Player Profile

Johnny Deakin signed for St.Mirren in August 1937 from Johnstone Juniors and went straight into the team to face Clyde on the 28th August. He quickly established himself as the clubs regular outside left.

He scored his first goal against Kilmarnock three weeks later in a 3-0 win.

Not known as an out and out scorer he netted three times during that first season from 28 matches but it was his crosses and build up play that was more important to the team.

For the next couple of seasons he occupied the outside left position and continued to play well.

At the start of 1939-40 War was declared and football was thrown into turmoil for a while. Like so many other players Deakin joined the forces, Highland light Infantry in his case, and found himself stationed in Maryhill for the first couple of years of the war, allowing him to continue his Love Street career. His involvement in the forces earned him a call up to the British army team which defeated the Polish army 3-0 at Firhill in 1941.

The highlight of his Saints career is undoubtedly being a member of the successful Summer Cup team in 1943, scoring a late winner against Morton in the semi final replay. By this time he found himself more and more playing in the inside left position partnering Dan McGarry and forming a good wing pairing.

Towards the end of season 1943-44 he was posted to Ireland and whilst there made several ‘Guest’ appearances for Glentoran. He spent two years in Ireland and during this time only made it home on three occasions to represent Saints.

At the end of the war he returned to Paisley and was soon back to his best in the Saints first team.

In 1946 he was chosen to play for Scotland in a 2-2 draw against Belgium at Hampden, but this was an ‘unofficial’ international and no caps were given.

1946-47 saw him partnering Alfie Lesz in another productive left wing partnership. Unfortunately a bad cartilage injury towards the end of this season saw him miss a large part of the following year.

It was February 1949 before he played again in the first team and by this time Saints had signed players like Arthur Milne, Willie Davie and still had Alfie Lesz  so Deakin found himself having to play inside right for a lot of the time, a position he did not like much, preferring to play on the left.

At the start of the following season he was again asked to play on the right and having voiced his dislike of this he got into a dispute with the management and played his last game for Saints on the 4th November 1949 against Motherwell before leaving the club to join Clyde.

In his 12 years with St. Mirren he clocked up 279 matches, scoring 44 goals.