, a superb first-half brace against the Spanish helped Scotland to a 3-1 win in November 1984, keeping the World Cup qualification campaign on-track. A year later, when it came to the ultimate play-offs versus Australia, Mo got himself into hot water with Scotland's caretaker gaffer Alex Ferguson, who was not best pleased at finding Mo and Frank McAvennie in drinks and party mode with a group of young women in the hotel bar. Mo was later found drunk and causing a bit of a nuisance in the hotel corridors, infuriating Fergie. Mo paid the ultimate price when he was excluded from the squad that travelled to Mexico for the World Cup, a tragedy. The fatherly figure of Andy Roxburgh soon took over as Scotland boss, and this was good news for Maurice, who was soon welcomed back into the international fold. Former Jag Roxburgh would later admit: “When I took over this job Maurice had a reputation, and I was advised not to touch him with a barge pole. But I’ve known him since he was a boy and I ignored the advice. I think we have proved mutually beneficial.”

The money of Nantes talked in 1987, and Mo spent two season in French football. He was loving his international football during this time and he repaid the faith that Andy Roxburgh showed in him. Mo's 6 goals against Norway, Yugoslavia, Cyprus and France went a long way to ensuring that Scotland qualified for a 5th consecutive World Cup, a feat barely comprehensible to Scottish football fans in the 21st century. With his reputation sky-high in Scotland, the public statement in the summer of 1989 that he was coming back to sign for Celtic was met with a great deal of excitement. What transpired was simply stunning as Mo ended up signing with Rangers! In doing so, he became the second player to cross the Old Firm divide since World War II (Alfie Conn was first) and the first openly Catholic player to play for Rangers since World War I. Celtic fans labelled him "Judas". Rangers fans burned scarves and their kitman, Jimmy Bell, protested by making Johnston arrange his own kit. Thistle fans laughed and pointed at the state of them all. By the end of 1989-90, Mo had another league winners medal in his collection.

Scotland's Italy '90 World Cup was a real mixed bag, as always. As Mo himself put it “It was a good experience, but it could have been an even better experience”. Scotland were anxious and flat in the opening game against Costa Rica and, despite Andy Roxburgh's post-match observation that we won 19-4 on shot counts, the 0-1 result was painful and left us with an uphill struggle. Two former Jags (Maurice Johnston & Robert Fleck) and a future Jag (Murdo MacLeod) appeared together in the next two games (an unlikely World Cup first in the Thistle Internationalists story!) and Scotland were excellent against Sweden, getting the result, a 2-1 win, that their play deserved. One up with 9 minutes to play, it was two of our old boys that sealed the win. Fleck, played in captain Roy Aitken, who was tripped over when trying to make the rebound from his saved shot. Super Mo coolly dispatched the resulting penalty, becoming the only Jag ever to score at a World Cup. Sweden pulled one back in the dying minutes, but Scotland held on to secure just their fourth ever victory at the finals.

In the ultimate group game against Brazil in Turin, one point would have been enough for Scotland to qualify for the last 16 (as one of the best 3rd placed teams). With 15 minutes to play, Scotland were there automatically, positioned 2nd in the in-play table, but it all collapsed when Costa Rica came from behind to beat Sweden and Jim Leighton's spill with 9 minutes to play was severely punished by Brazil nabbing the opener. Then, into time-added-on, came the moment of moments for Maurice Johnston. The last chance of the game fell to Scotland and, when the ball broke to MoJo, six yards out, all of the Tartan Army seen the glory that beckoned. He caught the ball clean, but Taffarel in the Brazilian goal pulled off a miraculous reflex save, turning the ball over the bar. Mo was prostrate and broken. We all were. It was another glorious defeat from the specialists in the genre.

Mo won a second consecutive league title with Rangers by the end of 1990-91, and was back in the dark blue of Scotland for a couple of Euro Qualifiers in the autumn of 1991. He left Rangers in November 1991, having scored 46 goals in 100 games. A £1.5M fee secured his services for Everton, giving Mo another couple of seasons in the English top-flight. The 28-year-old announced his retirement from international football early in 1992, with 38 caps and 14 goals to his name. At the time of writing in September 2025, he remains 10th in the list of highest goalscorers for the national team. Mo went on to play for Hearts (1993-1995), Falkirk (1995-1996) and American Major League Soccer (MLS) side Kansas City Wizards (1996-2001). After retiring as a footballer in 2001, Mo coached in MLS. He was the manager of New York Red Bulls (2005-2006) and was later manager of Toronto (2007-2008) before becoming Director of Soccer there until September 2010.

Maurice is included in our feature piece, The Definitive Who's Who Of The Partick Thistle Internationalists →
(WS)



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