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”.

Continue reading →

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 →

The Morning of the Match
This match had a 1pm kick-off. There were no floodlights at Somerset Park – they did come into play until 1970 – and there was the added complication that Kilmarnock were hosting Rangers in a league match at Rugby Park with a 3pm start; a game which would be attended by the Soviet Prime Minister Alexei Kosygin. So, in order to avoid a coming together of Celtic and Rangers fans either in Ayrshire or on the roads to and from the county, the authorities decided on an early kick off for our match with Ayr. Continue reading →

8th February
In the papers the day after the loss to Dynamo Zagreb, the concentration was not so much on the plan used the previous evening but the execution of it. Continue reading →