The Morning of the Match
I reported early for the Reserve League Cup match at Parkhead, as I was feeling a little strained in a thigh muscle and I thought I would go out early and loosen it up.
Unfortunately – at least for me – as I arrived the first team squad was leaving for Tynecastle. It was always nice to see the lads, of course, but being about them and listening to the chat and so on just brought it home to me that I was not in the first team at that time. It was what they call in fiction a ‘bittersweet moment’ and it did not help my mood.
Tynecastle
Now, obviously, as I was playing at Parkhead, I can only give a newspaper account of what happened at Tynecastle. Hearts had finished 7th in the league table the previous season, having scored 56 and lost 48, neither figure an especially good one. Manager and players were all well aware that in a League Cup section, if you wanted to get through to the last eight, it was imperative to win your home matches so Celtic could expect Hearts to be up for the occasion.
Possible Substitutions
Davie Holt – In for Hearts
This was the first full match of the season and the new substitute rule would be in operation. Teams could name a substitute who could replace an injured player on the field. Once on, the players could not be switched again.
The teams were;
Hearts: Cruickshank, Polland, Holt, Barry, Anderson, Higgins, Hamilton, Gordon, Wallace, Kerrigan, Traynor
Celtic: Simpson, Gemmell, O’Neill, Murdoch, McNeill, Clark, Johnstone, McBride, Chalmers, Lennox, Auld
The Play
A headline in one of the evening papers for that night neatly summed up the important moments ;-
McBride in Right Spot
Right from the start, with 25,000 watching, Celtic dominated the play, although the conditions were awful for quality football to be played, a gale-force wind and torrential rain making the pitch extremely slippy.
After only two minutes, Celtic were awarded a penalty when Bobby Lennox was clearly impeded by Anderson as he was about to shoot and Joe McBride stepped forward to open the scoring.
From then on, it was a case of Celtic being on top but their fans had to wait till two minutes from the end before they could be sure that their side was going to pick up full points.
Jimmy Johnstone went on a fine run and cut the ball back for Joe to get a second, making the final score;
Hearts 0 Celtic 2.
Other Results
Aberdeen 4 Dundee Utd 1
Clyde 1 St Mirren 0
Dundee 2 St Johnstone 0
Dunfermline 2 Falkirk 2
East Fife 2 Third Lanark 2
Motherwell 2 Partick Thistle 0
Rangers 0 Kilmarnock 0
The Table
| P | W | D | L | F | A | Pts | |
| Celtic | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| Clyde | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| St Mirren | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Hearts | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
The Reserve Match
While the first team was doing well in a wet Edinburgh, the reserves in a dry Glasgow were not doing so well. Our team that afternoon was John Fallon, Ian Young, John Halpin, Davie Cattenach, Myself, Davie Hay, John Taggart, George Connelly, Jimmy Qiinn, Lou Macari and John Hughes.
We got plenty of the ball but just could not find any fluency and it was rather a disappointing display, with plenty of possession never being turned into chances. Jimmy Quinn got our only goal and the match ended in a 1-1 draw.
Disappointing Moments
In both the first-team match and the reserve game, no substitutes were brought on, so neither the crowd of 25,000 at Tynecastle or the few hundred at Parkhead could say ‘I was there when substitutes were used for the first time’. That day would be coming soon.