[Official TC Thread] 25th may 1967

If anybody would like to donate you can send via paypal at Bhoysceltic@outlook.com

 

Is this a different thing from the GB one i take it?

 

Aye.

 

That Betis strip thread got me thinking about us.

I really really hope we get to the Scottish Cup Final, and I really really really hope we wear a commemorative kit that day. Proper plain Hoops, and pure white shorts and socks. It has to be done, but done well

 

Just noticed that May 25th this year is on a Thursday, just like 1967. That was a Thursday too.

 

CHARLIE Gallagher is the proud owner of a special record. The Celtic great was the first-ever Scottish-born player to represent Ireland when he was called up to Johnny Carey’s side in 1967, after the rules on exemption had been relaxed the previous year.

That game against Turkey in Ankara, took place on February 22, 1967 – 50 years ago today – and it remains a proud milestone in an impressive football career.

While the cultured midfielder would only make two appearances for the Irish in total, he will always cherish the fact he pulled on the green shirt. It was a country dear to him.

The Gorbals Bhoy, part of the legendary Lisbon Lions squad, previously spoke to the Celtic View about his love of the Emerald Isle, and his feelings at becoming an Irish internationalist.

Did you always have a strong connection to Ireland
Although my parents were Irish, I was born in Glasgow. Every year I would always find myself going over to Gweedore in Donegal during the school holidays. I was still playing for Celtic and was still going over. After I got married I still went over with the wife occasionally but it kind of drifted away a bit. Because I was over every year in Ireland my roots stayed with me all the time. Most of my friends were in Ireland then and a lot of them moved to Glasgow, with me playing for Celtic.

Do you remember hearing the news that Ireland wanted to call you up and how did you feel?
I remember it very well as we were away on a trip abroad. Sean Fallon had received a message from the President of the Irish FA, asking if I would be willing to become an Irish internationalist, as they had opened up the rules the year before. I think Sean was quite proud that another Irishman was playing for Celtic. They contacted me through a very famous sportsman in Ireland, Jimmy McGhee, who would have been the Arthur Montford of Ireland at the time. And then I spoke to my aunt over in Donegal, and she said there had been quite a bit of excitement there because I was getting capped for the Republic.

What was your parents’ reaction when you were capped by Ireland?
Both my parents were Irish so they were very proud of me. My father was a shy person. I don’t think he ever boasted about me to people because I played for Ireland. My father would always say to me you should have done better in a game, he never saw me, but that was his way. My mother died first but when he died, we were going through his possessions and discovered that he had taken every cutting out of every newspaper that he could find. I had never realised the depth or passion for the game and me because I was playing for Celtic. So that was quite a surprise.

What do you remember about your debut for Ireland against Turkey in February 1967?
It was a hard game against Turkey. It was a really difficult baptism. There was no crowd control, you were walking through crowds going on to the park and they were spitting on you, doing everything to put you off. That was a very difficult game.

Your second cap came in Dublin against Czechoslovakia. What do you recall about that occasion?
The second game was against the great Czechoslovakian team, who had finished second in the European Championships. That was a difficult game as well. That was in Dublin. They were a fabulous side. They held the ball all the time and passed, passed and passed. That’s the way Celtic played eventually when Jo k Stein came, that style of football. So it was nice to play a couple of games for your country, and I am very proud to have played twice. Any time I go to a supporters’ club I get introduced as the first Scots-born Irishman, which is a great thing.

 

Jock Stein interview after Lisbon
https://mobile.twitter.com/BlaineMc_8/status/837763116716945409/video/1

 

http://footballpantheon.com/2011/05/the-50-greatest-european-club-sides/

was brilliant scrolling through this and seeing lisbon lions at number 8 greatest club side! I admit their is a couple sides below us who could stake a claim to being better, but it is so refreshing to see us ranked so highly by a impartial ranking and shows just how much respect they gained!

equally i actually think we were mabye a better side than the 3 in a row european cup bayern munich side, I would have fancied our chances in the 74 final against them, even though our team was a bit weaker at that point

 

Billy McNeill netted with the last touch of the ball to send Celtic through to the European Cup Semi-Final On This Day in 1967

 

Highlights from that game.
https://celticfc.tv/tv/video/vod/4393

 

IT was on this night 50 years ago, on March 8, 1967, that Celtic played their first ever European Cup quarter-final tie at Paradise, and it proved to be a dramatic night. Jock Stein’s side were up against Vojvodina Novi Sad of the former Yugoslavia, and had lost the first leg 1-0.

The return leg at a packed Celtic Park in front of a crowd of 75,000 witnessed an incredible night of European football…

SETTING THE SCENE
This was the year Celtic made history and became the first British club to lift the European Cup. The Hoops had already disposed of FC Zurich and Nantes before lining up against Vojvodina in the quarter-final. The Hoops received a less than warm welcome from the Yugoslav crowd the week before when they were defeated 1-0. Bobby Lennox admitted the goal, which came 20 minutes from time, was a defensive mistake but it didn’t knock the team’s confidence ahead of the return tie.

THE MATCH
Vojvodina came to Glasgow with a full-strength squad and started where they left off the previous week. They caused problems for Celtic throughout the first half, but it was a different story after the break. Stevie Chalmers netted the vital equaliser just before the hour mark, and Celtic pushed for the goal which would put them into the semi-final of the European Cup. However, the Yugoslav side withstood all the pressure from the home side, and as the game entered the final minute, it looked as though a play-off match in Rotterdam would be required. However, Celtic won a corner, and Charlie Gallagher’s pinpoint cross was met by Billy McNeill who headed home to give Celtic a 2-0 win on the night and a place in the last four of the European Cup.

MATCH REACTION
Jock Stein: ‘I do not believe too much can be said about the way in which our supporters encouraged the players and helped them regain confidence for the renewed effort in the second half to break down the Yugoslavs´ strong, efficient defence. The players went out for the second half believing that they could win this match let alone the tie, and they were further confident when they heard the crowd willing them to victory.’

Billy McNeill: ‘I came flying down the middle of the park after it and the first thing I said to John Clark was, ‘Hey, don’t let us lose a goal now’. He looked at me and said, ‘The game’s finished big man’. I told him, ‘I don’t care if it’s finished or not, we’re not going to lose a goal!’ So the game restarted and the referee immediately blew for time up. I looked round at John and he said to me, ‘See, I told you’.’

John Clark: ‘The night that Big Billy scored with a header in the 90th minute against Vojvodina to put us through to the European Cup semi-final in 1967 was a tremendous occasion and one of the best wins that I enjoyed as a player.’

WHAT HAPPENED NEXT
Celtic went on to face Dukla Prague in the semi-final of the competition where they won the first leg 3-1 at home. A Jimmy Johnstone goal just before the half-hour mark was followed up by a Willie Wallace double in the second half. A nerve-wracking return leg away from home ended in a 0-0 stalemate and Celtic’s date with destiny was scheduled for May 25 1967. The Hoops lined up against Inter Milan in Lisbon for the European Cup final, and the rest they say, is history…

 

Look at that sexy beast in the middle . . .

 

On this day in 1965, Jock Stein officially took over as Celtic manager from Jimmy McGrory.

 

IN just 11 weeks time, the 50th anniversary celebrations of Celtic’s European Cup triumph will kick off in earnest as we enter the week of the Lisbon final and the countdown to May 25.

And over these next 11 weeks, the official Celtic website will be highlighting the 11 men who defeated Inter Milan 2-1 on that sunny afternoon in the Portuguese capital to become the Kings of Europe.

The countdown begins with the man who won the No.11 shorts on that momentous day, Bobby Lennox...

PRELUDE TO PARADISE
Bobby Lennox was the ‘foreigner’ in the Lisbon Lions squad, living the furthest from Celtic Park – a full 30 miles away in Saltcoats. He played secondary school football with St Michael’s in Irvine before, in 1959, turning out with Star of the Sea Amateurs and Ardeer Recreation. He was already starting to catch the eye and when his beloved Celtic showed interest, there was only ever going to be one outcome. Barely a week after his 18th birthday, he signed for Celtic on September 5, 1961.

DEBUT BHOY
Bobby Lennox was still only 18 when he made his Celtic debut when top-of-the-table Dundee visited on league duty on March 3, 1962. A 39,000 crowd converged on Celtic Park for the game but, surprisingly, for a player whose speed would be renowned throughout the world, it was reported that the pace of the game found him wanting. The visitors took the lead early in the second-half before two late Celtic goals gave the Hoops a 2-1 win against a side that would go on to win the title that season.




HIGHLIGHTS
There were fleeting appearances over the next few seasons but it wasn’t until the second half of the 1964/65 season that Bobby Lennox became a regular in the side – and that co-incided with the trophies rolling in at Celtic Park on a green and white conveyor belt. The medals came thick and fast for Lennox from then on in, with no fewer than 11 championship gongs, eight Scottish Cups and four League Cups as well as, of course, the European Cup in 1967. A total of 24 top-class medals were won by Lennox in a career that spanned the greatest years in the club’s history.

LOW POINTS
There were very few low points in Bobby Lennox’s Celtic career, though for him and his team-mates, the disappointment of the 1970 European Cup, coming just three years after the triumph in Lisbon, is one that still fills them with regret.

BOWING OUT
Well, there were two farewells to Paradise for Bobby Lennox. On November 16, 1977, Celtic played St Mirren in the second-leg of the League Cup quarter-final and were 3-1 up from the first game at Love Street. The 17,000 crowd saw Celtic win 2-0 thanks to goals from Paul Wilson and Johnny Doyle, and it was Doyle who Lennox replaced from the bench. That was his last game before joining Houston Hurricane on March 29, 1978 but his spell Stateside was short-lived as in September of the same year, new Celtic manager, Billy McNeill, called him back for another term. His final game was the Scottish Cup final of 1980 when he again replaced Johnny Doyle in a 1-0 win over Rangers thanks to George McCluskey’s goal.

EVERY DAY’S A FLAG DAY
Bobby Lennox scored an impressive 277 goals for Celtic, making him Celtic’s second top goalscorer of all-time. It was always going to be a nigh-on impossible task to get anywhere near Jimmy McGrory’s record of 446 goals, although the Lisbon Lion would have got considerably closer if it hadn’t been for the regular intervention of the linesman’s flag.

THE CALM BEFORE THE STORM
‘I can remember going to breakfast then going a wee walk,’ Bobby Lennox recalled of May 25, 1967. ‘Then, since it was a Holy Day of Obligation, a priest who was a friend of John Clark said Mass in the hotel for us. We came back had a bit of lunch and then we all rested for a while. Jimmy and I went up to the room had a wee blether, sat about for a bit, then just waited to go, as it was a half-five kick-off which was quite a strange at the time. The bus went the wrong way to the stadium and we were a bit late getting there. We went on to the pitch and saw the Celtic supporters, before going back in and then it was quickly time to get back on the field. Then we walked into the big long tunnel when Bertie Auld singing started The Celtic Song and that’s when the Inter players saw that we were really up for it.’

APPEARANCES
League: 346
Scottish Cup: 64
League Cup: 88
Europe: 69
Total: 586

GOALS
League: 170
Scottish Cup: 31
League Cup: 62
Europe: 14
Total: 277

HONOURS
League: 11
Scottish Cup: 8
League Cup: 4
Europe: 1
Total: 24

 

Would be nice to arrange some kind of friendly game against Inter Milan for the day.

 

IT was 52 years ago today, March 9, 1965, that a new manager took over at Celtic, and nothing would ever be the same again for the club or for Scottish football.

Six weeks earlier, on January 30, 1965, Celtic played Aberdeen in a league match. It was a crushing victory for the Hoops as they recorded an 8-0 victory. John 'Yogi' Hughes scored five of those goals, with Bertie Auld, Bobby Murdoch and Bobby Lennox scoring the other three. The following day the club announced that a new manager was to be appointed.

Jock Stein, the former Celtic captain and now manager of Hibernian, would take over at Celtic Park, with his former team-mate Sean Fallon as his assistant. Jimmy McGrory, who had been manager since 1945, was about to take up the role of Public Relations Officer.

The appointment was not immediate. Indeed, Stein stayed on as boss at Easter Road until March 9, helping Hibernian knock Rangers out of the Scottish Cup in the process.

And it's unlikely that the announcement was accompanied by any media fanfare. After all, it is only with the benefit of hindsight that one can acknowledge the enormity of what Robert Kelly and the Celtic board had done. The results would be quickly apparent, but certainly not so in season 1964/65.

Celtic played St Mirren on two consecutive Saturdays at Love Street following the news of Stein's appointment. On February 6, they won 3-0 in a Scottish Cup tie - a not insignificant result as it turned out - and they followed that up with a 5-1 victory in the league.

A Bobby Lennox goal gave the Hoops victory in the second round of the Scottish Cup over Queen's Park, before another double triumph - this time against Kilmarnock.

A 2-0 home win in the league was followed by a 3-2 victory at Celtic Park that saw the Hoops into the semi-final of the Scottish Cup.

That cup game was to be Jimmy McGrory's last in charge of the team. He had been appointed in July 1945 and after a period of almost 20 years, he was stepping aside. The greatest striker ever to have worn the Hoops had not quite managed to replicate his playing achievements on the managerial front, although there had been notable triumphs along the way.

The Coronation Cup victory in 1953, the league and Scottish Cup double of 1953/54 and the 7-1 League Cup final win of 1957 stood out amid the under-achievement and mediocrity of the post-war years.

The new managerial team took its place in the dugout for the first time on March 10, 1965, when the Hoops played Airdrie at Broomfield.

It was to be an impressive start for Stein, with Celtic winning 6-0. John Hughes opened the scoring on 25 minutes, but it was Bertie Auld who stole the show that day, scoring five goals in a superb Celtic performance.

The Celtic team that day read: Fallon; Young, Gemmell, Clark, McNeill, Brogan, Chalmers, Murdoch, Hughes, Lennox, Auld

It's interesting to note that seven of that team were in the starting line-up two years later when Celtic won the European Cup in Lisbon. Of the remaining four - Jimmy Johnstone was already a regular in the first-team squad, Ronnie Simpson had joined the previous year, having been sold from Hibs to Celtic by Stein, Jim Craig had joined the club in January 1965, while Willie Wallace was signed from Hearts in December 1966 - the only Lisbon Lion bought by Stein.

Celtic's league form for the remainder of 1964/65 was erratic to say the least. Stein was in charge for nine of those games - he won two, drew one and lost five, including an almost unbelievable 6-2 defeat at Brockville against Falkirk.

It was to be the Scottish Cup which was to prove the first glimmer of hope for long-suffering Celtic fans that things were about to get better.

The Hoops met Motherwell in the semi-final of the competition at Hampden on March 27 and the game ended in a 2-2 draw. Bobby Lennox and Bertie Auld from the penalty spot scored the goals for Celtic, while a young striker called Joe McBride gabbed both of Motherwell's goals. He would become a Celtic player at the end of that season.

In the replay, Celtic overwhelmed their opponents, with Stevie Chalmers, John Hughes and Bobby Lennox getting the goals in a 3-0 win.

The final saw Stein face one of his former sides. He had led Dunfermline Athletic to victory in the Scottish Cup when they beat Celtic 2-0 in a replay after a 0-0 draw in the 1961 final.

Now he was in the other dug-out, in charge of the Hoops, and twice he saw Celtic go behind, only for Bertie Auld to equalise on both occasions. And with only nine minutes left, Billy McNeill rose to head home a Charlie Gallagher corner-kick to bring the trophy back to Celtic Park.

It was a wonderful day for the Celtic support but merely a foretaste of what was to come under Jock Stein - 10 league championships, including the famous nine-in-a-row, eight Scottish Cups, six League Cups and, of course, the European Cup triumph of 1967.

In addition, there was another European Cup final appearance in 1970, two European Cup semi-finals and a European Cup-Winners’ Cup semi-final appearance in 1966.

Bill Shankly is famously quoted as telling Stein in Lisbon, ‘John, now you're immortal.’

Never has a truer phrase been spoken.

 

I wonder what the score would have been if the Late Great Joe McBride was in the team for the final against Inter.
He was part of the squad for Europe up until Christmas 1966 but got injured which finished his season.
Even though he didn't take part from December 1966 onwards he still finished that season as top scorer on 31 goals.