Excited

I was really looking forward to the second round second leg match against Aarhus in the European Cup Winners’ Cup. Not only did I know I was playing but the idea of actually taking part in another European tie (I had played in the home leg against Go-Ahead Deventer) just made me feel great.

It also made life a bit difficult for me at training with the part-timers, the sessions being brought forward to two nights before the match. While the squad was being put through the mill on a tough session, I was told to take it easy and concentrate on short stuff, as I was playing sooner than them. I never was one for pushing myself forward but that night I made doubly sure that I did not come over as a bit cocky. I would not be the first player to end up back in the reserves after a try-out in the first team!

Having said that, all the boys were excellent in wishing me all the best. It did feel strange, though; I had been with these guys for six months, we had come through a lot together and suddenly I had been given the chance to take a step up. It was unsettling.

Still, I was going to do my damnedest to keep my place and that meant putting on a good show in the match, so all my thoughts were concentrated on that.

Confident

At his press conference the day prior to the match, Jock Stein was confident but cautious.

He said he realised that Celtic were a goal up but the players were going to forget that. He preferred that they started from scratch and go out for more goals.

 

Press Comment

A comment in one of the national dailies probably summed up the mood of many fans;-

After seeing this Parkhead team so powerful and unstoppable on Saturday, I think they’ll get plenty against the Danish amateurs.

He then went on to say : ‘

right-back Ian Young, absent at Perth through injury, won’t be rushed. Jim Craig keeps the position’.

 

The Danes in Glasgow

Aarhus arrived the afternoon before the match and trained on the Parkhead pitch that night. Any of their party who checked the evening papers would not have been impressed by the odds given for the match by the bookmakers, who had Celtic at 10-1 on! And, as if to give the Danes a real Scottish welcome, the West of Scotland at that time was going through one of its wet and damp periods, not quite perfect conditions for a game of football.

 

Question

First of all, let’s deal with the answer to the previous question. When Celtic beat St Mirren 5-0 at Parkhead on 13^th November 1982, two members of the Celtic team – Graeme Sinclair and Frank McGarvey – went on to play for St Mirren; while two players for the Buddies – Billy Stark and Frank MacAvennie – eventually came to Celtic.

And the question this time round is ; when Dixie Deans scored 6 goals in Celtic’s 7-0 thrashing of Partick Thistle on 17^th November 1973, he still fell two short of the club record held by Jimmy McGrory, who got 8 in the 9-0 victory over Dunfermline on 14^th January 1928.

10 Celtic players have scored 5 in a match, a few of them doing it more than once. But only on one occasion did two players each score 5 goals in the same match. What was the match and who were the players?

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Into the Final Stage

West Germany reached the finals of the World Cup in England next year when they beat Cyprus 6-0 in a qualifying match in Nicosia.

A crowd of 10,000 saw the Cyprus amateurs put up a brave fight in the first half, surprising the Germans with some clever midfield moves.

West Germany is the 12^th country to reach the finals. The others are England (hosts), Brazil (holders), Argentina, Chile, Mexico, Uruguay, Hungary, Soviet Union, Portugal, France and Spain.

 

Casualties

US forces claimed to have killed 869 troops – mainly North Vietnamese regulars – in a 3-day battle in the central lowlands, 200 miles south of Saigon. The casualties are the highest claimed for any single American operation of the Vietnam War.

 

The Birch

Despite a constant chorus of heckling from a minority group associating themselves generally with ‘anti-violence’, the advocates of the ‘bring back the birch’ movement won overwhelming support in Glasgow at a meeting, attended by 300 persons, of the Society for the Safety and Protection of the Public.