In the days after Celtic’s loss to Dundee in the League Cup, two disasters pushed football off the front pages of the papers;-

23^rd August

The East German cargo ship Kathe Niederkichner runs aground on Muckle Skerry in the Pentland Firth. All 50 on board survive.

 Tragically, not all passengers on a plane in the Far East were quite so lucky;-

 An American military C-130 Hercules aircraft carrying 71 passengers and crew crashed into Yau Tong Bay in Hong Kong shortly after take-off. The plane was carrying U.S. military personnel, mostly U.S. Marines flying back to South Vietnam after leave. 13 people survived the crash. Continue reading →

What About the Brazilians?

As I mentioned in my previous article, there was one question that all the fans were asking those of us going in and out of Celtic Park at that time- “where are those Brazilians and when are we going to see them?”. Well, to be honest, I was quite interested in seeing them myself? Continue reading →

After one defeat and one win, the players knew how important the third tie of the sectional matches – against Dundee at Parkhead – would be to Celtic’s chances. Jock Stein certainly was well aware of the situation, as his comments to the press were very guarded, a sure sign that a manager is uncertain about the outcome of a particular contest. Continue reading →

18th August 1965

The Celtic support might have been disappointed by the loss to Dundee United in the first of the sectional games in the League Cup but that did not stop them turning up to see the second contest against Motherwell at Parkhead. They would have made up the majority of the official attendance of 32,000 and it was a nice evening to meet friends and colleagues.

As I mentioned in my article about the night I signed for the club ( 7^th January 1965), the Celtic Park of those days was hardly the well-appointed stadium of today. There was a Main Stand on the south side of the stadium, with covered enclosures on both the west and north sides, the former known as the Celtic End and the latter referred to as ‘The Jungle’. Continue reading →

In one respect, all managers are the same…..they are not good after a defeat!

Jock Stein was no different to the rest, so, on Monday 17^th August, it would have been a bunch of very wary full-timers who made their way to Parkhead for the first training session after the rather disappointing 1-2 loss to Dundee in the opening match of the League Cup.

Normally, the coach or manager gives the squad a hard time on a day like that – not always intentionally, often a way of working out their own frustrations – but even that was ruled out as the second match of the campaign, against Motherwell at Celtic Park, would take place two nights ahead and he did not want a bunch of tired players on his hands.. Continue reading →

14^th August 1965

On the 14^th August 1965, there was great excitement in New York, where the Beatles were about to perform the first stadium concert in the history of rock music, eventually playing in front of 55,600 fans in the Shea Stadium. The Beatles were also at #1 with Help! and Sonny and Cher #2 with I Got You Babe

The big football news of the morning in Scotland, though – at least for the supporters of one of Scotland’s major clubs – was that George McLean, the most expensive player ever bought by Rangers ( £27,000 from St Mirren in 1963) had asked for a transfer. And all this on the morning of the club’s first match against Hearts at Tynecastle. Continue reading →