That Was The Celtic Goal That Was – Tom Boyd, 29 April 1995

During the early 1990s there was very little for Celtic fans to get excited about. We seemed to have to endure both boardroom unrest and inconsistency on the pitch.

The tail end of the 1994 season saw the boardroom struggle finally coming to an end as Fergus McCann took the reins at the club. A new plan and vision was sold and the supporters joined Fergus in the quest. In our push to become the number one team in Scotland again we had to take a few detours on the way and one of these took us to Hampden for the 1994/95 season, where we paid £500,000 to rent the national stadium.

The league season at Hampden could easily be forgotten, but in reality the season spent there allowed the Club to replant their roots at Celtic Park and make inroads to winning silverware once again.

In one of my many away days during that season Celtic visited Brockville for a important League match against Falkirk. The hosts were playing well and looking to finish in a European spot in the league, Celtic on the other hand were struggling to put a run of results together and with one eye on the Scottish Cup Final at the end of the season, that could perhaps be forgiven.

Celtic started well and scored after only 5 minutes through Phil O’Donnell. Falkirk came back into the match with Maurice Johnston missing a good chance in front of goal much to the amusement of the travelling support, especially when it was clear that Bonner had also caught Johnston and left the striker checking all items in his shorts were still intact.

Into the second half Falkirk were awarded a soft penalty which was converted to bring the sides level. With so many draws hampering Celtic all season it seamed like it would be another day without a win.

From a throw in on the right, Tom Boyd made his way passed two defenders and tried to square the ball, following a game of pinball on the Falkirk box the ball broke to O’Donnell who snatched at his shot, the ball fell kindly for Boyd and he diverted the ball passed the Falkirk keeper from close range.

As Boyd’s team-mates swarmed round him, you could see what the goal meant. It wasn’t a league decider, it wasn’t a cup final, but it was one of the few times in the season when we managed to grind out a win when it seamed more likely to leave with a point.

Tom Boyd only scored 2 competitive goals in his 11 years at the Club and although he had to endure the difficult times during the early nineties, he was able to sign off his Celtic career in some style captaining the team that won the title in 1997/98 and then secured a Treble in 2001.

Martin Donaldson

Martin has featured some of memorable Celtic goals over the past few days on The Celtic Star. Yesterday he described Bertie Auld’s strike in 1970 against Fiorentina in the European Cup – see HERE.

And before that he wrote about Chris Sutton’s winner that secured the Whitewash against the old Rangers in 2004 – see HERE and Frank McGarvey’s wonderful winner in the Scottish Cup Final against Dundee United in 1985 – see HERE.

And Martin has also written about Shunsuke Nakamura, league winning free kick against Kilmarnock in 2007 – see HERE.

If you would like to write for The Celtic Star – on any Celtic related subject of your choice – please email your contribution to editor@thecelticstar.co.uk and we will do the rest. HH

About Author

The Celtic Star founder and editor, who has edited numerous Celtic books over the past decade or so including several from Lisbon Lions, Willie Wallace, Tommy Gemmell and Jim Craig. Earliest Celtic memories include a win over East Fife at Celtic Park and the 4-1 League Cup loss to Partick Thistle as a 6 year old. Best game? Easy 4-2, 1979 when Ten Men Won the League. Email editor@thecelticstar.co.uk

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