Back in March 1956, Willie Goldie would lose three goals to his Celtic heroes, another double for Neil Mochan followed by a late strike from John McAlindon, albeit no blame was attached this time around. As an aside, one of Willie’s teammates was Ian McMillan, who following the death of Bobby Brown has assumed the title of oldest living player for Rangers, as well as his hometown Diamonds. I remember him well as the manager of the Broomfield club through those exciting Scottish Cup clashes in the 1970’s. Hard to believe he is approaching 90 now.
The Cup Final month of April opened with a home friendly against Stirling Albion, presumably arranged to assess the fitness of the returning Sean Fallon, John Higgins and Jim Sharkey. Peter would again be at right-half for that 3-1 win and the 1-1 midweek draw with champions Aberdeen at the same venue, keeper Dick Beattie badly at fault for the Dons equaliser. With Bobby Evans on international duty for Scotland against England on the Saturday, Goldie would probably have expected to retain his place for the Friday evening League match at Kilmarnock, however, once again, the Celtic selectors rang the changes, Eric Smith and John Jack drafted in to form a half-back line with Bertie Peacock. The match would end in a dull goalless draw.
Peter did play in a memorable match on the Monday before the Cup Final, two nights later, Celts hosting the newly-crowned English champions, Manchester United, the ‘Busby Babes,’ in a charity fundraiser. The sides lined up as follows.
Celtic
Dick Beattie; Mike Haughney & Frank Meechan; Peter Goldie, Bobby Evans & Bertie Peacock;
John Higgins, Jim Sharkey, Neil Mochan, Willie Fernie & Charlie Tully.Manchester United
Ray Wood; Ian Greaves & Roger Byrne; Eddie Colman, Mark Jones & Duncan Edwards;
Albert Scanlon, John Doherty, Tommy Taylor, Dennis Viollet & David Pegg.
Duncan Edwards
Peter Goldie’s direct opponent that evening, the powerful Duncan Edwards, was considered the finest young talent in the British Isles, his physicality in the opening half bringing a word of warning from referee Jack Mowat, who would take charge of the famous 1960 European Cup final between Real Madrid and Eintracht Frankfurt at Hampden. Celtic’s plans to use the match as a warm-up for the upcoming Scottish Cup final would be thrown into disarray by the interval, first Dick Beattie then Charlie Tully making way for John Bonnar and Billy Craig, the injured duo joining Sean Fallon and Bobby Collins on the doubtful list for the big game.
Celts would take the lead against United through Neil Mochan early in the second half, Mike Haughney adding a second from the spot shortly afterwards following a foul on Smiler in the box. The English side would then show their resilience and class to draw level, headers from Albert Scanlon then John Doherty allowing both sides to claim something from the game.
There would be the saddest of footnotes to this game. Within two years, six of the United team would perish in the aftermath of the tragic air crash at Munich Airport, captain Roger Byrne, the entire half-back line of Eddie Colman, Mark Jones and Duncan Edwards, plus two forwards, Tommy Taylor and David Pegg. The first goalscorer, Albert Scanlon, would be one of three players from that evening who miraculously survived the accident, goalkeeper Ray Wood and striker Dennis Viollet the others. The second scorer, John Doherty, would be transferred to Leicester City four months before the match in Belgrade which led to the ill-fated journey, whilst full-back Ian Greaves was injured and thus unable to travel. You may recall Ian as the manager of the Bolton Wanderers side who gained promotion to the English top-flight in the late 1970’s.
More than 60 years later, the events of Thursday, 6 February 1958 in Munich still bring a chill to the heart. United legend Bobby Charlton is now the sole survivor of that tragedy.
Rest in eternal peace, the Flowers of Manchester.
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