Hard to believe it’s already 12 months since we said our final goodbyes to the man who pretty much epitomised Celtic for many of us supporters who grew up in the mid to late-1960s.

Billy McNeill was a wartime baby, born in Bellshill on Saturday, 2 March 1940, the son of a serving Black Watch soldier. A Scottish schoolboy international, he was spotted by Celtic’s reserve coach Jock Stein, the 17-year-old centre-half then joining the club in August 1957 from junior outfit, Blantyre Victoria, whom Stein himself had played for a decade or so earlier.

The young McNeill would sign for a Parkhead club in transition, many of the players from the Coronation Cup and Double-winning sides of 1953/54 still around and involved whilst perhaps nearing the end of their careers. A first-ever success in the Scottish League Cup had been achieved at the 11th attempt, with a 3-0 replay victory over Partick Thistle at Hampden in October 1956.

Celts would retain that trophy within two months of Billy’s arrival, with the never-to-be-forgotten 7-1 victory over Rangers. Hampden in the Sun. Seven past Niven. You may just recall that one.

Supporters of that era would need to bask in that particular glow for the next seven years plus, as the Hoops and silverware curiously lost touch with one another.

The 1957/58 Scottish title would be cruised by a Hearts team featuring their Terrible Trio of Alfie Conn, Willie Bauld and Jimmy Wardhaugh, the Tynecastle men scoring a record 132 goals in 34 League games, their positive goal difference of 103 also a tally which remains unbeaten to this day.

Three of the six Glasgow clubs in the top-flight that season, Rangers, Celtic and Clyde, completed the top four, the Shawfield side also winning the Scottish Cup, extending Hibernian’s jinx in the Hampden final, having eliminated the Bhoys in the third round. That home tie for Clyde had been played at Celtic Park, due to safety concerns at Shawfield, where a young Hoops fan had lost his life as a wall collapsed the previous December. An incredible crowd of 65,000 had turned out in March 1958 to see visitors Celtic defeated 2-0 at Parkhead!

The Rutherglen club would again feature heavily the following season, 1958/59, as Billy McNeill made his first senior appearances as a Celtic player. The Hoops opened the domestic campaign at Shawfield with a 4-1 victory in the first defence of their League Cup, goals from Charlie Tully, Bobby Collins, Sammy Wilson and Bertie Auld sealing the points as Springburn Bhoy, Duncan MacKay made his Celtic debut.

Another man from my home turf, Tommy Ring, had earlier opened the scoring for Clyde. His strike had beaten Jimmy McGrory’s Celtic in the Scottish Cup Final replay of 1955, the defending cup-holders having lost their lead in the last minute of the first game to an Archie Robertson goal scored directly from a corner.

The two neighbouring clubs would meet at the same venue 11 days later, as the League campaign got underway, unusually, with a midweek fixture card. Auld’s goal on the hour-mark had Celts ahead as the game entered the closing stages, before strikes from Coyle and Currie won the match for the home side. Celts had battled against Clyde for more than 70 minutes with 10-men, after Bobby Evans had left the field injured for the first time in his career. The legendary Evans would not recover in time to play in the next match, three days later, once again Clyde the opposition, in the return League Cup fixture at Celtic Park.

Thus, the door was opened for raw centre-half William McNeill to take to the hallowed turf on Saturday, 23 August 1958. I wonder how many within the 39,000 Parkhead crowd realised that they were witnessing the beginning of the career of Celtic’s greatest-ever captain? Two first-half goals from Wilson and Auld won the two points for Celtic, pretty much guaranteeing their progression from a League Cup section which also included St Mirren and Airdrieonians. Archie Robertson, whose last-gasp corner had broken Celtic hearts at Hampden back in 1955, missed a penalty at 1-0, whilst visitors Clyde featured Davie White at left-half. White would later manage the Shawfield club to its highest-ever League finish of third in season 1966/67, before replacing Scot Symon as the manager of Rangers later the same year.

The Celtic team who commenced the era of Cesar that afternoon read as follows:

Frank Haffey: Dunky MacKay & Neil Mochan: Willie Fernie, Billy McNeill & Bertie Peacock (captain): Charlie Tully, Bobby Collins, Jim Conway, Sammy Wilson & Bertie Auld.

Seven days later, McNeill experienced his first taste of defeat as a Celt, a 6-3 defeat in the dead-rubber final sectional game at Love Street taking place on the day that the retiral of 7-1 hat-trick hero Billy McPhail was announced, following sustained injury problems with his knee. It is sometimes forgotten that McPhail had also scored twice in that first League Cup final victory over Partick Thistle in October 1956. Five goals in two successive Hampden finals. Not too shabby.

McNeill retained his place in the Celtic side until sustaining an injury at Central Park, during an 8-1 mauling of Cowdenbeath in the League Cup quarter-final second leg on Wednesday, 17 September. He failed to recover for the visit of Raith Rovers to Parkhead three days later, his pivot position taken by another Bellshill-born centre-half of Lithuanian extraction, Jonas Kaduskeviechi, better known as John Jack. Rovers featured a young left-half called Jim Baxter.

Celtic’s League Cup defence would be over following a 2-1 defeat by Partick Thistle at Ibrox in the semi-final on Wednesday, 1 October 1958. Despite the Maryhill side losing goalkeeper Tommy Ledgerwood to injury early in the second-half, the Jags man completing the match on the right-wing, goals from wingers Davie McParland and Johnny McKenzie had assured the Maryhill side of a place in the final against Hearts, and revenge for their Hampden defeat at the hands of the Hoops two years earlier, long before Jim Conway grabbed a consolation goal.

McParland and Thistle would return to haunt Celtic in the Hampden League Cup final of 1971, a game the then Celtic captain Billy McNeill missed through injury, before the Jags legend joined Jock Stein at Parkhead, becoming his assistant manager in the summer of 1976.

Back in the autumn of 1958, the teenage Billy McNeill continued in his centre-half role until a game at Easter Road on Saturday, 29 November 1958. The Parkhead transition had continued with the sale of Bobby Collins to Everton in September and transfer-listing of Willie Fernie that week, amidst speculation that the sale of players was tied to costs associated with the new Celtic End cover and plans to do likewise at the opposite end, replace the Jungle and install floodlights.

Fernie would move to Middlesbrough within days, whilst young Gorbals-Bhoy, Pat Crerand had made his first-team debut in October. Crerand’s cousin, Charlie Gallacher, and Larkhall Thistle’s John Clark had also been signed by the club in recent weeks.

Two goals in the first six minutes from John Colrain and John Higgins had given Celtic a great start in Leith before the roof caved in. McNeill’s direct opponent, England striker, Joe Baker, had a field day, scoring a hat-trick, sublime service no doubt provided to him by Hibernian’s Famous Five wingers, Gordon Smith and Willie Ormond, as the hosts edged home 3-2.

In an interesting aside, the Celtic Wiki reports that the Scottish Schools FA complained to the SFA that week regarding Celtic’s use of a 15-year-old player in one of their junior teams. The youngster’s name was John Hughes from Coatbridge. I wonder whatever happened to him?

Fit-again Bobby Evans came back in for Billy McNeill for the following weekend’s home game with Motherwell, the visitors featuring another famous name at centre-forward, Ian St John. Celts were leading 2-0 with just eight minutes remaining, the Steelmen’s injured keeper Weir reduced to a role on the right flank, when the referee abandoned the game. In the same week, Celtic signed up another promising young goalkeeper to challenge Dick Beattie and Frank Haffey for the Parkhead gloves, Lanarkshire lad John Fallon. And on the international front, Matt Busby gave up the Scotland manager’s job for health reasons. Ten months earlier, his life had hung in the balance, following the Munich air crash involving Manchester United.

As an aside, the Motherwell game was replayed on 2 January 1959, finishing in a 3-3 draw.

Billy McNeill would reappear at right-half in the Celtic side who played Queen of the South at Palmerston Park on Saturday, 24 January 1959, skipper Bertie Peacock sidelined by influenza with Eric Smith moving across to cover him. Four goals were shared in Dumfries, a result which left Celts in ninth spot in the League, albeit with games in hand on most of their competitors.

McNeill’s next appearance would take place in the week of his 19th birthday, on Saturday, 7 March 1959 for the home match with Dunfermline Athletic. He would again replace Peacock, this time the youngster taking the captain’s left-half spot in a straight swap. After an early Neil Mochan penalty had given Celts the lead against the Fifers, Billy’s best friend Mike Jackson scored a late double to secure the points in a 3-1 win. Bertie Peacock would be back in his normal position for the 2-1 home defeat by Airdrieonians three nights later, a game which marked the debut of Celtic’s new recruit from Ashfield juniors, Stevie Chalmers.

Billy would watch from the wings as Celts progressed to the last-four of the Scottish Cup during February, coming from behind three times to beat holders Clyde 4-3 at Shawfield, thanks to a 93rd-minute winner from Peacock, then defeating Rangers 2-1 at Celtic Park in the quarter-final, a first home victory in the competition against the Ibrox side since 1901.

He would then wear the Hoops on a further three occasions in his debut season.

Fellow cup semi-finalists Aberdeen were on the receiving end of a 4-0 Celtic Park hiding on Wednesday, 25 March 1959, another Mochan spot-kick sandwiched between counters from Ian Lochhead, John Colrain and Matt McVittie. Then on Wednesday, 8 April 1959, four days after Celts had suffered a humiliating 4-0 defeat by St Mirren in the Scottish Cup at Hampden, Billy was brought back into the side at Fir Park with yet another defender of Lithuanian stock, John Kurila making his debut with Dunky MacKay and Bobby Evans on international duty with Scotland, ahead of that weekend’s fixture at Wembley.

It was no huge surprise that high-flying Motherwell defeated an under-strength Celts 2-0 on this occasion. Three days later, it was a trip to Annfield to face Stirling Albion in the penultimate League fixture, a solitary Matt McVittie goal just before the interval enough to secure the two points.

The young centre-half would sit out the final day of the League season the following Saturday. Celtic entertained defending champions Hearts, whilst Rangers hosted Aberdeen, the Ibrox club two points clear of the Gorgie men and with an identical goal average. Defeat for Rangers and a win for Hearts would see the flag remain in Edinburgh, and Aberdeen did their bit with a 2-1 victory in Govan, which removed the possibility of the cup-finalists being relegated.

At Celtic Park, a Hearts side featuring Gordon Marshall senior in goals led 1-0 at the interval, 45 minutes from the title, before second-half goals from Bertie Auld and Eric Smith won the match, directly handing the 1958/59 Scottish League Championship to bitter rivals, Rangers!

It had been a disappointing, trophyless first campaign for Billy McNeill at Celtic, the Hoops trailing home in sixth place behind the above-mentioned main protagonists, plus Motherwell, Dundee and Airdrieonians, and one point ahead of Scottish Cup-winners, St Mirren. Dreams of domestic and continental glory must have seemed a million years away at that point for those who like their football green-and-white.

Thanks, as always, to the folk behind the Celtic Wiki, a wonderful source of information.

Hail Cesar,

Matt Corr

Follow Matt on Twitter @Boola_vogue

Been absolutely overwhelmed by the response since my book was made available to pre-order last Thursday, with support from family, friends and ‘friends I’ve yet to meet’ from all over the world. Wales, Scotland, Ireland, Germany, England, Belgium & Canada. Thank you so much! 💚🍀 https://t.co/3MACVGUz5C

— Matt Corr (@Boola_vogue) April 21, 2020

INVINCIBLE by Matt Corr

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