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My own path through the football ranks was quite an unusual one. My first school was St Anthony’s Primary School in Govan, a rather old fashioned building – the toilets were outside and had no roof! – with a playground bounded at the top end by the gable end of a tenement building. That particular …
Right from my early days in school, I was always nuts on football. At that time, though, Celtic was not the side at the centre of my thoughts. My Dad Jimmy, born and reared in Leith, had always been a Hibbee, a good side in the 1950s and would occasionally travel through to see …
As mentioned previously, several players had left the club either during the previous season of 1963-64 or at the end of the campaign, names like John MacNamee, Billy Price, Frank Brogan and Paddy Turner. The only arrival was Bobby Young from St Johnstone, in an early season swap deal for Bobby Craig So that meant …
During the turn of the year from 1964 to 1965, the country was blessed – if that is an appropriate word – with relatively mild weather, so unlike previous seasons, the fixture list was not affected by frost or snow. The Ne-erday results, one defeat and one draw, had been disappointing and the next match was likely …
The Close Season and the Run-up to the First Match of the 1965-66 Campaign As you might imagine, it had been a very happy squad of players which had set off for their summer holidays, most of them heading for the sun, sea and sand of Spain. Not everyone connected with the club was away, …
14th August 1965 On the 14th 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 …
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 17th 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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
Read more “25th August 1965: The First League Match Approaches”