This match had a 7.30pm starting time at Celtic Park on a Monday evening and an excellent crowd of around 31,000 turned up for the occasion. The vast majority, of course, were Celtic fans but the Jags have always had a decent support and many of then were there that night, not expecting much but hopeful as well.

 

The Teams

The big surprise for everyone was the absence of Jimmy Johnstone from the Celtic line-up. Nothing had been said beforehand, so whether it was an absence through some sort of injury or a dropping nobody knew. I would have imagined, though, that the decision would have given a lift to the Thistle guys.

Celtic:
Simpson, Gemmell, O’Neill, Murdoch, McNeill, Clark, Chalmers, Gallagher, McBride, Lennox, Auld.    Sub: Brogan

Partick Thistle:
Niven, Tinney, Muir, Cumming, McKinnon, Gibb, McLindon, Rae, Divers, Cunningham, Duncan.    Sub: O’Neill

 

 

 

 

 

The ‘Divers’ in the Thistle side was the ex-Celt John Divers, whose father – also John – was a star of the Celtic team of the late 1930s. John Jnr had joined the Jags earlier in the year.

 

The Play

I was in the stand that night and to be blunt, the game was not much of a contest. Our guys had the game won within the first half-hour, as by that time we were 3-up, the goals being described in the press as follows;

12 minutes: after two Jags defenders had blocked shots off the line, a blistering drive by Bobby Lennox was flicked into the net by Stevie Chalmers.  1-0 Celtic

24 minutes: Bobby Murdoch was fouled out on the right, Charlie Gallagher pitched the free-kick into the box and Bobby Lennox drove it home. 2-0  Celtic

26 minutes: this time it came from a cross from Willie O’Neill, which Bobby Lennox headed home. 3-0 Celtic

 

At this point, it seemed as though the guys could go on and get into double figures but in actual fact, although they continued to control the play, the urgency diminished – quite naturally, as we all knew the guys in the opposite side and it is difficult to be ruthless in that situation – and we only got one more ;-

43 minutes: a shot by Joe McBride was only parried by Jags’ keeper George Niven and Bobby Lennox reacted quickest to the rebound.  4-0 Celtic

In the second half, it was pretty much one –way traffic towards the Thistle keeper but there were no more goals, although we should have had a penalty in the 57^th minute when Stevie Chalmers was blatantly impeded when going for a Bertie Auld cross.

 

Final Score  Celtic  4  Partick Thistle  0

 

 Post – Match Quote

As the Celtic fans celebrated their team’s success and thoroughly enjoyed the presentation of the Glasgow Cup, in the press room, Partick Thistle’s manager Willie Thornton, most unusually for an opposing manager, was giving Celtic a great deal of praise –

“I was most impressed by Celtic’s play. I watched them beat Stirling Albion 7-3 last week and they did a first-class job as executioners in that game. They did the same to us tonight”.

How Many?

Celtic had first won the Glasgow Cup in season 1890/91, when they beat Third Lanark 4-0 in the final at Hampden and had been in – including the victory over Partick Thistle – 41 finals in total, winning 25.

 

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Get Together

Catholics and Protestants should stress the things that unite them- forgetting the things that divide them – the Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland , the Right Reverend Dr Leonard Small told monks in a Catholic community today.

The Moderator was speaking at Santa Maria Abbey, near Haddington, East Lothian whose head Abbott Dom Columban Mulcahy is one of the foremost Catholic workers for church unity.

 

Deep Down

Jean-Pierre Siffre, who has spent more the 160 days underground in a bid to set a new world record, will be brought to the surface on 1^st December, his friends announced. He has been living in a cave in the Auberge mountains, near Nice.

A friend said that Siffre thinks it is only August 24^th.

 

Top Names

Among stars to appear in ITVs Royal Gala will be Michael Bentine, Cliff Richard, David Frost, Violet Carson, Eamonn Andrews, the Beverley Sisters, the Dave Clark Five, Peter Cook and Dudley Moore, Hughie Green, Arthur Haynes, Frank Ifield, Bob Monkhouse, David Nixon, Frankie Vaughan and the Walker Brothers.