The Day of the Match
It had been an interesting couple of days since I was given the instruction to stay away from Celtic Park and try to let the symptoms of my head knock subside. On the Friday, my Mum collared me and asked me to drive her up to the city centre, where she apparently had some business in one of the big department stores.
After we parked the car, I went along with her and we eventually reached Lewis’s, which was in Argyle Street just across from Queen Street. Mum was a great dressmaker and had made my young cousin – and God-daughter – Anna Marie a lovely red coat and now she wanted some fur to put round the collar.
We took the lift to one of the upper floors, then headed over to where my Mum had noticed some bales of fur. Unfortunately for the young man who served her, these bales –of quite a substantial size – were on a high shelf and the assistant has to go up about three or four steps on a ladder to reach them. And since Mum, as usual, was very fussy about which precise shade of fur she wanted, the young guy was up and down the ladder about half-a-dozen times before she got the right shade.
With sweat now dripping off him – and I suspect speaking through gritted teeth, although he kept his composure – he asked Mum how much of the fur she wanted. I had merely been standing there just watching all this but when she said “an eighth-of-a-yard, please”, I walked away! An eighth-of-a-yard? That would sure help his bonus for the week.
Anyway, when I mentioned how little she had bought on the way home, she was quite adamant about it; “if I only needed an eighth-of-a-yard why should I buy any more?”. So that was me put in my place. However, I did think at that point that if I had another run-in with the Boss, I could do worse than get Mum involved.
The Opposition
Elgin City played in the Highland League and had already come through three ties in the Scottish Cup, beating Chirnside United 7-1 in the first Preliminary Round, then Hawick Royal Albert 2-1 in the Borders, after a 1-1 draw at home in the 2nd Preliminary Round, before knocking out Ayr United 2-0 in the 1st Round proper.
In this particular tie against Celtic, they would not lack support, as two special trains had come down from Elgin carrying around 1500 fans with another 500 or so travelling by car.
The Teams
Celtic
Simpson, Cattenach, Gemmell, Murdoch, McNeill, Clark, Johnstone, Lennox, Chalmers, Gallagher, Hughes.
Sub: Wallace
Elgin City
Connell, Gerrard, Laing, Sanderson, D Grant, Smith, Graham, W Grant, Gilber, Middleton, Fraser.
Sub: Rattray
The Play
As I was not there, I can only give details of the reports in the press and these varied slightly. Two things that everyone had agreed on was firstly that Charlie Gallagher – who would gain his first ‘cap’ for Eire against Turkey the following Wednesday – was given the honour of leading out our team and secondly, that the boys came out wearing the all-green strip.
As usual, the boys went into overdrive from the start and although well on top, they could not get a breakthrough. Then, as usually happens at a time like that, as our guys took a slight breather, Elgin took the opportunity to have some attacks of their own. Overall, though, our lot was in control although the fans had to wait till just before the interval, when they were rewarded for their patience by seeing three goals –
43 minutes…..cross by Yogi, header by Stevie. 1-0 Celtic
44 minutes…..pass from Charlie, shot by Lemon. 2-0 Celtic
45 minutes…..this time Stevie provided the pass and Lemon was on target. 3-0 Celtic
It must have been a particularly happy dressing-room at half-time and I’m sorry I missed it! But the Boss at a time like that would have been pushing for the pressure to continue after the break so that the opposition could not get back in and that is exactly what the boys did, although the rest of the goals came in the last half-hour.
62 minutes…. A fierce shot right out of the blue by Yogi ( or should that be green?) 4-0 Celtic
71 minutes…..the Elgin keeper parried out a Yogi right to the feet of Lemon and that was another. 5-0 Celtic
84 minutes….substitute Willie Wallace blasted home a 20-yarder. 6-0 Celtic
89 minutes….just on the whistle, Wispy got another.
Final Score Celtic 7 Elgin City 0
First Substitute
When Willie Wallace came on to replace the injured Bobby Murdoch in the 64th minute, he became the first Celtic player to appear as a substitute in a Scottish Cup tie.
Another Bad Day
In their second match in England, Rangers lost by a single goal to Leicester City.
Other Results
Aberdeen 5 St Johnstone 0
Clyde 4 East Fife 1
Dundee Utd 1 Falkirk 0
Hibs 1 Berwick Rangers 0
Partick Thistle 1 Dunfermline 1
Queen’s Park 1 Airdrie 1
St Mirren 0 Hamilton 1
Top Star Ties the Knot
Film star Raquel Welch will wed her manager Patrick Curtis in a Paris suburban town this week. The couple arrived last Friday and officials exempted them from the usual three weeks’ calling of banns.
A Scot on Top
Scot Dougal Haston and Mike Burke, who yesterday became the first Britons to scale the Matterhorn north wall in winter, may arrive back at Zermatt, Switzerland today after a rest.
Good Show by Comic
Film star Danny Kaye stayed up all night on a jet flight between Chicago and London in an effort to save the life of a woman passenger who had a heart attack.
Unfortunately, the woman, believed to be a Hungarian, died in the Hillingdon Hospital, Middlesex.