Bertie, half an hour after the 1965 Scottish Cup Final win

It was April 24 1965, the day of liberation for Celtic fans when Celtic had defeated Dunfermline Athletic 3-2 and won the Scottish Cup. Bertie scored twice and Billy McNeill headed the winner. A few weeks previously, Stein in an off the cuff remark to a journalist had said that he thought that Bertie Auld and Charlie Gallagher were a similar type of player, and that “they didn’t really play very well together and that playing the two of them was a waste of a player.”

Not a lot was made of that remark – indeed it was hardly noticed – but Bertie who devoured all football newspapers remembered it.

And so, with both Gallagher and Auld on board, Celtic had won the Scottish Cup. The Celtic dressing room was awash with champagne and celebration, with everyone drinking out of the Scottish Cup.

Big Jock was there, permitting himself a smile but not the champagne, which he nevertheless tolerated – just this once! The players toyed with the idea of throwing big Jock into the bath, but they weren’t quite as strong as all that, and they certainly weren’t anything like as brave as all that!

But Bertie sidled up to the half-naked Charlie Gallagher and said “Put your medal round your neck and follow me”. So the two of them, wearing little other than their newly acquired Scottish Cup medals, went up to Jock Stein and Bertie said “Hey, boss, I thocht you said that we couldn’t play thegither in the same team! The SFA dinnae think sae – they’ve just ge’en the pair o’ us a medal each!”

A silence descended on the company, for this was inappropriate and even impertinent to a man who was (famously) very bad at suffering fools gladly. Jock stared at the two of them, pretended to be on the point of lashing out but then, because it was Bertie and because it was half an hour after winning the Scottish Cup, smiled forgivingly.

David Potter

Celtic versus Dunfermline Scottish Cup Final 1965

About Author

I am Celtic author and historian and write for The Celtic Star. I live in Kirkcaldy and have followed Celtic all my life, having seen them first at Dundee in March 1958. I am a retired teacher and my other interests are cricket, drama and the poetry of Robert Burns.

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