Changes in the Scotland Team
In his other role as manager of the Scottish international side, Jock Stein announced that he would make four changes in the side to face Poland in a World Cup sectional qualifying tie at Hampden the following week. Only one involved a Celt, John Hughes being dropped in favour of Willie Johnston. Billy McNeill would captain the side from the centre-half position.
Appeal turned down
Celtic’s appeal to have the venue for their League Cup semi-final replay against Hibs to be switched to Hampden was rejected when the Scottish League Management Committee met in Glasgow.
The tie will now definitely be played at Ibrox on Monday 18th October, kick-off 7.30pm
No Changes!
The whole staff gathered for the match against Hearts at Parkhead. There was not going to be much room in the players section at the front of the stand! I knew I was not playing, as I had been in the reserve team the night before but there is nothing worse that being in the side for one match then out of it the next. You feel that you personally had been deemed responsible for the poor performance.
However, I must admit, and I forgot to mention it in my previous report, the Boss did come up to me before the reserve match against Hearts and tell me that I had played well against Go-Ahead and that I was unlucky for that particular match to have been my debut. He told me to keep doing what I had been doing and that I would soon get another chance.
That only slightly mollified my state of mind and I must confess to watching the Celtic-Hearts encounter that afternoon in a bit of a mood.
Easy
It did not help my state of mind when the visitors seemed to be completely over-awed and Celtic turned on the style. The teams were;-
Celtic; Simpson, Young, Gemmell, Murdoch, McNeill, Clark, Johnstone, Gallagher, McBride, Lennox, Hughes.
Hearts; Cruikshank, Ferguson, Shevlane, Polland, Anderson, Cumming, Jensen, Barry, Wallace, Gordon, Traynor.
Right from the start, in front of a crowd of around 30,000, our boys took control, never let Hearts into it and the goals rained in;
12 minutes
Bobby Lennox passed to Joe McBride, who swiveled and struck a sweet shot under Jim Cruikshank. 1-0 Celtic
35 minutes
a great break by Lennox through the middle, a nice pass to McBride. Bang! 2-0 Celtic
44 minutes
great work by Jimmy Johnstone and a fine pass to Lennox. 3-0 Celtic
59 minutes
the ball was played into the path of Lennox, he raced through the middle and as Cruikshank came off his line, Lennox lobbed the ball over his head. 4-0 Celtic
70 minutes
a strong, swerving shot by Charlie Gallagher gave the keeper no chance. 5-0 Celtic
Perhaps the guys might then have taken their eyes off the ball, as Hearts pulled two back in the 80th and 85th minutes but it had been a good performance – damn and blast! – and gave the Hoops another two points in the race for the title. One paper summed up the performance in interesting style;-
Celtic Go Ahead in ‘Heartier’ Fashion
What a Performance!
The hair-raising feat of a cat-burglar in edging his way along a six-inch ledge 30 feet above an Inverness street had onlookers astonished. They watched him scale down a rone-pipe as the police waited for him with outstretched arms
And no none knew he was blind!