L Day -3: 22nd May 1967
The morning papers had a good piece of news for all of us with Celtic’s interests at heart;
L Day -2: 23rd May 1967
It was a fairly excited group of players who met at Celtic Park before boarding the bus to take us to the airport for the trip to Portugal. There were 20 in the playing squad; Simpson, Fallon, Craig, Gemmell, O’Neill, Murdoch, McNeill, Clark, Gallagher, Auld, Johnstone, Wallace, Chalmers, Hughes, Lennox, Cushley, McBride, Young, Brogan and …
L Day -1: 24th May 1967
Eve of the match and after a leisurely – and early – breakfast followed by a stroll in the grounds of the hotel, we later headed off to the National Stadium for a training session on the pitch itself.
25th May 1967: The Day Our Lives Changed Forever
Frankly, the events of this particular day are so etched in the minds of most Celtic fans that they do not need a detailed description, so I intend to merely comment on some topics that I think were important or unusual. The Morning of the Match Breakfast for everyone to start with then a …
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26th May 1967: Homecoming
All the troops had gone through a late night after the European Cup final. The wives and girl-friends had arrived at the hotel after the banquet to see their men, then they left for the airport to catch their flight home. Within a short space of time, however, they were back again as there had …
29th May 1967: The Hangover
It had been a dedicated weekend of partying to celebrate our win in Lisbon and more than one face was looking a bit worn on the Monday morning when we came in to Celtic Park. Never one to miss an opportunity, the Boss spent a few minutes telling us what we did not do so …
June 1st 1967: Rangers disappontment
1st June 1967 Training had been intermittent that week and the attention of the Scottish – or more precisely the Glasgow – press had been on the build-up to the European Cup Winner’s Cup final the previous evening, when Rangers had taken on Bayern Munich in Nuremburg.
5th June 1967: Madrid on the horizon
After our training session on the previous Thursday, we had been back in again for another one on Friday, then got Saturday and Sunday off.
6th June 1967:
As the 15 players, plus the Boss, Sean, Neilly and Bob, boarded a bus at Celtic Park to take us to the airport, one figure was getting ready to go out to the track for another session…a lonely one.
7th June 1967
As I mentioned before, there were a few of our squad who were less than happy that our recently-won European title was being put up for a test against a side of Real Madrid’s quality but I am afraid that they under-estimated the Boss. Just before we headed for the stadium for the match, he …