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11th March Everyone in for training as usual and, to my delight, I was feeling much better. It was if I had turned a corner on a long road. The leg was fine when I was running and in the usual two-touch match at the end of the session, I got a couple of blows …
14th March One headline in the papers of that day caught the attention – Clinical Celts Close the Gap -although I got a mention that I was not expecting – ‘Jim Craig looked as though he needed match practice’. I didn’t think I would have looked that rusty? It was not Celtic who got …
17th March This match had been organised some weeks previously and the Celtic party left for Dublin on the morning after the Falkirk game. The squad comprised the 12 players who been listed for the match against Falkirk plus John Fallon, George Connelly, Davie Hay, Joe McBride and Jimmy Quinn. It was a lazy day …
Read more “18th March 1968 Shamrock Rovers v Celtic – Friendly”
19th March As you might imagine, there was a little bit of a mutinous spirit among the players at training on the Tuesday morning after the comments in the evening papers the night before from the Boss and Chairman about our performance in Dublin. There was a general feeling that the game had been foisted …
24th March We had been told to come in on the Sunday morning. In the football thinking of the time at managerial level, this was supposed to make the players think twice about having a drink on the Saturday night, as there was another match on the Monday evening. Frankly, after a tough game on …
26th March No training. The reason was provided quite neatly in one of the evening papers – ‘As an immediate reward for jumping to the top of the league table with a crushing 6-1 win over St Johnstone last night, all the Celtic players were given a holiday from training today’. The report went on …
Read more “30th March 1968: Dundee United v Celtic – League”
1st April The next match due up was a visit to Pittodrie on the 4th April and both managers were pretty sure of the teams they wanted to run out on the Wednesday. Aberdeen had beaten Falkirk 2-0 at the week-end and apparently had no injury set-backs so manager Eddie Turnbull announced an unchanged …
8th April The headlines in the press told the story of the league race at that time – Celtic Keep Up the Flag Pressure Rangers Hang On Every time I popped into a shop or went to Mass, the questions were all on the same topic. It got so bad that I used …
11th April Up early again, a little stiff after the match at Pittodrie the previous evening, as the Boss wanted to be back in Glasgow, for whatever reason. So, we were on the early train and got into Glesca well before midday. Curiously enough, although we – and by that I mean all the players …
15th April We had the day off from training. Obviously, the Boss had been pleased with the performance against Dundee on the Saturday and with the Glasgow Cup Final looming two days hence, he was protecting his charges. The only one that appeared to have taken a knock against Dundee was Ronnie and, according …
Read more “17th April 1968: Celtic v Clyde – Glasgow Cup Final”