8th December Celtic had not only beaten the champions of France the previous evening but also received plaudits from the manager and directors ; Nantes Praise Celtic ‘Les Canaris’ (The Canaries) of Nantes flew back to France today with their European Cup hopes shattered by a Celtic side which showed no mercy at a windswept …
Read more “10th December 1966: Celtic v Motherwell League – Part One”
Morning of the match It was a busy lunchtime at Celtic Park that day. The guys in the reserve team had come in early, ready for the trip to Fir Park; while the first-team players arrived in dribs and drabs a bit later. Every single player, like myself, loved the atmosphere round the place …
Read more “10th December 1966: Celtic v Motherwell League – Part Two”
12th December Willie Wallace’s performance in his first match for Celtic received top billing in the papers in the days that followed, although obviously the Boss was not too convinced about his levels of fitness.
The Morning of the Match Most of the reserve squad turned up to see the first team in action, quite happy, as I was too, about our performance the previous evening, when we had beaten Partick Thistle by two goals to one, a Davie Cattenach penalty and a Lou Macari effort making the difference.
19th December There was a very interesting piece in one of the dailies, under the heading – Flaw in Celtic Perfection ‘Cautious Celtic supporters are beginning to show slight signs of worry, despite the fact that no team in Britain – or in Europe – has been able to beat the Jock Stein boys this …
Read more “24th December 1966 Aberdeen v Celtic League – Part One”
Morning of the Match I might have been imagining things but I felt that there had been a fair bit of caution regarding this match in the days leading up to it. The team had come through a good spell – in the last few weeks victories over Dunfermline, Nantes (twice), Hearts, Motherwell, Partick Thistle …
Read more “24th December 1966 Aberdeen v Celtic League – Part Two”
It was Boxing Day, in the year 1970. In the country of the elves, everyone was resting, trying to recover from their efforts over Christmas Day and the days before. All over the land, elves were sleeping, lying on their beds or slumped in chairs, just glad that the heavy work was over for another …
In the days following the 1-1 draw with Aberdeen at Pittodrie, both the morning and evening papers were full of varied and interesting stories. 26th December Johnstone in Training Jimmy Johnstone trained alone at Parkhead today – and that adds up to some first-class Boxing Day news for the already happy Celtic supporters! On Saturday, …
Read more “31st December 1966: Dundee United v Celtic League – Part One”
Pre-match I was quite heartened by the first team’s draw with Aberdeen as every drop in level of performance by the guys went towards helping my claims for a first team spot. And a draw at that time had to be considered in that vein. I had also been very pleased with my own performance …
Read more “31st December 1966: Dundee United v Celtic League – Part Two”
31st December 1966. The atmosphere on the bus coming back from Tannadice on Hogmanay was, to put it bluntly, awful. The 3-2 defeat to Dundee United had been the first loss of the season and naturally, that was a major blow to everyone. Normally, every player was a noisy beggar, especially on that particular day, …
Read more “7th January 1967: Celtic v Dundee League – Part One”