18th August 1968 “Old Firm” Bosses Tell Players – Relax! With 6 days to go to the vital League Cup qualifying clash at Parkhead, Celtic and Rangers told their players “Rest and relax – we get down to business again tomorrow. Both managers are certain that they will have a full panel of players …
26th August 1968 Training on the Monday morning was fairly light, as both the first team and the reserves had matches on the Wednesday. I noticed that Ronnie was getting treatment for a leg knock sustained against Rangers but apart from him, everyone else seemed to be OK.
29th August 1968 We were all back in for some training the day after the victories over Morton and Dundee United . It was a fairly normal morning’s work amidst the euphoria that is very prevalent after good results for both the first team and the reserves.
2nd September 1968 While most of us got the day off, others were involved in training for the Inter-League match on the Wednesday. And when I bought one of the evening papers, I found out a lot more about this match under quite eye-catching headlines –
9th September 1968 We got the day off and the Boss took us to East Kilbride baths, where we all cavorted about like wee kids. It was good fun and we all appreciated the day away from training, which can get a bit monotonous at times, no matter how varied and interesting the coaching staff …
Read more “11th September 1968: Celtic v Hamilton Accies – League Cup QF First Leg”
12th September 1968 The last few days before any Old Firm tie are always very tense and the ones in that week were no exception.
15th September 1968 It would have quite amusing in other circumstances but the day after a defeat in an Old Firm match was not the time. The place was my local church on Sunday morning, where I received what could only be described as a ‘going-over’. The questions were relentless.
19th September 1968 It would be fair to say that the atmosphere in the camp after the defeat to St Etienne was poor. In fact, it was very reminiscent of the mood after the disasters in South America the previous year. The management side was saying little, either to us or the press; the reporters …
Read more “21st September 1968: Dunfermline v Celtic – League”
22nd September 1968 You could always get an indication of how the team was being regarded by the fans at Mass and on that particular Sunday, it was like running a gauntlet. I was asked frequently – both before and after the service – “what’s going on?”. In fact, I was almost getting to the …
Read more “25th September 1968: Celtic v Hamilton – League Cup Quarter-Final”
26th September There was a particularly good atmosphere at training that Thursday morning. Firstly, we had achieved a good result the previous evening, which sent us through to the semi-final of the League Cup; secondly, the young lads in the team against Hamilton had shown what they could do it given the chance and were …