6th March
‘Joe McBride, of Celtic goes into Killearn Hospital on Wednesday and he will have his cartilage operation on Friday morning’.
That was the news in one of the evening papers on the Monday before the Vojvodina tie, a bitterly disappointing moment but hopefully one which will lead to a return to fitness for Joe. Continue reading
Tam
I first met Tam Gemmell in the spring of 1965. I had signed for the club in January 1965 and although I was still halfway through the fourth year of the five-year course in dentistry – and should have been attending medical classes at the Royal Infirmary most mornings – I managed to ‘dog-off’ sometimes to train with the full-timers at Celtic Park.
Two months later, Jock Stein arrived; and everything changed!
Training was much more interesting than before, a lot of it was done with a ball and there was a fair bit of competition in all the various activities.
Although I was another fullback and therefore a possible future rival, Tam could not have been more helpful and it was not long before I considered him to be a pal.
When I made the first team later that year, he was even more considerate. When my nerves might have been showing, he made me feel much more comfortable as we waited to go down the tunnel for a match.
Soon, whenever we went to Seamill for a few days or travelled abroad, we were paired up together as room-mates. However, this could have its problems.
Tam had many good qualities but he also could have his little idiosyncracies. It had been made quite clear to me by the Boss that he expected me to keep an eye on Tam and make sure that he was ‘there’ when he was supposed to be ‘there’. I never thought much about this request – or perhaps command would be a better word – until certain events started to play a part in my life.
On a foreign trip, for instance, we would leave our room at the same time to come.down for breakfast. Ten minutes later, though, the Boss would be asking me “Cairney, where is he?” and I was thinking that he had left the room at the same time as me and come down in the same lift. I even saw him in the foyer. But since then, I didn’t know!
Mr Stein would ask me the same question when we were all seated in the bus ready to go to training. Neilly Mochan would do a head count, find out we were one short, tell the Boss it was Tam and the Boss would shout out my name and ask the inevitable question, “where the hell is he?”
Unfortunately, these questions from the man in charge, asked in a decided tone of asperity, were ones that I could not answer with any degree of accuracy.
Over the years, Tam could be accused of being noisy, argumentative, flamboyant – he had the flashy suits and the car with the ‘Colonel Bogey’ horn – and even arrogant at times, but he also delivered, his scoring record an excellent one for a fullback and his ability to drive home a penalty a great bonus.
Probably his most famous goal was the equaliser in the European Cup final in Lisbon, although with great modesty might I say that he received such a perfect pass along the 18-yard line that his Granny could probably have knocked that one in?
The last few years of his life have been tough. That once powerful frame began to weaken and Tam was eventually confined to his bed, a situation such a strong athlete must have found really difficult to cope with. Eventually, on 2nd March, he succumbed to his illness and passed away in the early hours of the morning.
Our thoughts at this time must with his wife Mary, children Karen and David plus his extended family. In the years since Celtic Football Club was founded in 1887, there have been many fine full-backs who have worn the hoops with distinction but undoubtedly the name of Tommy Gemmell would be right up there with the best of them.
May he now rest in peace.
The Morning of the Match
By Friday, there had been no mention of the make-up of the team to face St. Mirren, and this continued on to the morning of the match. We reported to Parkhead around noon, did not do any kind of warm-up as the pitch was flooded and there was no point in just doing running on a sodden track and boarded the bus for the short trip to Paisley. Continue reading
2nd March
Ivan Brzic – ‘Bulldozed’ Stevie
The reports in the press were quite positive, stressing the quality of our performance in Novi Sad, while lamenting the lapse in concentration that led to the only goal.
And there appeared to one injury worry for the weekend game; Continue reading
Pre-match
One of the porters in our hotel, who spoke excellent English, told me that our club and its players should feel quite at home in the city. Novi Sad was the capital of the autonomous Serbian province of Vojvodina, an area once inhabited by Illyrians and most appropriately, Celts? Isn’t it amazing what you can find out sometimes!
When the bus arrived at the stadium, we were all again impressed by the wonderful floodlights but also surprised by the size of the crowd. We had undertaken two public training sessions where crowds of around 5,000 on each occasion had turned up to watch, so we were all expecting a good crowd for the actual game.
The stadium had a capacity of only 25,000 but there was nowhere near that when we were doing a loosener on the pitch pre-match. However, by the time we came out for the contest itself, they had suddenly arrived and the official attendance was later given as 24,000. Continue reading
27th February
The headlines and reports in the morning papers on the Monday morning gave some not-so-good news for Celtic fans –
Johnstone is Doubtful
Jinky – Doubtful
‘Jimmy Johnstone was the only one of Celtic’s European Cup stars to be injured in the bruising 1-1 draw with Stirling Albion but at breakfast time today the 17-strong party set off as chosen for Novi Sad and the important first-leg match with Vojvodina on Wednesday night.
The players gathered at Parkhead at breakfast time and travelled to Glasgow Airport where the weather forecast was ‘gale force winds in the area’.
The team flew out on a charter aircraft – but they may be late in arriving at Belgrade this afternoon because of severe head winds expected on the journey.
Before the party left Glasgow, manager Jock Stein said “Johnstone took a couple of knocks on the leg at Annfield – but it is too early to say whether he will be able to play against Vojvodina. He will have some treatment when we arrive in Novi Sad but he will only start if he is completely fit”.
The Morning of the Match
I had an early start to the day. I had been told that my former school – St Gerard’s in Govan – was playing in an important cup tie that day and one of the teachers had asked would I put in an appearance. I was pleased to do so, although I was a bit astonished at how little grass there was on the pitch. Continue reading
20th February
The press was very complimentary about Celtic’s thrashing of Elgin with one paper in particular very fulsome in its praise –
‘Attack is the best mode of defence for Celtic. Their 7-0 defeat of Elgin City in the Scottish Cup brought Celtic’s total of goals in their last three games to 15 – without loss.
Having watched all three matches – 5-0 against Ayr at Somerset Park, 3-0 against Airdrie at Broomfield and then Saturday’s 7-0 taming of the Highland hopes – I’m quite certain that Celtic’s attack-at-all-costs policy is tailor-made for their needs. Continue reading
The Day of the Match
It had been an interesting couple of days since I was given the instruction to stay away from Celtic Park and try to let the symptoms of my head knock subside. On the Friday, my Mum collared me and asked me to drive her up to the city centre, where she apparently had some business in one of the big department stores.
After we parked the car, I went along with her and we eventually reached Lewis’s, which was in Argyle Street just across from Queen Street. Mum was a great dressmaker and had made my young cousin – and God-daughter – Anna Marie a lovely red coat and now she wanted some fur to put round the collar. Continue reading
13th February
Although the team was doing well at that period and the fans had many things to talk about, a headline in one of the evening papers that day gave them some food for thought. It was about a player who had rather slipped off the radar screen – Continue reading
