5^th November

It had been an awful night in the Victoria Plaza Hotel. After the match, we had endured a heart-breaking bus trip from the Estadio Centenario over to our base in Montevideo, with the Argentinian supporters in the crowds lining the route giving us a real going-over as they celebrated the success of their side.

A reception had been prepared for us at the British Embassy, hosted by the Ambassador but to be honest, none of us were up for the small talk of a diplomatic affair like that and we just wanted to get back to our hotel.  Once there, most of the guys went to be early and if they were anything like me, found it very difficult to get to sleep. Over and over again, I replayed the crucial moments of the match and pondered that same old problem….what if?

Sunday morning did not bring a better feeling in the camp. We attended Mass in the town centre then came back to the hotel and just got ready for the journey home. I have never known a lower moment among the players during those years. We all thought that we had disappointed our support, with the guys who had been ordered-off particularly low, constantly apologising to the rest of us for ‘letting the side down’.

Two players – Jinky and George Connelly – had been invited to take part in a friendly match between ‘Uruguay’ and ‘Argentina’ that afternoon and they received a very pleasant reception from the local crowd.

Later on, the journey to the airport was another unsettling experience, as quite a number of Argentinians were still about and they gave us pelters as we went past. Things went for worse even later. Our plane was delayed at fog-bound Ezeiza Airport, not for merely minutes but for an astonishing six hours. All we could do was sit around, either at café tables or in the lounges, drinking innumerable cups of coffee and discussing mainly football matters and particularly the events of the previous day. It was a bad scene and suddenly became a lot worse, when there occurred one unsettling moment for us all – and it involved the Boss.

He had chosen to sit by himself at a table for four and was, frankly, the centre of attention, although no one went across to sit beside him. Suddenly, almost to our horror, he put both arms on the table and then rested his head on his arms. It was quite a pathetic sight and we all tried hard not to look but, as usual in those cases, were unable to keep our eyes off him.

Then one of our travelling party took a hand. Jimmy Gordon (now Lord Gordon) who had overseen the making of the video ‘The Celtic Story’, went across to Jock Stein, spoke to him and eventually got him to sit back up again. The incident had only lasted a few  minutes but it put the extent of our loss into perspective.

6^th November

Nearly the rest of the previous day and most of this one had been spent either waiting in airports or travelling. The plane stooped for re-fuelling at Rio de Janeiro and Paris before arriving in Glasgow at around 10.45pm. It was very tiring but what kept us fairly amused was trying do discover what exactly was in the suitcase that club treasurer Desmond White insisted on taking on to the plane with him and having it beside him at all times?

The story only came out when we got home.

When Mr White had gone along to collect Celtic’s share of the gate from the organising committee, he assumed that he would be getting either a cheque or a bank draft. Much to his surprise – or perhaps disgust or astonishment – he was handed an old and fairly battered suitcase full of used notes.

Worse was to come. When he arrived back in Glasgow , he found it difficult to exchange the money or deposit it as, on 7^th November, the Uruguan government, which was in the middle of a financial crisis, had chosen to devalue the peso by slightly more than 50%. In order to facilitate the change, the foreign-exchange markets were closed for four days and by the time the money in the suitcase was handed in, its value had decreased by virtually half.

Nothing on this trip seem to have right for Celtic!

7^th November

We had been given two days off, so we were not supposed to report to Parkhead again until Thursday.

The Boss had decided to go in and from what I read in the evening paper, he had been quite busy. We had been due to play Kilmarnock in a league match the following evening but the club managed to get the date changed.

Killie Game is Off – It Will Be Played Next Week

‘Travel-weary and battle-fatigued Celtic will NOT meet Kilmarnock at Celtic Park tomorrow in the league match postponed from last Saturday. Today the League Management Committee agreed to a request from Celtic for a further postponement until next week’.

8^th November

A relaxing day at home. Meanwhile, over at Ibrox, Davie White is un-veiled as the new manager of Rangers. Only hours later, the Light Blues beat Cologne 3-0 in the Fairs Cup.

9^th November

It would be fair to say that the club was not a happy place at that time. The players knew that we were being frowned upon for the happenings in both Buenos Aires and Montevideo. There was no public condemnation, of course; that would have rocked the boat and we still had a league and Scottish Cup campaign to consider. No, it was more of a ‘keeping of distance’.

Where the members of the Board had always seemed happy to chat with us, enjoy our company and join in the celebrations of the good moments, at that time, in my opinion, they kept their distance. That was fairly obvious after the games in South America and particularly so on the trip back.

It was harder for the Boss and the coaching team to show their disappointment in the performance. After all, they were personally involved, making their living through assisting and helping a group of players to perform to the best of their ability so they could not exactly ignore them when they hit some bad times. The players recognised all these little problems with relationships at the different levels within the club and while there were never any difficulties within the squad as such, we were all aware that a poor atmosphere existed. And matters were not improved that on Thursday morning after the players left the ground, when those who took the trouble to buy an evening newspaper got a real surprise.

I will let the back page of one of the evening papers tell the story –

Celtic Fine All Their Players £250

‘Every Celtic player who took part in the now infamous ‘Battle of Montevideo’ has been fined £250. This sensational step, unprecedented in Scottish football, was announced today by Celtic club chairman Mr Bob Kelly.

Mr Kelly said : “We feel the criticism we have received in Britain was much more violent than anything we received from the Argentinians and other South American papers.

Let me assure you that we, as a club, from the directors to the players, take responsibility for what happened.

We had been confident of the discipline of our players, despite the warnings of the first and second matches. So we went into the third game despite warnings from various sources that our opponents had no intention of making this a football match.

We do not want to individualise on the players and we are taking the unprecedented step in football by fining the whole team £250 per player.

Mr Kelly, in answer to a question, said the fine would only apply to those who took part in the third game in Montevideo’.

There are a couple of points I would like to make. Firstly, there must have some doubt behind the scenes at Celtic Park – in other words, the management and directorate – about the wisdom of taking on the third match at all. The Racing players – unlike us – could be ‘sleekit’ in their breaking of the laws of the game and frankly, got away with murder in the first two matches. Unfortunately, when we retaliated, it was of a physical nature and everyone saw it, including the referee. That did not seem to happen when Racing had a go at us.

Now, having watched those two games, and putting aside all thoughts of bravado, spirit of the game etc, was it really sensible to have asked us to risk our reputation – and our bodies – in taking part in a football match played under circumstances which bore no relation to what we were used to?

And secondly, the fine was more than £250. What the club did was to decide to withhold  the bonus payment we were due for winning the League Cup, which at that point had not been paid. Frankly, we all would have been disappointed had the bonus for winning one of Scotland’s three major trophies been as low as £250 so where that figure came from, I just do not know. However, whatever the figure, I can assure you that the news had not been greeted with any enthusiasm, especially the very public announcement of the decision.

10^th November

Throughout football, managers and officials were quick to give their view of Celtic’s actions –

Bertie Mee (Manager of Arsenal):  “Shocked…would not have let my players play in the third game”.

Vic Buckingham (Manager of Fulham) “the team are responsible for each other. So, if one pays, they all pay”.

Ken Aston (Member of Referees’ Committee of the FA)…I think that what the directors have done is a shining example to every club in the country.

Tom Reid (President of the SFA)…….It is a bit hard on some of the Celtic players to pay this fine.

John Hughes ( Secretary of the SPFA)….While we agree that the players who mis- behaved should be punished, I personally think that the indiscriminate fining of every player is wrong.

Not to be undone, the Celtic officials made an announcement of their own and it was to the effect that the sum of £2750 – the collective amount from the 11 players involved in the third match in Montevideo – would be given to charity.

As regards the next league match – against Airdrie at Broomfield – it was announced that the side which had beaten Dundee in the League Cup final would take to the field, although the five forwards may not turn out in the positions they filled at Hampden Park.

On the previous evening, a Celtic reserve side had beaten Airdrie reserves 4-1 at Celtic Park, when Ronnie Simpson got a run out in goal and the ‘Newman’ at outside-left was the first appearance in a Celtic shirt for Paul Wilson.

Our own training went well, although a few of us, including myself, were feeling a bit under the weather. In my case, it was nausea that was causing the problem, not a constant feature but just enough to upset my normal well-being. I hoped it was just a minor problem but what really worried me as the day wore on was that it persisted all day and, of course, was worse when running.

On the morrow, while we were facing Airdrie at Broomfield, Rangers were hosting Morton at Ibrox. And a reporter on one of the evening papers was in no doubt about the outcome of both matches –

Old Firm to Pull In the Points

Morning of the Match

I felt hellish as soon as I got up, so much so that I could not face breakfast and went back to bed again. I really needed something like this at this time of the season, I don’t think and I was puzzled by the fact that I had something of this nature. I had never, right through my whole life, suffered from any type of sickness and found it hard to cope with. My mother was a bit blunt in her diagnosis – “well, you’ve never to South America before either!”.

As Airdrie was not too far from Parkhead, it was one of those occasions when we would have the pre-match meal in our own houses before heading for Celtic Park and the usual bus trip. I decided to go in a bit earlier just to let the medical team have a look at me. Unfortunately, as soon as they did, I was told to go back home again and report back on the following Monday. I was not alone in picking up some kind of ‘bug’; Lemon had not even made the trip up from Saltcoats, as he was apparently suffering from the same symptoms. And Jinky was still suspended.

The Opposition

At that time of the season, Airdrie were lying in 11^th place in the league table – with a record of P9 W2 D4 L3 F9 A14 Pts 8 – and I would say that their ground –Broomfield – would lie just above Annfield at Stirling in the list of  ‘least popular grounds’ among our players. It sloped in two directions, did not have a very smooth surface and the surrounding stand and terracings were very close to the pitch, which was fine when the fans nearly on top of you were Celtic fans but no so good when they supported the Diamonds. The circumstances of my birth and parentage were regularly commented on!

The Teams

Airdrie

McKenzie
Jonquin, Caldwell
Goodwin, Black, Whiteford
McLellan, Ramsay, Marshall, Fyfe, Wilson.
Sub: Reid

Celtic

Simpson
Gemmell, O’Neill
Brogan, McNeill, Clark
Hughes, Wallace, Chalmers, Murdoch, Auld.
Sub: McBride

The Play

Obviously, I was not at this match, so can only give a report based on what the guys told me and what I read in the press on the following days.

We seemed to go on the offensive right from the first whistle and according to one press report, started well;

‘Airdrieonians are not the hardest nuts in the league to crack, yet they were quite out-classed by the general level of Celtic’s competence on a soft pitch swept by wind and rain squalls, which must have made South America seem very far away’. And we got our reward fairly quickly –

19 minutes
Jim Brogan shot for goal and after the attempt was blocked, he pounced on the rebound to score from just inside the area. 1-0 Celtic

However, there seemed to be moments when Airdrie might have been rewarded for their own efforts –

‘Celtic had the game thoroughly under control although twice before the interval the defence found itself in two minds and McLellan ought to have scored at least once’.

In some ways, I’m sorry I missed the half-time team talk, since as a non-participant, I might have enjoyed it. Still, whatever the Boss said, it must have had an effect as it was not long before we increased our lead;

56 minutes
a cross along the ground was met by Chopper at the far post. 2-0 Celtic

From then on, we apparently were right on top and our fans in the crowd of 18,000 were liking what they were seeing. They had also been given a boost by the sight of Joe McBride coming on for the injured Bertie Auld.

Final Score Airdrie  0  Celtic  2

Table

1^st  November – Evening

As we sat in the dining room of the Hindu Club,  trying to come to terms with the events of the afternoon, we wondered why the Board were either not there at all or else going in and out of the room on a regular basis. What we did not know at the time – because no one on the management side or the Board obviously thought us worthy of being involved – was that that the Board, the management and the Argentinian officials were in serious talks about the next stage in the World Club Championship.

As we found out from the press later, the Celtic Board had already sent a telegram to UEFA, explaining that firstly our goalkeeper had been injured by a missile thrown on to the field just before the kick-off; secondly, that the South American officials seemed to be apparently unconcerned about this and other incidents; and thirdly, they strongly urged UEFA to send an observer for the third match.

At that point, the Board had to decide whether to take on the third match in Montevideo or just pull out of the whole competition. What exactly happened was never made public. Oh! there were stories that surfaced about this happening or that occurring but I have never seen in print a precise account of the discussions.

Reading between the lines, there does appear to have been a difference of opinion on whether Celtic should play a third match. As a football manager, the Boss, and I should imagine his staff as well, would, I think, have wanted to play the match. The Chairman, Bob Kelly, went on record later stating that he had wanted to pull out; while the rest of the Board, treasurer Desmond White and directors James Farrell and Tom Devlin, would have had their own choices to make.

In the end, as we played the match, the pro-game faction seems to have won and we did travel to Uruguay but it did not appear to be a unanimous decision. If the players had been canvassed, I think there would have been a split decision there too but as I mentioned above, we were never asked.

2^nd November

We leave our base in the Hindu Hotel and head for the airport, from where we did the short hop to the east over to Montevideo, on the other side of the Rio de La Plata. Our chosen hotel was the Victoria Plaza Hotel, in the Plaza Independicia, to the south of Montevideo Bay. Once the rooms had been allocated, we got ready to train and came down to find a bus ready and waiting to take us to the venue for the match, the Estadio Centenario, where Uruguay had won the first World Cup in 1930.  By 1967, it was a ramshackle ground, fortified with rusty barbed wire. Like the stadium in Buenos Aires, a moat surrounded the playing surface and it was filled with rather green scummy water. There was a slope from the centre to the wings and there was not much grass on the hard, bare surface.

The whole ground was not much to look at and according to a newspaper report I saw later, chairman Bob Kelly commented : “It is appalling but what can we do?”. If he had asked some of us that question, he might have received an appropriate answer.

Unfortunately, the Racing supporters were beginning to arrive for the match – the cities of Buenos Aires and Montevideo were only perhaps four hours away by boat and then bus – so we were confined to the hotel and just spent the evening there – reading, chatting or playing cards.

3^rd November

Lazy morning round the hotel, then over to the ground to train at roughly the same time as the match. Back to the hotel again where after dinner, when we were expecting the Boss to say some words about the match, we were addressed by a different member of the coaching staff – about a different problem?

Sean Fallon was the man, who gathered us all together and said something along the lines of  “we have just been informed by the organising committee that a number of prostitutes have been seen round the hotel recently. Now, I don’t need to tell you what an important game this is for us tomorrow so just keep your minds on that”.

When I looked round the table, I could see that everyone’s face was immobile and stern but, when Sean went back out of the room again, there was a pause for a minute or two and then an anonymous voice broke the quiet – “well, guys, I would just like to say that if the rest of you are not interested, I’m in room 735?”

4^th November

Morning

It had been a noisy night. The Racing fans had gathered outside the hotel and made a noise – banging drums, shouting, singing – all night. It was impossible to ignore and a number of the guys were badly affected. So, it was a fairly disgruntled group who gathered for breakfast and then met in a large room in the hotel, where Boss discussed the tactics for the match.

He was quite blunt. He warned us to expect the same rough treatment as we had received in the first two matches; told us that we had to ignore the antics of the Racing players; advised us that we still tried to play the way we were used to; and stressed that we did nothing to upset or annoy the referee.

That was when we found out that the game would not be handled by the same referee as in Buenos Aires but by a new name, Dr Rodolfo Osorio, from Paraguay. When I heard this, I immediately wondered what his English was like?  Naturally, his Spanish would be perfect.

Early Afternoon

As the kick-off was at 4.30pm, everything had to be juggled. So, not long after breakfast and the Boss’s talk, we went back to bed for a few hours then had the pre-match meal before boarding the coach for the journey to the hotel.

Pre-match

On the way to the ground, it was noticeable that there were far fewer Racing fans than in Buenos Aires ( it was later estimated that 30,000 had made the trip) and that the locals in the crowd of around 75,000 seemed to be in favour of us. That showed how deep the Argentina/ Uruguay rivalry went but was not a concern of ours at that time. We were more worried about the referee and his ability to control the match.

The Teams

Racing Club

Cejas
Perfumo, Chabay
Martin, Rulli, Basile
Cardoso, Maschio, Cardenas, Rodriguez, Raffo.

Celtic

Fallon
Craig, Gemmell
Murdoch, McNeill, Clark
Johnstone, Lennox, Wallace, Auld, Hughes.

The Play

For the first 20 minutes or so, it was your usual competitive stuff, with the occasional little contretemps, like Willie Wallace and Basile having a flare-up early on, then a similar incident between Bertie and Raffo. And, as at Hampden, we were faced with  occcasional spitting, obstruction and off-the-ball stuff. The referee, like the one in Buenos Aires, seemed unable to distinguish the difference between an honest challenge and an illegal one. And it was becoming difficult for us not to be a bit rougher than usual in our challenges. A bit of retribution, you might call it.

The first big flash –point came halfway through the first half , when Rulli took a vicious kick at Jimmy Johnstone. We reacted, they did the same and suddenly all the outfield players were involved. The referee – and the linesmen who had come on – tried to calm everyone down then called the two captains together for a talk. Billy then told us that the referee had said that if there was any further trouble, he would order players off.

Unfortunately, things did not improve and here I must get something off my chest. The old adage of ‘turn the other cheek’ is fine to talk about but when you are faced, as we were that afternoon, by opponents deliberately breaking the laws of the game and even worse, getting away with it, then you would need to have astonishing self-control to remain calm. And we could not always find the strength to ‘turn the other cheek’.

From that point on the incidents grew in numbers and intensity –

37 minutes

Calm intervention by riot cops before Lennox is mysteriously sent off

Rulli hacked down Jimmy once more. Immediately, we crowded round the referee, demanding action. He appeared to send Rulli off. The Racing players then also surrounded the referee, who appeared to change his mind and ordered off Basile and Bobby Lennox instead.
As Bobby walked towards the pavilion, he was met by Jock Stein, who spoke to him and then told him to go back on to the field. The referee spotted this and sent him off again; the Boss sent him back. Eventually, a policeman came on to help the referee and Bobby headed for the pavilion.

Unfortunately, we were really annoyed by the loss of an innocent player and I must confess, I for one, and I don’t think that I was alone, made a point of biting into any challenge a little more forcefully that I normally would. At the same time, the Racing players were still at all the illegal stuff and getting away with it.

At the interval, Jock Stein and his team went round the players, trying to calm us down but when the red mist comes down, it never really goes away but just hovers, waiting for the next flashpoint. And that was not long in coming –

48 minutes
Jimmy Johnstone ordered-off. He had been held by Martin, lifted his arm to push himself free and the Racing player went down as though shot.

Suddenly, our problems deepened –

56 minutes
striker Cardenas picked up the ball just outside the centre-circle and came forward with it. The defence backed off him and from all of 30 yards, he hit  a powerful, swerving shot high past John Fallon. 1-0 Racing

And nearly 20 minutes later, matters got worse –

76 minutes

Yogi walks!

Goalkeeper Cejas came out to catch the ball and just stood there, safe in the knowledge that he could not be touched. Big Yogi, though, was having none of that and shoulder-charged him to the ground. So, off he went too.

Near the end, another of the Racing players made his way to the pavilion –

85 minutes
Rulli punched John Clark during a scramble for the ball and he went off. And just minutes before the end came one of the most inexplicable moments in football history –

88 minutes
after another incident, the referee, by now having lost the plot completely, ordered off Bertie Auld for striking an opponent but Bertie merely walked walked away from the scene and no further action was taken.

Shortly afterwards, the referee blew his whistle for time-up. The Racing players went ballistic, hugging each other then running towards where their fans were situated in the stands to salute them as well. Most unusually – and I say this as a player who took part in many a game between bitter rivals – there were no handshakes between the players and the Celtic guys just headed for the dressing-room. It was going to be a long night…and a very miserable one too!

29^th October

The party of 18 players – Simpson, myself, Gemmell, Murdoch, McNeill, Clark,  Johnstone, Wallace, Chalmers, Lennox, Auld, Hughes, Fallon, Shevlane, O’Neill, Connelly, McBride and Gallagher – was delayed for a few hours down at Prestwick Airport but our plane eventually took off just before midnight. By that time, the nervous fliers in the squad were nearly having a fit but the rest of the flight was uneventful, although it did stop at Paris and Madrid en route.

At the airport in Madrid, a priest got on and took the seat beside me. As he did not have any English and my Spanish was non-existent, we tried a conversation in French, both of us just having enough to get by. As he was an Argentinian, he knew the South American football scene quite well but as we were having our meal, he said something that made me think. “You have one thing going for you”, he mused “at least you are fortunate that you are playing Racing Club. If you had been playing Boca Juniors, there would have no point in ever leaving Glasgow. They just would not let you win!”. Remind me to strike Boca Juniors off my list of ‘teams that I would like to play against’.

30^th October

It was a long haul but roughly 20 hours later, we arrived in Buenos Aires and were driven to our headquarters, the Hindu Club. This was, apparently, a fashionable centre for rugby and polo enthusiasts situated among high-priced houses in the neighbourhood of Don Torcuaso, some 15 miles north-west of the capital.

On our arrival, though, we were not initially impressed as the grounds were packed with families enjoying the sunshine. However, as the day wore on and they began to disappear, we realised that, like families back home, they were out to enjoy the end of the weekend.

As we were all a bit on the stiff side after our plane trip, we did a light session in the grounds of the hotel. At least, that’s how the Boss described it  before we started the exercise but it turned out to be a little more energetic than that.

31^st October

We were driven back into the city for a training session at the ground designated for the contest, the Avellaneda Stadium, a huge concrete oval, holding well in excess of six-figures. The session went well but we were less impressed by the hordes of local fans who had gathered to watch our arrival and departure. It would be fair to say that we were not given a warm reception.

1^st November

After the crowds had left, the Hindu Club then proved to be a very pleasant choice, quiet and peaceful. Whether to keep us in or prevent anyone else getting in, there were four armed policeman round the pool and a ten-man guard right round the place.

As it was All-Saints day, we attended Mass in the local village and that proved to be  a very pleasant experience, where everybody in the neighbourhood turned up to greet us, the players signed autographs and gave out pins and badges. A few of the locals even wished us all the best for the match!….at least I think they did?

Somebody had brought in a few local papers and when an interpreter did his job, it was apparent that Racing Club were carrying the hopes of the nation. One line said ‘fervent supporters of Boca Juniors, River Plate, Independiente and San Lorenzo should all get behind the home side”.

When representatives of Nacional – a club from Uruguay which wanted to arrange a match with Celtic – were asked about the referee Senor Esteban Marino, a fellow-citizen, they did not give him much of a recommendation. And we received at least one telegram from back home : ‘The City of Glasgow is with you 100%. Lord Provost John Johnston’.

I wondered if the Rangers fans thought that?

Apart from all these moments, the rest of the day was the usual for a match-day. The Boss gave us a few words after lunch, stressing some points. He told us that it was important to keep our heads and not to retaliate, whatever the provocation, and always to accept the referee’s decision. He also announced the team. Bertie Auld had come off at half-time in the League Cup final the previous Saturday with a cut on the ankle and this was still bothering him, so he was out and rather surprisingly, he was replaced by Willie O’Neill, so it looked as though we were going for a holding operation. The talk was followed by few hours in bed in the afternoon, then the pre-match meal before the trip to the ground.

Late Afternoon on the Day of the Match

On our trip through the centre of Buenos Aires, with a motorcycle escort clearing the way, we were most impressed by the way it resembled Paris, with it tree-lined boulevards and expensive shops. Then, however, the escort headed into what was undeniably a working-class district and the vista changed. High-rise blocks, factories and industrial sites were the norm.There were police everywhere, most of whom were carrying guns; some were on horseback and they held either leather-whips or sabres.

As we descended from the bus to enter the stadium, an ‘escort’ of military police made a pathway for us, a few in what looked like riot gear, while others were holding Alsatian dogs. When we went out on to the pitch, togged up in our green club blazers, we were met with a torrent of abuse from the crowds already there. Fortunately, they were behind a 20-feet wide concrete ‘canyon’ – with a few feet of water covered in bottles and other litter – encircling the pitch.

One good thing we noticed was that the pitch – which we had trained on the previous day and found it to be very hard – was now a lot softer, thanks to some heavy rain that morning.

The most astonishing thing, though, was that the ground was almost full at that point, probably 45 minutes to an hour before the kick-off. And the vast majority of the 120,000 present – we must not forget the 106 Celtic fans who had made the trip – were making an amazing noise, trying to compete with the five bands playing away. Was every match in South America like this?

The Teams

Racing Club

Cejas
Perfumo, Chabay
Martin, Rulli, Basile
Raffo, Cardoso, Cerdenas, Rodriguez, Maschio.

Celtic

Simpson
Craig, Gemmell
Murdoch, McNeill, Clark
Johnstone, Wallace, Chalmers, O’Neill, Hughes.

The Play

Ronnie – Floored by missile!

Racing had been forced to leave out Mori from the team which played at Hampden, as he was suffering from a reaction to a pain-killing injection for an ankle injury. The Argentinian side had also not played a match since the first leg in Scotland and were having a bad run in their matches anyway, with no goals in their last four.

Just as we were warming up, disaster struck! Ronnie Simpson, standing in his goal and handling some shots from all of us, suddenly collapsed and lay on the ground with his hand cradling his head. We all rushed to see what the problem was but he was in some pain, having difficulty in talking and just pointing to the back of his head.

Within seconds, Neilly Mochan and Bob Rooney had raced on to the pitch to deal with the problem and they soon signalled to Doc Fitzsimmons to come on as well. The rest of us gathered round, unable to help but obviously aware that Ronnie had been hit by something and that whatever it was must have come from the crowd.

It is easy to be wise after the event but the suggestion that it was a bottle is unlikely, as the incident took place some distance from the crowd, probably too far for a throw and we would also have undoubtedly seen something as large as a bottle lying around. Much more likely was the other possibility that Ronnie had been hit by some form of missile fired by a catapult. Whatever it was, though, it caused enough damage for Ronnie to come off and a very surprised John Fallon came on to replace him.

That got the play off to a wonderful start, I don’t think, what with anger on our part and a desire to get over the defeat in Glasgow on theirs, so it probably came as no surprise that from the first whistle, the tackles were going in.

Stevie Chalmers and Willie Wallace were felled and needed attention but we held Racing fairly confidently for the first 20 minutes or so. Then we got a reward –

22 minutes
Jimmy Johnstone had beaten three players and was going round the keeper when his ankle was grasped. It was definitely a penalty but when am Gemmell came up to take it, there were photographers on the field, with every Racing player trying to distract him. The big fellow held his nerve, though, and slammed the ball past the keeper. 1-0 Celtic

We seemed to be holding Racing all right and might have gone further ahead when a cross from me was struck against a post by Stevie but they continued to push forward and soon made a breakthrough;

35 minutes
a quick break down their right wing, a cross into the middle by Maschio and Raffo was first to it to head home. 1-1

The Boss was quite annoyed at half-time, not so much with us but with the Racing players and most of all, with the referee, who, like his predecessor at Hampden, seemed unable to distinguish between a fair challenge and a foul. It was a bit of a rant and it probably got his feelings off his chest but frankly, the players could have done with a bit of tactical help at that point and a rant was not what was required.

Then, there was a problem with the water in the dressing-room and we came out for the second half eight minutes later than we should have. That seemed to upset us more than them, as no sooner had the second half started  than Racing went ahead –

48 minutes
Rulli sent a long pass into the path of Cardenas and his low shot beat John Fallon. 2-1 Racing Club

It was a long second half. By now Racing has their tales up and were beginning to play some football. By contrast, our play had started to stutter. The defence was still managing to keep the Argentinian forwards at bay but our whole side was just not doing enough to keep pressure on their backline and at full-time, it was the Racing fans who had reason to celebrate.

Full Time Score   Racing Club 2  Celtic  1

No doubt the result came as a shock to fans in Scotland and that was their second surprise of the day. At lunchtime, it had been announced from Ibrox that manager Scot Symon had been sacked.

As for the players, well, to say we were downhearted was putting it mildly. It was a fairly disgruntled squad who boarded the bus for the journey back to the Hindu Club and matters were not improved when Jock Stein, for some unaccountable reason, decided to give us a bit of a rollicking for allowing ourselves to be upset and losing our calm. Perhaps he thought that was what he needed; I’m not sure that any of the players did. Certainly, it did little for our morale.

When we gathered for dinner that night, most of us were really annoyed that we had let the World Championship title slip away from us. And the performance of the officials was high on the list of topics for discussion.  I, for one, had not been impressed by the referee’s showing. Senor Marinho was not a performer of the highest class, failing to notice – or probably just being used to seeing in his own country – the South American use of football’s doubtful ploys, like jersey-pulling, spitting, pushing, elbowing and blocking. The Racing players could do all those in masterful fashion; when we tried to reciprocate, everybody saw our challenges, which were crude and open by comparison.

Defeat is always hard to take for any group of professional footballers …..but to feel that you have been cheated as well makes the feeling even worse!

25^th October

There are certain aspects of a footballer’s life that sometimes make his actions seem a little difficult to understand.

Now, that may seem like a very complicated way of explaining something that happened on that Wednesday, the morning after we had beaten Motherwell 4-2 at Celtic Park. The particular aspect I am referring to in this circumstance was the in-built insecurity that affects most football players and it rose to the surface that day.

Just as we had been leaving the dressing-room the previous night, the Boss shouted out to us all that we did not need to come in the next day and he would see us all on Thursday. That seemed good news. The prospect of a day off in any occupation is always to be treasured and can give you a boost. However, with only three days to go before the League Cup final, I thought that I might be better showing my face at Parkhead – keenness and all that sort of thing – so I went in at the usual time of 10am. And what do you think I was confronted by? Yes, all of my teammates, who obviously were thinking along the same lines as me and were determined to keep in the loop as well! Insecure is the right word. Anyway, since we were all there, Neilly took us out on to the track and we did some running, with the exception of Lemon, who had picked up a knock the previous night and was on the treatment table.

The Boss did not say much to us about the League Cup final and the team etc. but he obviously did say a little more to the press, as in the evening paper that night came this comment;

‘Celtic’s League Cup Final team – the one to line up against Dundee on Saturday – is almost certain to be made up of the men who scored four goals against Motherwell last night.

Although Celtic are still adamant that they will play Jimmy Johnstone in Buenos Aires a week today – there is no chance of the suspended outside-right appearing at Hampden and his place is going to be filled by Steve Chalmers’.

Jock Stein was also asked about his statement before that match that he would use 12 players on the night. He gave a surprising answer;

“I went into the dressing-room at half-time expecting to send out Willie O’Neill for the second half. The difficulty was that nobody wanted to go off the field. Everyone said “let me play on. So, what could I do?”

26^th October

The usual training session two days before a big match. Short, sharp stuff, lots of ball-work, shooting practice etc. Great atmosphere.

It was mentioned in the press that Celtic will be taking 18 players on the trip to South America. When someone pointed out to the Boss that Racing had only brought 15 to Glasgow, Jock Stein mentioned the different situations for the two clubs. Racing had only one match to play in Glasgow whereas that Celtic had to take into account the possibility of a third match if the result in the 2nd leg did not go Celtic’s way.

It was also reported that Celtic would only take a few items with them on the medical side. The club has been advised that Buenos Aires is one of the major cities of the world and anything that a football team would need can be obtained there. So the only items the medical staff will take are salt tablets plus a preparation to make sure that the players do not suffer from upset stomachs through drinking different-type of water.

And we were also given a talking-to by the Boss about ‘sunshine’ discipline, with no player being allowed to slap on the sun tan lotion to take advantage of the hot weather.

27^th October

Some very light stuff this morning; mainly some sprints. Frankly, though, the whole atmosphere was very relaxed. I got a bit of teasing for the fact that this – if chosen, of course, as at that point, the team had not been announced – would be my first League Cup final and the patter merchants were giving it big licks about how excited I must be and how I just had to treat it as a normal match. Yea! yea! yea!

When asked about the team, the Boss was quoted as saying that ‘he would announce it later’ but gave no clue as to when that would be? But he did announce the 18-strong player pool which would travel to South America; it was Simpson, Craig, Gemmell, Murdoch, McNeill, Clark, Johnstone, Wallace, Chalmers, Lennox, Auld, Gallagher, Hughes, O’Neill, Fallon, Shevlane, Connelly, McBride.

The big headline in the papers today concerned two Scottish internationalists who plied their trade south of the border. Denis Law and Ian Ure were both suspended for 6 weeks for a fight on the field during the Man U v Arsenal  match on 7^th October at Old Trafford.

In its preview of the match, one of the evening papers was in no doubt that Celtic would win and gave the reason for thinking so in its headline –

Celtic Have the Firepower

So, after having digested not only that news plus the very nice meal that my Mum had provided, I had an early night in readiness for the match the following day. You had to be careful! I might have a League, Scottish Cup and European Cup winner’s medals already but it would be great to add a League Cup medal to that tally.

Morning of the Match

This was a very unusual ‘morning before a Cup Final’. Firstly, we would normally have been down at Seamill or Troon in preparation for such an occasion but with us heading off to South America after the match, the usual plan had been changed and we all spent the night in our own homes. And secondly, instead of arriving for the match without any luggage in tow, on that particular morning we had all arrived at Celtic Park with either one large or two small bags for the journey to the southern continent. These were all stored in the various luggage lockers round the bus before the driver took us to a hotel over at the Cathkin Braes for some lunch.

No matter how many times you experience these big moments, there is always a slight frisson of excitement around the camp before them. There might have been other games on in Scotland that afternoon but most of the public’s attention would have been on the League Cup Final, so for the 22 players who come out to start the match, it would be a big moment in their football careers. It was not surprising, then, that the atmosphere in the restaurant was a little subdued and this is where Jim Steel, the masseur, came into his own, raising the tempo, getting involved in small arguments and conversations. The Boss was good at that, too, but Steeley was in a different league and the Jock Stein wisely let Jim take the lead. By the time the coach was arriving at Hampden, we all felt a lot better and were really looking forward to the match.

The Teams

Celtic

Simpson
Craig, Gemmell
Murdoch, McNeill, Clark
Chalmers, Lennox, Wallace, Auld, Hughes.
Sub: O’Neill

Dundee

Arroll
Wilson, Houston
Murray, Stewart, Stuart
Campbell, J McLean, Wilson, G McLean, Bryce.
Sub: Cox

The Play

In front of a crowd recorded officially as 66,660, we started extremely well and were two-up with ten minutes –

6 minutes
corner by Yogi, header down by Cesar and Stevie flicked it in. 1-0 Celtic

10 minutes
good control by Yogi as he beat two defenders before slamming home.   2-0 Celtic

As we had a tendency to do that season, perhaps we again took our foot off the pedal or even believed that we had the game won but whatever the reason, we let Dundee back into things, with the defence again possibly not as tight as we should have been. Certainly, the reporters thought so;

‘Celtic’s defence was caught flat-footed and indecisive – even Simpson had his uncomfortable moments – and it was obvious that there will have to be a considerable tightening-up in the rear if the club are to return victorious from Argentina’.

 

Halfway through the first half, George McLean brought the Dark Blues back into the match –

23 minutes
hesitation in the heart of our defence gave McLean a chance and he got a shot away which was deflected past Ronnie. 2-1 Celtic

In my opinion, this is when the trouble started for us. From that point until half-time and then again until halfway through the second half, no matter how hard the Dundee players were working to get back into the match, we were holding them quite comfortably in defence and the forwards were getting the occasional chance. Teams do become over-confident and perhaps we were.

At the interval, the Boss, while not exactly delirious with the standard of our play, merely told us to keep it going and probably for the first 15 minutes or so, we did exactly that. And we even got a boost halfway through the half –

73 minutes
fine pass from Chopper into the path of Stevie, who took the ball round John Arrol before sliding it home. 3-1 Celtic

It looked all over and almost certainly should have been. I cannot quite recall my feelings at that moment but I suspect that, like most teams in that position, with only 17 minutes left to play, we all thought that we had done it. During the following 17 minutes, though, the game opened up, with Dundee obviously thinking that they had nothing to lose and rather suspect goals were lost at both ends.

77 minutes
John Clark headed out a corner from just under the bar, it went straight out to Jim McLean, who scooped it over Ronnie.  3-2 Celtic

79 minutes
quick turn and shot by Lemon.  4-2 Celtic

84 minutes
good work by Dandy Mclean inside the box, slipping past two of us before shooting past Ronnie. 4-3 Celtic

88 minutes
slip-up in the Dundee defence and Wispy raced forwards to slip the ball under the body of John Arrol.

Final Score  Celtic  5  Dundee  3

It was not the level of scoring which one would expect in a Cup Final and we got more criticism than praise for our efforts –

Celtic Triumph But Give Cause For Disquiet

However, while we might have occasionally looked a bit suspect in defence, I must point out that the system we played at the time rather lent itself to that. There was never a game at that time ( the Dukla Prague match in Czechoslovakia was the last time and the Boss said afterwards that we would never play that way again ) when we went out to play defensively and when you employ those an attacking system with nearly every outfield player involved, there is always the opportunity for the opposing team to make a breakthrough. Fortunately, few had the courage – or you might say ability – to do so but when a team does make the effort, they can get rewards. On this occasion, for instance, in spite of the fact we dominated the play, played some nice attractive football and scored five goals against a fine team from Tayside, the newspaper reports tended to give Dundee praise for their performance and focus on the fact that we had lost three goals. C’est la vie!

Still, we did not know the reaction of the press immediately after the match and celebrated in the dressing-room the way every team does after a cup final win, with champagne flowing, a very happy group of players and management staff making a lot of noise and directors coming in to share the glory. It was Celtic’s 3^rd League Cup victory in succession and it also completed my set of winner’s medals – League, Scottish Cup, League Cup, European Cup –  not a bad return for two years as a professional footballer.

Unfortunately, all the celebrations were rather abruptly brought to an end by the manager, who reminded us that a bus was waiting to take us down to Prestwick Airport for the next big challenge of the season. When we came out of Hampden, we received a wonderful response from the hundreds of fans who had waited after the match to wish us all the best in our bid to be World Champions. It made us feel ten feet tall and determined to do our best to bring the trophy home. South America – here we come!

19^th October

The day after the win over Racing Club, every newspaper headline had a different way of recording the result and its outcome –

Celtic Find Way Through Suffocating Defence

..

 Magnificent Celts: McNeill Goal Puts ‘Em on Top of the World

..

Victorious Celtic Face Harder Task in Buenos Aires

..

 Celtic Fans Rush to Book for Argentina

..

The Battle of Giants in an Incredible Atmosphere (L’Equipe)

It really was a big story for the press and rightly so. Few teams reach the final of the competition like this and for a team from Scotland to do it, with its population of 5 million was something special. By contrast, Argentina was populated by 22.93 million at that time.

I had thought that we might have had the day off but it was not to be. However, we only did some light running, more as a recovery from the previous evening than anything else. Still, never one to miss an opportunity, the Boss gathered us in the dressing-room for a few words and as usual, was brief and to the point.

First of all, he congratulated us for keeping our cool the previous evening. It must have been difficult, he said, not to have retaliated and he was proud of us for not doing so and for getting the win in the end. Secondly, he wanted us to put all thoughts of the second leg in South America out of our minds for the time being. He warned us that the press would be hounding us for comments about the return match but for the meantime, there was a league match against Motherwell and then a League Cup final against Dundee to play and those were our priorities for the next two weeks. The thoughts were delivered in a calm, controlled manner and as I looked round the dressing-room, I could see that they were having the right effect.

Later that day, though, he must have given a few other thoughts to the press that he did not mention to us, when he told them that Jinky would play against Racing Club in Buenos Aires on 1^st November.

“My mind was made up” Jock Stein said “the moment Racing’s suspended player, Maschio, took to the field at Hampden last night”.

However, Willie Allan, the SFA General Secretary, commented

“there has been no further discussion on Johnstone’s case since he appeared before the SFA Referee Committee. Therefore, any statement made at that meeting still stands”.

One other Celt got injured in the Hampden clash against Racing Club and it caused Bobby Lennox to withdraw from the Scottish side for the match against Northern Ireland in Belfast. He was replaced by Burnley’s Willie Morgan. There was also some doubt about Bobby Murdoch, another victim of some of the Racing players’ challenges.

20^th October

Chopper was not having treatment at Celtic Park for his leg knock but at the Scotland team headquarters down on the Ayrshire coast. So, while the rest of us did some training at Celtic Park in preparation for the Motherwell match on the 24^th, we had to rely on the papers to find out what was happening elsewhere

Murdoch’s Hopes Soar! He Looks Certain to Play against Ireland

‘ Bobby Brown looked a lot happier when Bobby Murdoch returned from training in a gale on a pitch beside the shores of the Irish Sea. And later in the day, he announced the side for the match – Simpson, Gemmell, McCreadie, Greig, McKinnon, Ure, Wallace, Murdoch, McCalliog, Law, Morgan’.

It used to get on my nerves but the sports writers of that era always referred to ‘Ireland’ when they meant ‘Northern Ireland’ just as they had always referred to the Kiev players as ‘Russians’. They were certainly from the Soviet Union but definitely not from the ‘Russian’ area of the vast country. They were ‘Ukrainians’ and as we found out in our trip there, they were very proud of their heritage.

There was a reserve team match the following day against Motherwell at Fir Park and when the team list went up, it was a very strong squad, with John Hughes, who had been in the first team for the previous 7 games, listed among the forwards. The 13 listed were Fallon, Shevlane, O’Neill, Henderson, Connelly, Brogan, Gallagher, McBride, Chalmers, Hughes, McMahon, Quinn, McKellar.

21^st October

No TV pictures for internationals in those days, especially on a Saturday afternoon when league matches were also being played all over Britain. So, we had to rely on radio and it seemed that the Scottish selection struggled at Windsor Park, with George Best giving Tam a real going-over. I couldn’t wait till Monday to ask him about it!

Apart from Celtic and Rangers, with players in the Scottish squad, other teams in Scotland went ahead with their matches as planned –

International Results

Scottish First Division Results

And at Fir Park, the reserves won 4-2.

22^nd  October

When I went along along to Mass – the church was within walking distance of my parents’ house – it was pandemonium, before and after. As I tried to go in – and after I came out – the number of people who wanted to speak to me was quite amazing. I had experienced this before after winning the European Cup in Lisbon but now it was happening all over again. Even the Parish Priest sent a message via one of the pass-keepers asking me to wait behind at the end, as he wanted to know what was going on at Parkhead.

The one good thing, although I only thought of this in retrospect, was that it was before the advent of ‘selfies’. Very few people had a camera so an autograph was what you got.

When I picked up the Sunday papers later, the headline on the back page rather jumped out at me

All Irish Eyes Are Smiling!

The sub-editor must have spent hours thinking that one up?

23^rd October

Back to training, including the guys who had played in Belfast. I had thought better of my previous comment about Tam getting a roasting from Bestie and in actual fact did not mention the match at all.

Not that the guys involved would have been in a position to forget about it as the team in general got a going-over in all of the papers that morning – and evening…….

What a Debacle! Brown Must Share Blame!

‘Send a Scottish team to Wembley and they are likely to turn into ‘wizards’…..send one to Windsor Park and the end result is woeful.

We were beaten in 1963, beaten in 1965 and done down once again on Saturday. The latest disaster ended with the score 0-1 but had it not been for that grand ‘old’ goalkeeper Ronnie Simpson, the result would have been a 3-0 or 4-0 ‘hammering’.

While this was going on at international level, the atmosphere in our own place of work was great, with everyone seemingly fit and ready to go. This was a big week coming up ; the league match against  Motherwell on the morrow, the League Cup on the Saturday and then off to South America to face Racing again! It made me think just how fortunate I had been to arrive at Celtic just when all these magical moments were beginning to happen. So I went out and gave training my best shot, promising never to complain again…or had I promised that before?

Morning of the Match

The Boss had said nothing about the actual team on the day prior to the match, merely naming a pool of players and this was obviously reported in the press, who had it on their back pages on the day of the match

Stein Plans to Use 12 Celts 

Gallagher and O’Neill Join Pool for Tonight

‘Jock Stein said today “I have listed 13 players for this game and if we get on top I will take off one of the players who has been kept so busy for a long spell and put on a substitute”.

There was also some info on the Jinky case –

SFA May Give Johnstone All-Clear for Racing Tie

‘Peter Scott, chairman of the SFA Referee Committee said “we may have second thoughts in the interests of equality. It does seem wrong that Racing should have been allowed to play a suspended player and Celtic should not’.

Pre-Match

There was a great atmosphere round the dressing-room at that time and when we all arrived at the park in late afternoon – no pre-match meal on the club for this one – the buzz was infectious. Naturally, everyone wanted to be involved that night, as some really big games were coming up but the Boss played his cards close to his chest for as long as possible before announcing the side –

Teams

Celtic

Simpson
Craig, Gemmell
Murdoch, McNeill, Clark
Chalmers, Lennox, Wallace, Auld, Hughes.
Sub: O’Neill

Motherwell

McCloy
Whiteford, McKay
Murray, Martis, W McCallum
Lindsay, M Thomson, Deans, Goldthorpe, Campbell.
Sub: Forsyth

The Play

At that point of the season, Motherwell were lying in 3^rd bottom place – with a record of  P6 W1 D1 L4 F7 A10 Pts3 – but we all thought that they were better than that and expected a tough encounter. And it did turn out that way, with the defence not having the best of nights, as a report in one of the following morning’s ‘dailies’ suggested –

‘Celtic played as well as they had to at Parkhead last night but not nearly as well as they can. Still, two points are better won than lost and doubtless the heavy programme behind them and the important battles to come bore an equal share of the responsibility for a relatively flat performance.

The sins of the forwards were ones of comission but readily excusable since, through Murdoch and Auld, many more opportunities were created than could, by the laws of averages, be taken – and everyone has nights when he can only pick at an appetising meal.

In defence, however, the sins were ones of omission. McNeill, despite scoring an important goal, did not have a comfortable night and Clark apart, a general slackness prevailed around him. It was twice penalised and allowed Motherwell, never in with a remote chance of winning, to put a respectable face on the result.

The goals came as follows –

12 minutes
simple cross into the middle from the left and Wispy got his head to it. 1-0 Celtic

15 minutes
future Celt John Deans sent a pass through the middle into the path of Campbell, who made no mistake. 1-1

40 minutes
corner by Lemon; header by Cesar. 2-1 Celtic

42 minutes
fine shot by Lemon completely deceived Peter McCloy. 3-1 Celtic

I can’t say the Boss was delirious with our showing at the interval and his mood would not have improved shortly after the re-start –

48 minutes
Campbell out-paced our central defence to lob the ball calmly overRonnie’s head.  3-2 Celtic

58 minutes
 chip into the box by Yogi and Stevie reacted quickest. 4-2 Celtic

Final Score  Celtic  4  Motherwell  2

It had been a strange game, as, to be perfectly honest, we were never under any real pressure and had lost the goals more through a lack of concentration than anything else.

This was reflected in the summing-up of the report in that same newspaper –

‘It was not really that close a run thing and if Celtic were disappointing it was only because they have set such a high standard of accomplishment and achievement that nothing but the best is expected of them – from defence as well as attack’.

Still, it was another win in the league campaign and we were quite happy with the outcome. Footballers are usually derided as not being the brightest but that is a fallacy. No one was more aware that we were not quite the team of the previous season than the squad itself. Certainly, opposing sides were working harder to ‘knock us off our perch’ – as the Boss had so memorably phrased it before the start of the season – but we also knew that the flowing play of the year before was stuttering sometimes, with the occasional injury causing problems with team selection.

However, while we might have exited the European Cup, we were still up there with the best in the League, had the final of the League Cup coming up at the weekend and that was to be followed by a trip to South America for the return leg against Racing Club. So, should we be complaining?

Every club in Britain would love to be in our position.

15^th October

We had quite a lazy day at Seamill. Up at a reasonable time for breakfast then taxis to Mass at Saltcoats. Back to the hotel for lunch, which was followed by one of those walks along the beach – have to keep the legs in shape – before a session in the pool brought us up to dinner time. And after that, as the Boss told us, we could do whatever we wished.

That sounded great but I must point out that we were based in a hotel on the Ayrshire coast with no access to cars and knowing full well that if we went anywhere by taxis, the destination would get back to the Boss. If you take all that into account, then it was not quite the generous gesture that it might appear! So, once again, for most of us, it was TV or chatting or playing cards (usually Hearts), with the ubiquitous glass of lemonade in our hands. It made me  promise never to complain about Sunday in my parents’ house again.

The papers were unanimous that we had deserved to win against the Jags……..

Super Fit Celtic

McNeill Breaks Firhill Curtain

……..although they also had sympathy for the player involved in the ordering-off incident  –

McParland Didn’t Deserve This

16^th October

We might have had an easy day yesterday but the coaching staff certainly made up for it this morning, putting us though a very tough routine. It was described very well in one of the evening papers –

‘Today they put in the hardest work schedule since arriving at Seamill. They had the usual early morning walk – then the real football business of the day took place after breakfast.

They were taken by coach to Ardeer – a place famous for the manufacture of explosives – and they got down to the preparation which they hope will end with the blow-up of the senors from Buenos Aires at Hampden’.

The reader must remember that while all this was going on, we were quite detached from hearing about any other aspects of life on the likes of radio and television. For instance, we knew that earlier that morning, Jinky had left in the Boss’s car to make an appearance before the SFA Referee Committee as a result of being ordered off in the St Johnstone match on  23^rd September.  But we were only given a brief report of how he actually got on and the full details did not emerge until someone managed to get a copy of one of the Glasgow evening papers from a guest in the hotel. The headline and underlying comment were quite shocking –

Johnstone Suspended for 21 Days

‘Jimmy Johnstone was suspended today by the Referee Committee of the SFA for a period of 21 days. This will keep him out of football from Thursday 19^th October and will mean him missing the Northern Ireland/ Scotland match, the League Cup final against Dundee on 28^th October and the World Club Championship second leg against Racing Club in Buenos Aires on 1^st November’.

Jinky would be badly missed in our side. However, further down the back page, the newspaper had a story which tended to suggest that there was one law for Scottish clubs and a different one for Argentinian clubs.

Racing Field Banned Star at Hampden

‘Humberto Maschio, one of Racing Club’s most experienced players, who was ordered off in a league match a week last Saturday, is at present serving a six-match suspension. However, as under the rules of the Argentinian Association, this only applies to league matches, he will be able to play in Wednesday’s match against Celtic at Hampden’.

17^th October

We travelled again from Seamill by bus – or as the press kept referring to it ‘by coach – to Ardeer in the morning for another session after having had the usual start to the day with a walk. After lunch, we got the opportunity to use the pool and baths and in the evening we were shown some brief films of Penarol and Racing Club. Having played the former earlier in the season, we did not need to brush up our knowledge of them. Unfortunately, though, of the team about which we did want to find out something, there was a very brief clip of one of their matches which frankly was of no help at all.

All this was reported in the evening papers but both the morning and evening editions seemed to be more concerned with Jimmy Johnstone’s situation –

Johnstone Has Little Chance of Playing

‘Jimmy Johnstone, who starts his 21-day suspension on Thursday morning, will almost certainly not play against Racing Club of Argentina in the World Club Championship match at Hampden Park tomorrow night.

This morning, Jock Stein was still angry at the ban which has ruled Jimmy Johnstone out of the Northern Ireland v Scotland game on Saturday, the League Cup final on the 28^th and the second match against Racing on 1^st November.

Mr Stein said “I have added Charlie Gallagher to the pool of players for tomorrow night and I think you can take it that Johnstone will not play. I could not expect him to be in the right frame of mind for a match of this importance and it might not be fair to the player to ask him to go out when he is not feeling 100% physically and mentally’.

Was all this for the benefit of the papers? When I spoke to him, wee Jimmy, while annoyed at the length of the ban, was dead keen to play at Hampden.

While we were preparing down at Seamill, the Argentinians had arrived eight days before the match and based themselves at the Marine Hotel in Troon. When they deigned to speak to the Scottish press – which was a rare event – they usually complained about something, the cold, the bouncy pitches they had to train on or the rain. However, in their party, there were only one or two who spoke English – was this true or was this the first salvo in the psychological battle? – so whether they were complaining or not might have been debatable.

Apparently, the Racing officials had chosen the Marine Hotel because they had found out that Real Madrid stayed there before wining the European Cup at Hampden in 1960. If it was good enough for Real, then it seemed to good enough for them.

Morning of the Match

We missed out on the walk that morning, as was the usual practice on the day of the game. Instead, after breakfast, we did a light workout on the lawn behind the hotel. Now, as the entrance was just off the main road, the lawn was actually facing the sea, only a wall separating it from the beach. It was just a loosener of a session and everyone in the squad seemed fit and ready, although Jinky’s position was still unclear.

As I headed for the entrance to the hotel, I met a journalist from one of the ‘dailies’ in Glasgow, a man who often traveled with the team on foreign trips and dealt regularly with Jock Stein. He told me something that morning that made my blood boil. I had already made my mind up that whole set-up for the World Club Championship was a little unfair and what he told me only confirmed that.

I never found out where exactly the draw for the competition was made but it was certainly a strange affair. We were punished by the fact that the first match was to be played in Scotland. It meant that the second leg would be played in South America and if a third match was required – the ‘away goals’ rule was not in operation at that time; it was a league system with 2 points for a win and 1 point for a draw – then it would also be played in South America.

Now, I already knew that and thought that it was totally biased against us. However, what the journalist told me that morning was even worse.

There were three referees nominated by the organising committee. One of these was Senor Juan Gardeazabel from Spain and it came as no surprise that the Racing Club. officials chose him. That meant that the referee and the players from Racing could converse in their native tongue. More importantly, as a Latin, he would more readily accept some of their tactics like shirt-pulling and obstruction, while clamping down on heavily on ours, like shoulder-charging. And also, if we wanted to speak to him, then we were reliant on his having a good command of English, which, in the event, was not the case.

The way things turned out, would a German or Swedish referee have allowed the Racing players to get away with some of the tactics they employed at Hampden.

I spoke to Jock Stein about the choice of referee and was quite surprised that he seemed quite au fait with the situation. However, when I look back all those years ago today, I wonder if he was quite as ready to accept the decisions of the organising committee after the kicking- match in Montevideo.

Pre-Match

After a few hours in bed, we headed for the restaurant and the pre- match meal, before boarding the bus – sorry, coach! – for the trip to Hampden. Lemon did not let me down on the way up the A77, pointing to the gate to nowhere; and I thoroughly enjoyed the blast through the city, with the police out-riders clearing the way.

It would be a strange player who was not stimulated by the trip down the Hampden driveway and that atmosphere – and our excitement – was further enhanced when we went out on to the pitch to the check the conditions and the state of the pitch. The latter, in fact, had been too wide under the rules of the event and was narrowed for the occasion.

Unknown to us, there were some off-field problems. The Boss had been apparently been furious that the match was not being shown across Britain, the Football League having protested that there were League Cup ties being played in England that night.

It was agreed that the BBC and STV could show 30-minute, late-night recordings. However, on the night, a strike involving around 100 technicians at STV caused the station to close at 10.30pm, which meant that no highlights were shown. And the Prime Minister was also affected by industrial action. Harold Wilson had every intention of being at Hampden but prolonged negotiations in a docks dispute held him up and he missed the game.

The Teams

Celtic

Simpson
Craig, Gemmell
Murdoch, McNeill, Clark
Johnstone, Wallace, Lennox, Auld, Hughes.

Racing Club

Cejas
Martin, Perfumo
Basile, Diaz, Rulli
Mori, Maschio, Rodriguez, Cardenas, Raffo.

The Play

It was obvious from the first minutes of the match that Racing Club had come to defend. One of the things we did find out about them beforehand was they apparently preferred a 4-3-3 system. Well, that night, that idea was put to bed and they defended in depth. It was also fairly obvious, from the beginning, that they were not too concerned as to how they would stop us playing some football.

The Spanish referee was put in a difficult position. He was faced with two sides which were completely incompatible in style and philosophy. But while he seemed to willing to punish Racing Club by awarding free-kick after free-kick to us, he seemed unable to distinguish the difference between physical challenges and downright thuggery, with some seriously heavy tackles going unpunished.

All this made it difficult for us to play football and in spite of all our efforts, we were unable to play the fluid game that suited us. It had been decided before the match that we would try to work Racing on the flanks, using the trickery of Jinky on the right and the speed and power of Yogi on the left. But any time that they threatened at all, they were just up-ended and the culprit merely walked away, holding his hands up in contrition.

However, I must give then credit for one aspect of their play. They might have been ready to foul but they were also clever enough to rotate the offenders, which made the referee’s life even more difficult.

By the interval, we had been in possession for most of the first-half yet had nothing to show for it. Wispy did have two good chances that he would normally have taken but that night pulled them wide. The Boss was furious, not with us but with the opposition and particularly the referee. I wanted to say that I had warned him about all that the previous day but it did not seem an appropriate time to mention it.

When the second half got underway, things were no different. We had all the possession, we played the better football, we made better chances but we were still the subject of some pretty serious offences, with the referee still seemingly oblivious to it all. The outcome of the game hinged on two incidents almost 20 minutes apart –

69 minutes

Cesar 

Cejas pushed a shot from Yogi round the post and from the resultant corner, Yogi found the head of Cesar whose header flew into the far corner of the net. 1-0 Celtic

The crowd of 83,437 had been waiting for such a moment since the start of the match and almost went ballistic in their celebrations. It was great for us too but unfortunately, also put us in a tricky situation. Should we continue to push forward against a defence which has already conceded one or sit back a bit and hold on to the one-goal lead. I don’t recall us deciding one way or the other but we seemed to be still in charge until nearly the final minute.

89 minutes

perhaps we had pushed forward a little too much but they made a quick break, the defence was a bit slow in clearing the ball, it bobbled round a bit in the box, then fell to Rodriguez, who, with only Ronnie to beat, hammered the ball against the old guy and it ricocheted clear. Give credit  to Ronnie, though, he had spread himself beautifully.

Final Score  Celtic  1  Racing Club  0

Our cars had been left outside Celtic Park for the period when we were down at Seamill, so after the match, we were taken by ‘coach’ again back to Parkhead to pick up our own vehicles.

I had managed to get tickets for my Dad plus three uncles and the four of them were waiting for me when I got to my parents’ house, all keen to congratulate me and re-live the best moments of the match.

Eventually, my uncles left for their own home, Dad – who was working the following day  – went to bed, leaving me – who always found it difficult to sleep after a night match – and Mum, who never seemed to sleep much at all, sitting there on our own, talking about this and that. Suddenly, though, she switched over to football and made a comment that sure went right to the heart of a possible problem – “your Dad and your uncles were saying that if you thought it was pretty rough at Hampden tonight, you can expect it to be a lot worse in South America!”

I just shook and head and muttered to myself – “Gee, thanks, Mum, that’s made me feel a lot better”.

12^th October

Down at Seamill, there was no rest for the team of the previous evening. As was the norm, we were up early and did our usual pre-breakfast walk, along the main road to the far end of West Kilbride golf course, down the lane to the beach and then along the sand to the back of the hotel. It was a very pleasant journey on a fine day; if the wind was blowing strongly, you felt as if you were being cut in half. Fortunately, though, on that particular morning, the weather was not too bad and we went into breakfast feeling on top of the world.

After that, we got the opportunity for a few holes of golf before coming back to the hotel in time for lunch. Then followed a period of rest before we did a workout on the lawn at the back of the hotel. This consisted of some short stuff followed by a 7-a-side match, 2-touch and no tackling! The 2-touch bit was easy, the no tackling much more difficult and I am in no doubt you can easily decide which of the two rules we found most difficulty with.

After the workout, we headed for the swimming pool and the baths. What a tough life it was!

While all this was going in down on the Ayrshire coast, Celtic fans in Scotland were devouring the papers to find out what was happening behind the scenes. They would have been delighted with the headline and comment in one of the morning ‘dailies’ –

The Magnificent Seven

‘No team that I have seen since the days when Real Madrid were truly great would have stood up to the Celts of last night. They burned up the Hampden turf, linked top speed play with brains working at the same pace and they shot with the accuracy of a Queen’s Prize winner at Bisley’.

More surprising was the story under another heading –

Johnstone Capped

‘Scotland’s team manager Bobby Brown today dropped a football bombshell when he chose Jimmy Johnstone, Celtic’s outside-right, to play against Northern Ireland in a European Nations Cup tie on Saturday of next week.

Johnstone has been chosen despite the fact that he appears before the SFA Referee Committee on Monday and faces possible suspension for being ordered off against St Johnstone at Celtic Park on 23^rd September.

Scotland’s football writers are astounded at his choice of outside-right but last night Brown merely said “I do not pre-judge. Johnstone is the man I want and that’s why he is in the side”.

13^th Friday

This date can cause a few problems for anyone of a superstitious mind  but it apparently meant little to Jock Stein, who again got us to start with the trek along the road etc. The routine varied little from the previous day but the golf was out and in the evening, we were addressed by the Boss, who dealt with not only the match against Partick Thistle but looked ahead to the World Club Championship game against Racing Club the following Wednesday.

He also announced the team for the Jags match, which was the same side as against Hibs and Morton.

The evening papers also had some information. –

‘Celtic will field the side which hit Morton for 7 in Wednesday’s League Cup semi-final when they line up against Partick Thistle at Firhill.

Manager Jock Stein made a fitness check today at Seamill where Celtic are relaxing and decided to field the team which drew 1-1 with Dinamo Kiev in Russia before beating Hibs 4-0 and Morton 7-1.

John Fallon, Steve Chalmers and Willie O’Neill will play in a strong Celtic reserve side at Celtic Park tonight against Partick Thistle reserves’.

Because of the Northern Ireland versus Scotland international in Belfast on Saturday of next week, the Rangers v Dundee and Celtic v Motherwell games due to be played that day have been re-arranged for October 23^rd and 24^th respectively.

As we were having a final cup of tea before heading for our rooms that night, we heard the news that in the reserve match at Parkhead, Celtic had beaten the Jags 3-1. Was that an omen for the first-team tomorrow?

Morning of the Match

We did not start the day with the usual longer walk I mentioned previously but we did go down on to the beach at Seamill just to stretch our legs. Then it was back to the hotel and breakfast, before spending the rest of the morning just lazing round the place.

A quick glance at the morning papers showed that almost no one believed that Partick Thistle had any chance in this match. In fact, one headline summed up the situation in rather brutal fashion –

Pity the Poor Old Jags

The Boss, though, was having none of it, once more reminding us that the Thistle players would, like most of the others we had faced in the league and league cup campaigns so far, be really up for the match, determined to show that they were as good as this team which had won the European Cup. We might have heard the words before but in the matches we had already played, they had turned out to be an accurate estimation of what had occurred, so we had no reason to think that the Jags players would be any different.

We were being treated like royalty down at Seamill and we were even provided with some lunch before the match. As we were eating in the dining room, we could see the Cotter’s bus in place to take us up to Firhill and before long, we were on our way. Once more, Lemon and I had a laugh when we saw our favourite gate in the farm field and I was really impressed when we reached Thistle’s ground to see the size of the crowd. Firhill, of course, had a much smaller capacity than our recent venues of Hampden and Parkhead but on that day, the fans had certainly turned up in droves and would certainly provide the sort of atmosphere we loved.

The Teams

Partick Thistle

Niven
Campbell, Muir
O’Neill, McKinnon, Gibb
Rae, McParland, Coulson, Flanagan, Duncan.
Sub: Divers

Celtic

Simpson
Craig, Gemmell
Murdoch, McNeill, Clark
Johnstone, Lennox, Wallace, Auld, Hughes.
Sub: Brogan

The Play

It did turn out to be a very tough match from the start. We were certainly the better-moving side and had the majority of the possession but the Jags were never out of it and made some good chances. The crowd – estimated at 30,000 – was obviously loving it. A crucial incident, though, occurred just on the half-hour mark –

30 minutes
Wispy and Davie McParland tangled, it became a bit serious, then the referee broke it up, pulled McParland to one side, booked him, then ordered him off.

The Thistle players were naturally very upset by all this and protested vehemently but it was all to no avail and Davie was not coming back. Curiously enough, with Davie off, I think that we took our feet off the pedal, relaxed a bit and did not take full advantage of being a man up.

We certainly made some chances. Wispy, Bertie and Lemon all had good chances but all of them fluffed their lines. But it was just before the break that we got the goal we badly needed to take some of the pressure off –

43 minutes
a low cross by Bertie was hammered in by Cesar. 1-0 Celtic

I suspect that this goal changed the ambience of the Boss’s talk at the interval. Up till then, he must have been almost pulling his hair out as we failed to take advantage of the extra man but by the time we came in for the break, he was once again his usual calm, constructive self as he tried to steady the ship

As usual, his words helped and right from the whistle, we assumed control and scored another four, all of then by Lemon.

52 minutes
fine pass by Bertie, good finish by Bobby.  2-0 Celtic

59 minutes
this time I provided the low cross, Bobby met it at the near post. 3-0 Celtic

71 minutes
through ball by Wispy, which Lemon met perfectly. 4-0 Celtic

76 minutes
Thistle pull one back when a cross-cum-shot by Arthur Duncan from just outside the box swerved past Ronnie. 4-1 Celtic

89 minutes
square pass by Yogi driven hard and true into the net from 10 yards by Bobby.

Final Score  Partick Thistle 1  Celtic  5

Other Results

Table

A Night at the Coast

The day ended in an unusual fashion. Instead of our usual routine, where we headed for home before doing whatever each of us did on a Saturday night, we boarded the bus again for the trip back to Seamill.

It turned out to be a night to forget. Dinner with the whole squad was followed by us sitting round chatting, watching TV or playing cards, all with a glass of lemonade in our hands. Most of us went to bed before 10pm, more out of boredom than anything else!

9^th October

Over the weekend, press coverage had been positive towards Celtic after the performance against Hibs –

Celtic Serve Flag Notice

 Hibernian Soundly Beaten by Determined Celtic

And by Monday, the assessment of our chances against Morton was even more optimistic  –

Super Celts

No Injury for Any Celtic Player

Celtic Ready for Morton Cup Clash

Most of us reported for training on the Monday morning. When I say ‘most’ I refer to the fact that five of the team – Bertie, Stevie, Ronnie, Tam and Wispy – got the day off to play in a golf competition. It was all right for some!

However, according to a comment in one of the evening papers, the Boss had given them all a warning before they set out –“I have told them that if the rain starts pouring down to call a halt to their games. We can’t afford any of them catching a cold just two days before our game with Morton”.

We picked up all that in the paper before we – those not playing – left Parkhead after our training session in the morning. Loyalty is an essential attribute in any team…so I will leave you to guess the name of the team-mate who said he hoped it would be chucking it down on that golf course! Answers on a postcard, please!

A match had been organised for that night at Hampden, where a Celtic eleven would play a British Olympic X1. The team chosen was Fallon, Young, ‘Newman’, Henderson, Connelly, Brogan, Clark, McBride, Quinn, McMahon and Macari.

10^th October

A training day for the full squad, where we heard that golf day had gone well, with never a hint of rain, so one of my colleagues would have been very disappointed.

The atmosphere in the camp had improved considerably after the victory over Hibs and all of us were looking forward to the visit to Hampden and the match with Morton. The men from Greenock had started the season pretty well and were just outside the top six in the table, a very fine performance for a team which had only won promotion from the Second Division the previous season.

However, even though the football public might have expected that this match would be easy for Celtic, we were all well aware that things don’t always work out like that and at training that morning, the Boss hammered home the message that the Morton players would be up for the match and that we would have to be as good as we were against Hibs.

We also found out that after Wednesday’s match, in fact on Thursday morning, we would all be heading for Seamill to prepare for the World Championship game against Racing Club of Argentina at Hampden Park on Wednesday of next week.

We would be coming up to Glasgow for Saturday’s match against Partick Thistle and then returning to Seamill until the Racing Club match.

At Hampden on the previous evening, the British Olympic X1 had been beaten 4-0 by the Celtic eleven, the goals coming from Jimmy Quinn (2), Pat McMahon and George Connelly.

Morning of the Game

As it was a match day, we were allowed a longer lie-in than normal down at Seamill and did not do the usual walk along the beach. Instead, we breakfasted around 9am and then spent the morning round the hotel or outside in the grounds. At that time of year, the hotel was pretty quiet, inhabited only by the regulars, the vast majority of whom were senior citizens, so you can imagine that the atmosphere was pretty quiet, although our lot could be relied on to change that. The residents were nice people, though, and even if our antics sometimes annoyed them – which, I imagine, could occasionally have been the case – they were never anything other than civil to us.

In the morning papers, which we managed to get a look at, the Boss was quoted as saying that he would be playing the same side that had beaten Hibs. As he had not mentioned the semi-final to us at that point, we could only accept that the journalist who wrote the piece knew more than we did about the Boss’s intentions.

We got the team news just after lunch, before we retired to our rooms for an afternoon nap. The Boss gathered us in the lounge and made the announcement, merely adding that we all knew the importance of the occasion so he did not have to say anything else. It was brief and blunt and the message got across to us.

Pre –Match

Later in the afternoon, we gathered again for the pre-match meal, then boarded the bus for the trip up to Hampden. Halfway there, up the A77, Lemon gave me the usual shout and pointed to that gate I have mentioned before, which was in the middle of a field, separating nothing from nothing. We both laughed, then I got ready for one of my favourite moments, when we were met by two policemen on motor-cycles, who guided us, at a fair lick, through the traffic on the south side of the city.

I always enjoyed that bit and it got even better when we arrived at the National Stadium, where the bus slowly wound its way down the avenue to the ground, eventually stopping right outside the front door. Led in by the Boss – and to the cheers of the fans who had already gathered – we walked into the stadium and made our way out to check on the pitch.

All was good and we came back in again and started to get ready for the match, for which we had been provided with an unusual strip of green shirt, while shorts and white socks.

The Teams

Celtic

Simpson
Craig, Gemmell
Murdoch, McNeill, Clark
Johnstone, Lennox, Wallace, Auld, Hughes.
Sub:  Chalmers

Morton

Crawford
Loughlan, Kennedy
Arnetoft, Strachan, Gray
Jensen, Mason, Allan, Stevenson, Sweeney.
Sub: Taylor

There was a fair representation of ex-Celts on the field for Morton. Jim Kennedy at left-back and captain plus two guys I used to play with in the reserve team at Parkhead – midfielder Gerry Sweeney and winger Tony Taylor, on the bench that evening. Both were fine players but at Celtic Park at that time, there was a lot of talent and sometimes guys had to move on to find a niche.

This match was described in one paper the following day as –

‘Celtic destroyed Morton with a devastating performance at Hampden despite the Morton team putting up a fight full of heart’.

That seems a trifle harsh but another report was pretty similar –

‘Celtic’s victory over Morton in the Scottish League Cup semi-final at Hampden last night was hardly an exhilarating game of football, more an academic exercise with the Parkhead club working out most of the answers while their opponents merely guessed.

Yet it was never dull. How could it be with the adrenaline once more flowing freely through the Celtic veins?’

It was also a match I particularly recall, as I scored two of the goals. As one of the dailies remarked –‘its not often that a full-back scores twice in one game but Jim Craig did that last night’.

The goals came in this fashion –

4 minutes
a cross by Wispy was dummied by Jinky and Yogi cracked the ball home off the underside of the cross-bar.  1-0 Celtic

7 minutes
this time Yogi cut the ball back for Wispy to blast home. 2-0 Celtic

12 minutes
midfielder Arnetoft struck one from a very acute angle and it fairly zipped past Ronnie. 2-1 Celtic

18 minutes
Jinky kneed a Yogi cross-cum-shot into the net. 3-1 Celtic

20 minutes
Lemon hammered home, again from an acute angle. 4-1 Celtic

21 minutes
this time it was me, from an even more tight angle. 5-1 Celtic

It would not take a genius to work out that it was a very happy dressing-room at the interval. In fact, I do not remember the Boss saying anything about the match; he just joined in the happy atmosphere. But we were not finished ……

53 minutes
up for a corner, the ball dropped in front of me about 12 yards out and I struck it hard into the corner of the net. 6-1 Celtic

66 minutes
this was the best of the seven. Yogi ran from halfway, shaking off challenge after challenge before hammering home. That run brought him a standing ovation.

Final Score  Celtic  7  Morton  1

I had thought that the atmosphere in the dressing-room at half-time had been good but at full-time, it was even better, with everyone – squad players, backroom staff and directors – all piling in to join in the celebrations. However, the Boss soon brought all that to a halt, reminding us that we were getting back on the bus to return to Seamill and that we would be doing some work the following morning. He also reminded us that big games were ahead and that we must keep our minds on them. And when we got to Seamill, there was a cup of tea waiting for us – when we might have liked something stronger – and then it was good night, everyone and bed!

Other Semi-final

In the other semi-final at Tannadice, Dundee beat St Johnstone 3-1 so the Dark Blues would be our opponents in the final on 28^th October

European Draws

Three Scottish teams were still involved in the draw for the next round of the European competitions.

Rangers would meet either Cologne or Slavia Prague; Hibs would play either Napoli or Hannover; while Dundee were drawn against FC Liegeois.

Good News

Just before we went to our rooms, we were told that Racing Club had lost 0-2 to Lanus the day before, their 3^rd defeat in 10 days.

5^th October

The headline in one of the morning dailies summed up the match against Dinamo Kiev quite succinctly;

Murdoch Ordered off As Celtic Lose European Cup

Another one was fairly critical of the referee;

Celtic Lesson Never Argue with a Referee

‘Signor Bardelli used his whistle like a piccolo player. For every timid offence perpetrated by either side he gave out an ear-splitting blast no matter whether the offending player was in possession of the ball’.

By the time the evening press came out, Signor Bardelli had said his piece;

‘I had to send Murdoch off for unsporting conduct’.

The goal scored by John Hughes also came under the spotlight, with Yogi giving his own account of what occurred;

‘I am convinced that the goal I scored was perfectly legal. Everybody at that end of the ground must have seen what was obvious. The goalkeeper dropped the ball and I put it through his legs into the net. I did not make physical contact with the goalkeeper’.

Meanwhile, as the fans back in Scotland were reading all this in the press, we were travelling back from Kiev and, as you can probably guess, the atmosphere in the plane was not of the best. We were all bitterly disappointed, not only at losing the match but also picking up that un-wanted tag of being the first winners of the European Cup to go out at the first stage the following season. That was hard to take in particular and was the main reason why the atmosphere on the plane coming back was, up to that point, probably the quietest we had ever experienced.

What did not improve matters at all, either, was the news that the three other Scottish clubs in European competition had all come through their ties;

Dundee’s Weak Finishing 

Dundee 3  D.W.S. Amsterdam 0         Aggregate 4-2

 Last Gasp Victory for Rangers

Rangers 2 Dinamo Dresden 1              Aggregate 3-2

 Hibs Through on Aggregate

Porto 3  Hibs  1                          Aggregate 3-4

6^th October

The atmosphere at training on the Friday had not improved much and the Boss and his staff – who must have been feeling pretty down themselves – had to work hard to raise the tempo. Still, a good session on the track does help matters and we went to it as ordered. Bertie was the only one who had picked up a knock in Kiev, so he sat it out and at the end of training, the Boss, obviously recognising the mood in the camp, gave us a brief pep-talk, to the effect that we now had to put the European Cup disappointment behind us and concentrate on the competitions that we were still involved in, starting with Hibs on the morrow. He had obviously given the same thoughts to the reporters at the Friday press conference, as one of the papers that night led its story with the headline;

Celtic Have No Time For Tears Now The Big Push Is On

‘Tomorrow the big league push starts at Celtic Park and Celtic could hardly have picked tougher opponents for their title bid than Hibs, who come to Parkhead with the same points as league leaders Rangers but with an inferior goal average’.

And at the bottom of the back page was a fascinating story about an ex-Celt who by then was managing one of England’s top teams –

‘Chelsea manager Tommy Docherty has been suspended from all football for 28 days from Monday as a result of incidents in the clubs’ two matches in Bermuda during the summer’

After reading that, every Scots fan was thinking the same thought – ‘What did he do?’

Morning of the Match

As if we were not under enough pressure already, the back pages of the dailies on the day of the game were full of adverse comment, firstly on our inability to pull back the 1-2 deficit against Dinamo Kiev in the Ukraine and secondly, on the difficulty of facing Hibs in our next match. From the way they were praising Hibs, you would have thought that we were going to face the best team on the planet! In actual fact, we were quite comfortable about facing the Hibees.

The Opposition

Being a Hibs fan – as my Dad was – has always been a roller-coaster of an existence. They have always been able to play exciting and attractive football; at the same time, all through the years, their defence has also been likely to let them down.

And they had this in-built confidence – you might even call it ‘arrogance’ – whereby they seemed to think that they had the ability to take on any side and outplay them in the various attacking arts of the game. We all recognised that and it was one of the reasons why at that time we liked playing against Hibs. They would make no effort to strengthen an occasionally shaky back line and go for all-out attack against any opposition, including us. Unfortunately, we were much the better footballing team and while they tried to match us going forward, we took advantage of their defensive foibles while being able to maintain our own strength at the back.

Pre-match

No lunch again, so we came prepared, having arranged to have something at home. The so-called Battle of the Greens has always been a popular affair with both sets of supporters, so by the time we came out for a warm-up, there was quite a crowd already in the ground, with more coming in all the time.

Football players are never given much credit for their intelligence. In reality, they can assess a situation as well as anyone else and we all realised that we would have to put in a good shift that afternoon to allay the fears of the home support that we might not have any success that season.

The atmosphere in the dressing room, for instance, had been a lot more sombre than usual; the pre-match warm-up had been completed with determination; and we listened carefully to the Boss’s pre-match instructions. By the time Cesar was ready to take us down the tunnel, he was followed by a team ready to show just what we could do.

The Teams

Celtic

Simpson
Craig, Gemmell
Murdoch, McNeill, Clark
Johnstone, Lennox, Wallace, Auld, Hughes.
Sub:  Chalmers

Hibs

Allan
Duncan, Davis
Stanton, Madsen, McGraw
Scott, Quinn, Stein, Cormack, Stevenson.
Sub:  O’Rourke

The Play

After all the criticism we had received in the previous 48 hours, all the guys were really up for this match and from the first whistle, we just took control and seldom let Hibs into it. The goals came as follows –

26 minutes
corner kick from Yogi reached Chopper, standing at the edge of the box and he fairly hammered his shot into the net.  1-0 Celtic

48 minutes
a corner from the left, this time by Lemon and Wispy headed home. 2-0 Celtic

59 minutes
great run by Jinky, who evaded several tackles before giving goalkeeper Allan no chance. 3-0 Celtic

65 minutes
free-kick awarded to Celtic when McGraw upended Jinky. Bertie slid the ball into the path of Chopper, who got his second of the game. 4-0 Celtic

After that, Hibs did come into it a little, mainly because we had taken our collective foot off the pedal and they made a few chances. However, the defence coped well with these moments and Ronnie had little to do.

Final Score  Celtic  4  Hibs  0

Other Results

Table

Reserve Match

There had also been a reserve league match at Easter Road that afternoon, when a team of Fallon, Shevlane, O’Neill, Hay, Connelly, Brogan, Gallagher, McBride, Quinn, McMahon and Macari beat Hibs 2-1.

1^st October

On the Sunday, the day after we had beaten Stirling Albion 4-0 at Annfield, a match for which the headline said…..

Celts in the Groove Again

…….. we all reported to Celtic Park for a light loosener and also the announcement of the squad of players who would travel to Kiev.

It was the so-called ‘Lisbon eleven’ plus John Fallon, Willie O’Neill, David Cattenach, Charlie Gallagher, Chris Shevlane, John Hughes and Joe McBride. As well as those players, a backroom staff of Sean Fallon, Neilly Mochan, Bob Rooney, Jim Steele and Doc Fitzsimmons would also make the trip, one of the latter’s immediate jobs being the care of the Boss, who did not look – nor sound – too healthy after his bout of ‘flu.

2^nd October

By 9am, the whole party had left Celtic Park for Prestwick Airport, from where we took off in our chartered jet for Kiev. It was an uneventful trip – even the reluctant fliers would have said that – and we arrived in the Ukraine in mid-afternoon. From the airport, it was a bus to our hotel before relaxing with a cup of tea and the allocation of rooms.

Later, we got back on a bus again for a trip to the stadium – which had been known as the Nikita Kruschev Stadium – but after his ‘retirement’ or perhaps downfall in 1964, it was usually called the Central Stadium

Anyway, whatever they decided to call it, we were less than impressed with some aspects, mainly the pitch which was uneven and bumpy. However, we did some work but it was light-hearted, as everyone was fit and it was important for all the squad to stay clear of any injuries.

Talking of injuries, mine was feeling OK. In consultation with the management and the doctor, we all took a good look at it and I did a little workout just to keep Neilly happy. He was quite pleased with my movement, the cut was again healing – although the Doc warned me that in a contact sport, the chances were that it would occasionally open up all during the season – and it was now thought that what I had been suffering from on the Saturday was a ‘dead leg’ where the nerve supply to some area of the leg is struck and the area is effectively paralysed. When I thought about it, that was exactly how it did feel  and I was delighted that I was now back to ‘nearly’ full-fitness.

Back in Glasgow, the evening papers, as well as discussing the trip and the fact we would be training, had two other relevant stories.

The first came under the heading –

Kiev Will Take No Chances

‘Kiev trainer Viktor Maslov said today that his team were in fighting spirit for Wednesday’s 2^nd leg European Cup tie against Celtic.

The Russians are favourites to eliminate the Scots but Maslov said the“we expect a hard, sporting encounter. Celtic are a strong team. I have no doubt at all that they will win the Inter-Continental Cup. Over the past year, Celtic have become even stronger”.

And the second story concerned tickets –

Old Firm Fans in Ticket Rush

‘Celtic and Rangers fans joined forces today to form fair-sized queues outside Glasgow  shops where tickets for big games were on scale.

Celtic fans were buying tickets for the League Cup semi-final at Hampden Park on October 11 when Celtic face Morton and also for the World Club Championship game against Racing Club of Argentina at Hampden Park on Wednesday October 18.

Stand tickets for Wednesday’s Fairs Cities Cup against Dresden Dynamo were also on sale for Rangers fans’.

3^rd October

It was a beautiful day when we breakfasted in our hotel, at the relatively late hour of 10am. From that point on, though, it was a fairly long day, as we were not training until 7pm. So, we hung around the hotel in the morning, had a very late lunch –almost in mid-afternoon – and then headed for the stadium. The floodlights were, as we thought the night before, first class but the pitch was truly awful, the balls bobbling all over the place as we did some passing moves. How it got the nod from UEFA was hard to believe. Then, it was back to the hotel and a team meeting, where the Boss explained that he was going to make a slight alteration to the way we usually played, although he would say more about it the following morning after breakfast.

That left us somewhat in limbo, as most of us would have liked to have known right then as to the new ‘variation’. And he must have mentioned the idea to the Scottish reporters who were with us, as everyone back in Glasgow who bought an evening papers found out a little of what was happening almost before we did;

Stein Gamble – He Must Bank On Surprise Tactics

‘Mr Stein has clamped a security ban an all information coming out of his camp. Scores of Soviet football writers, television and radio cameramen and interviewers have spoken to Mr Stein since the Celtic plane touched down to a welcoming party of hundreds of Soviet citizens yesterday. Mr Stein talked plenty and said precisely nothing’.

Now, you have to read slightly between the lines here. Those words in the headline ‘surprise tactics’ obviously meant that he was going to make s light change to the way we played – could be in system or in personnel – and he has told the Scottish press that but given them no further info.

So, what would we be doing on the night that was ‘new’?; well, we would just have to wait until after breakfast on the morning of the game.

In our respective beds that night, Tam Gemmell and I discussed the situation and gave each other our personal views. He thought that Jinky would be given a roving commission and I was more inclined to the idea of two strikers and the rest in supporting roles. We would find out in about 12 hours!

Morning of the Match

A fairly late breakfast at which all the discussion was about the Boss’s new plans for the team that night. Time was dragging and it seemed an age before we got the nod from Neilly to head for a room on the first floor, where the Boss was waiting with a board of sorts beside him.

Tam and I had both been wrong. The new idea was that Jinky would play on the left wing; Yogi would come over to the right and Stevie would be the man who dropped out. I wasn’t exactly sold on the idea – nor was Tam, when I spoke to him later – but I suppose it was worth trying. The Kiev coach had prepared his side every well for the first leg so a change like this might upset his plans. Anyway, the Boss had made his decision, so who were we to argue? As John Steinbeck wrote in the Grapes of Wrath – ‘a man got to do what he got to do’.

Afternoon

A light lunch was on the cards then back to bed for a few hours before coming down again for the pre-match meal. Wherever we were, the routine was usually the same and Kiev was no different. However, later on, when we left the hotel by bus to make our way to the stadium for the match, we did notice a difference in the city. Suddenly, there were crowds everywhere, all seemingly heading for the game. We did not know this at that time but many fans were protesting that tickets were being sold for the match outside of the Ukraine; while in Kiev itself, tickets were selling on the black market for up to 10 times their value!

The Teams

Dinamo Kiev

Bannikov
Schegolkhov, Sosnichin
Levchenko, Krulikovsky, Turnanchik
Byshevetz, Sabo, Medvid, Serebranikov, Pusach.

Celtic

Simpson
Craig, Gemmell
Murdoch, McNeill, Clark
Johnstone, Lennox, Wallace, Auld, Hughes.

The Play

As you might imagine, it was a tense affair for both sides, with Kiev desperately trying to hold on to their lead from Glasgow and our lot doing our damnedest to avoid going out of the Cup we had won the previous season in the first round. A lot of aggression was obviously on display, tackles were flying in and it needed a strong – and more importantly talented – referee to take control of proceedings. Unfortunately, we did not have one, we had Signor Antonio Bardelli from Italy.

Now, the dictionary definition of the word ‘nightmare’ is ‘a very unpleasant or frightening situation’. What we were experiencing in Kiev was certainly not frightening but, thanks to referee Bardelli, it was definitely becoming a very unpleasant situation. He just would not allow any challenges for the ball, blowing for every petty misdemeanour, making it impossible for either team to build up any sort of rhythm.

Kiev had obviously been told to sit back and defend and they did that very competently, in spite of every one of us putting in a real shift. So, for the whole of the first half, we had by far the best of the possession but made few chances and at the interval, it was still goalless.

At half-time, the Boss, annoyed with the referee like the rest of us, controlled his temper and changed the plan again, bringing Jinky back to his right-wing berth and pushing Yogi back to the left. To be honest, changing them over for the first half had not made any difference although if another referee had allowed play to flow a little more freely instead of constantly interrupting it, then it might have worked. But all the Boss could say was to keep working hard and we had certainly done that in the first half.

And we continued to do so after the interval, maintaining our control of possession but in spite of all our efforts, we just could not make the chances that we needed and amid the hard work, we heard the referee’s whistle blow constantly. Then, we were struck with possible disaster –

59 minutes
Chopper had been booked for showing dissent in the first half so when he reacted badly for being penalised for a tackle in midfield by throwing the ball away, Signor Bardelli showed his annoyance by ordering him from the field.

That meant we had to re-arrange again, Wispy coming back into midfield; and it also gave a boost to Kiev, who, now with a one-man advantage, raised their game. Still, we stuck at it and even re-doubled our efforts and only two minutes later, managed to take the lead –

61 minutes
free-kick from Bertie was screwed into the goal from a near impossible angle by Lemon.   1-0 Celtic

We all realised that we needed one more goal to go through and it was amazing what a boost that gave to us. But Kiev were defending well and our chances were few and far between.

Halfway through the half, though, we did get the ball in the net when Yogi rushed in on a loose ball in the box and pushed it between goalkeeper Bannikov’s legs. Signor Bardelli, though, had other ideas, pointing out that Yogi had made contact with the keeper before scoring, a decision which almost had all of us nearly in despair although, as you might imagine, it was loved by the vast majority of the 85,000 crowd.

We never stopped putting the pressure on but with only 10 men, we were also tiring and almost on the final whistle, we were hit by a sucker punch –

90 minutes
a quick break by the Kiev forwards gave an opportunity for Byshevetz to have a crack and he took it to full effect, the ball flashing into the corner of the net past Ronnie.   Kiev 1 Celtic 1

Final Score  Dinamo Kiev 1 Celtic 1    Aggregate Score  Dinamo Kiev 3  Celtic 2

We were all devastated. The dressing-room was full of heart-broken players, not to mention the Boss and his backroom staff. All the usual after-match activities – the bathing and showering, the getting dressed, the going out into the main entrance of the ground, the bus trip back to the hotel, the post-match meal, the chat among the boys and so on – were all done as quickly and quietly as possible. Usually the Boss and his staff had to be quite tough about getting us to go to bed but that night we were only too ready to disappear upstairs. And as we did so, we were all well aware that we had become the first European Cup winners to go out of the competition at the first stage the following season.