25th October There are certain aspects of a footballer’s life that sometimes make his actions seem a little difficult to understand. Now, that may seem like a very complicated way of explaining something that happened on that Wednesday, the morning after we had beaten Motherwell 4-2 at Celtic Park. The particular aspect I am referring …
Read more “28th October 1967: Celtic v Dundee – League Cup Final”
29th October The party of 18 players – Simpson, myself, Gemmell, Murdoch, McNeill, Clark, Johnstone, Wallace, Chalmers, Lennox, Auld, Hughes, Fallon, Shevlane, O’Neill, Connelly, McBride and Gallagher – was delayed for a few hours down at Prestwick Airport but our plane eventually took off just before midnight. By that time, the nervous fliers in the …
Read more “1st November 1967: Racing Club v Celtic – World Club Championship 2nd Leg”
1st November – Evening As we sat in the dining room of the Hindu Club, trying to come to terms with the events of the afternoon, we wondered why the Board were either not there at all or else going in and out of the room on a regular basis. What we did not know …
Read more “4th November 1967: Racing Club v Celtic World Championship Play-Off”
5th November It had been an awful night in the Victoria Plaza Hotel. After the match, we had endured a heart-breaking bus trip from the Estadio Centenario over to our base in Montevideo, with the Argentinian supporters in the crowds lining the route giving us a real going-over as they celebrated the success of their …
13th November I reported for training on the Monday morning and soon found myself doing a solo for reasons that will become clear later. I put myself through a tough session without, I would have thought, showing any outward signs of the nausea I was still suffering from. However, if I had been asked …
Read more “15th November 1967: Celtic v Kilmarnock – League”
16th November Training as usual, which meant that those who had played the previous evening did very little and those who had sat the game out worked pretty hard. On a personal basis, I was still feeling a bit off-colour. Oh! I could take part in most of the activities relevant to a training session …
You will forgive me, I hope, if I break away from Celtic matters to cover the days leading up to my first international appearance. It was quite heartening to have been chosen but whether to take the opportunity of playing was quite another matter. As you will have realised from my previous reports, I was …
Read more “22nd November 1967: Scotland 3 Wales 2 – Home International Championship”
20th November While Ronnie, Lemon, Jinky and myself were down at Largs with the Scotland party, our Celtic guys had been taken to Seamill for a few days. I wonder how they managed without me! The press had been quite complimentary about the performance against Falkirk ….. All-Star Celts in Top Form ……..so our guys …
Read more “25th November 1967: Raith Rovers v Celtic League”
27th November Even two days after the match, the press was still going on about how well Raith Rovers had played – Celtic Won’t Find It Tougher Fortunately, though, further down from the headline, the report did give the players some praise, saying that we had coped with the Raith attacks pretty well, …
Read more “2nd December 1967: Celtic v Dundee United – League”
4th December Some of the papers on the Monday went for the obvious – Dundee United Again Prove Stumbling Block Others had obviously been annoyed by what they had seen – Ruined – A Superb Football Match ‘Celtic’s image was badly tarnished again at Parkhead on Saturday – despite all the efforts the …