Charlie & The Bhoys: Gallagher at 80
Part 4 – Half-an-hour from glory then a dream dies in Budapest
If Celtic’s bruised and battered supporters were hoping for a new start at the end of a long summer, the draw for the 1963/64 League Cup sections patently failed to deliver much hope in that regard, the Hoops paired with Scotland’s top two sides from the previous year, Rangers and Kilmarnock, plus Queen of the South. It was Groundhog Day as the Ibrox club repeated their 3-0 victory from the cup final replay at Hampden in the opening day fixture at Celtic Park, although the Bhoys did manage a respectable goalless draw at Rugby Park in midweek. That was followed by a disappointing 1-1 draw with Queen of the South at Celtic Park, following which a crowd assembled outside the main door demanding the attention of chairman Bob Kelly. They would not get their wish, Kelly having, perhaps wisely, travelled with the reserves down to Dumfries.
Charlie Gallagher was also on that trip, as his exile from the first team picture continued. He would finally return to the fold for the closing three League Cup fixtures, replacing Frank Brogan at outside-right as Rangers beat Celtic 3-0 for the third consecutive time, this time at Ibrox, on Saturday, 24 August 1963. Some degree of respectability was salvaged in the final two games in the group stage, Charlie on target in the 2-0 win over Kilmarnock at Parkhead and again in the 3-2 victory at Palmerston on the last night in August, this time from the spot. As Celts exited the tournament with a whimper in Dumfries, it would be hard to imagine that the club would reach every League Cup final thereafter for the next 14 years!
Gallagher would score again in his next appearance, albeit there would be a two-month hiatus before that memorable game, Bobby Lennox coming in on the right flank for the 2-1 defeat at Ibrox then the 4-4 home draw with Third Lanark, Celtic incredibly contriving to lose a four-goal lead they had established after just 14 minutes of play! Young Lennox would continue in that role as the Bhoys made their first appearance in the European Cup Winners’ Cup, a 5-1 win over FC Basel in Switzerland on Tuesday, 17 September 1963. John Hughes would become the first Celt to score a European hat-trick that evening. Following League defeats by Falkirk and St Mirren, the return leg against Basel was played on a dreadful night in front of Celtic’s lowest-ever European crowd, just 8,000 faithful supporters or madmen braving the elements to see the Hoops score another five goals without reply to win their first continental tie. Jimmy Johnstone replaced Lennox at outside-right, one of five Lisbon starters in the line-up.
With Jinky sidelined by influenza, Charlie finally got another first-team opportunity on Saturday, 26 October 1963. The opposition that afternoon at Celtic Park was Airdrieonians, Charlie opening the scoring before both John Divers and John Hughes – I feel a song coming on – netted hat-tricks. Stevie Chalmers and Bobby Murdoch joined them on the scoresheet, and it would have been double figures for the Bhoys had Frank Haffey not seen his penalty saved by his opposite number Roddy McKenzie at 9-0. It was a fourth consecutive win and clean sheet, with 20 goals scored, following the horrific results of August and September. Consistently inconsistent would just about sum up the Celtic team of that period.
Charlie retained his place for the visit to East Stirlingshire on Saturday, 2 November 1963, the eve of his 23rd birthday. Captain Billy McNeill would have more cause to remember that day, injured early in the second half and utilised as a left-winger before being ordered off by the referee towards the end, presumably for a comment made to the official. A Stevie Chalmers hat-trick had been the platform for another fine victory, this time by 5-1, and the striker repeated the feat the following Saturday in a 5-3 home win over Partick Thistle. Jimmy Johnstone’s recovery from illness meant that yet again, Charlie Gallagher would drop out. He would be back on the right wing on the last day of the month for the 1-1 draw at Dens Park, with Johnstone suspended, having been sent off against Partick Thistle in a Glasgow Cup-tie.
There would be no first-team action for Charlie in December, missing out as the Hoops beat the powerful Yugoslav outfit Dinamo Zagreb – beaten by Celtic’s conquerors Valencia in the final of the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup six months earlier – to progress in the European Cup Winners’ Cup and remained within four points of League leaders, Kilmarnock. Another defeat at the hands of Rangers on New Year’s Day, a fourth of the campaign, opened the door for Gallagher’s return the following day at Cathkin, replacing the injured Bobby Murdoch at inside-left for the 1-1 draw with Third Lanark.
He would then take flu-victim John Divers place as Celtic opened up their latest Scottish Cup assault with a 3-0 victory over Borders outfit Eyemouth United at Parkhead, his headed goal sandwiched by two efforts from the prolific Stevie Chalmers. Next up for the Bhoys in the Cup would be Second Division pacesetters, Morton, at Cappielow, on Saturday, 25 January 1964.
The Greenock men had already pretty much wrapped up the title and had also become the latest second-tier side to reach Hampden, albeit losing heavily to Rangers in the League Cup final the previous October. Widely anticipated as a possible cup upset, Celts would go about their business efficiently with another 3-0 win, Gallagher scoring the second directly from a corner-kick, reviving memories of the feat performed in the same competition by another Charlie in Hoops – the incomparable Charles Patrick Tully – some 11 years earlier. Of course, Tully being Tully, he did it twice that day at Falkirk, after the referee had disallowed his first effort. My dad had been at Brockville that day to witness a piece of Celtic folklore. It would have been something special to see.
Charlie Gallagher would again be on the periphery as Celts enjoyed mixed fortunes in the two cup competitions in early March. The Scottish Cup run would end in defeat at Ibrox, however, two 1-0 victories over Slovan Bratislava took Celts into the last four of a European competition in just their second attempt. Just as Walfrid’s Bould Bhoys had done eight decades previously, reaching the Scottish Cup final in their inaugural season, the young Hoops were punching their weight in continental competition.
Gallagher would be back in the side when the semi-final draw was made at the end of the month, Celtic paired with MTK Budapest, whilst another side wearing green-and-white Hoops, Sporting Lisbon, would face Olympique Lyonnais. John Divers had been injured as Celts lifted the Glasgow Cup by beating a Clyde team featuring teenager Harry Hood at Parkhead, the inside forward unable to play against Motherwell at Fir Park on Saturday, 28 March 1964.
Charlie would come in as a Bhoyant Celtic side won 4-0, retaining his place and scoring a magnificent goal from fully 35 yards in the home midweek victory over Dundee, on the night Celts moved up to second spot in the League and it was announced that the next stage of Jock Stein’s career would be as the manager of Hibernian. The weekend would see Rangers win the title whilst Celts drew 1-1 draw with St Johnstone at Muirton, Charlie’s opposite number in the home team that afternoon being a certain Alex Ferguson, whom he had faced a decade earlier in school’s football.
With the following weekend set aside for the Scotland v England clash at Hampden – a goal from Dundee’s Alan Gilzean settling things in favour of the hosts – the next match for Celtic would be the first leg of the European Cup Winners’ Cup semi-final against MTK Budapest at Parkhead on Wednesday, 15 April 1964.
The Hungarians had presumably qualified for the tournament on the basis of their second-place League finish, the national cup competition still to resume following the uprising eight years earlier. En route to the semi-final, MTK had edged past three Eastern European sides, Slavia Sofia, Motor Zwickau (who would eliminate Celtic from the same competition in 1976 as Sachsenring Zwickau) and Fenerbahce, the tie with the Turks requiring a play-off in Rome.
The men chosen to wear the Hoops in Celtic’s first European Semi-Final were as follows:
John Fallon;
Ian Young & Tommy Gemmell;
John Clark, Billy McNeill & Jim Kennedy;
Jimmy Johnstone, Bobby Murdoch, Stevie Chalmers, Charlie Gallagher & John Hughes.
Just under 51,000 expectant fans packed into the old ground, and they were rewarded with a fine display of attacking football from Celtic against a tough Budapest side. Jimmy Johnstone finally broke the deadlock, just before the interval, with Stevie Chalmers adding a double in the second half. The pre-stated target of a three-goal lead had been achieved and the supporters roared their approval, demanding and receiving the players back onto the pitch at full-time, for a rousing ovation. The critics praised Celtic’s positive philosophy and the club responded in kind, promising to attack once more in the return. Whilst the principle was admirable, the reality of such an approach would be unforgiving.
In the interim, Celts concluded the League campaign with a 1-1 draw with Hearts at Parkhead, which allowed them to finish ahead of the Tynecastle men on goal average. Kilmarnock were also in a three-way tie for second spot at that stage, however, they would later win their game in hand with Third Lanark to claim that prize. Three nights later, Tuesday, 21 April 1964, former Celtic wing-half Tommy Docherty brought his exciting young Chelsea side north for a challenge game at Celtic Park, giving the Hoops much-needed continuity in a playing sense for their return match in Budapest. Farcical weather conditions would bring that game to an early halt, with the teams tied at 1-1.
Off the park, Jock Stein had returned to his old club to purchase defender John McNamee, having brought the youngster to Celtic in his earlier reserve coach role. Whilst McNamee would, thus, miss out on future Lisbon glory, he would win a European medal two years after that, by which time he was at Newcastle United. The Geordies beat Hungarians Ujpest Dozsa to win the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup in 1969, their first trophy since Ronnie Simpson had kept goal at Wembley in the FA Cup final 14 years earlier, and, indeed, the last major honour the club has won to this day
As John’s old Celtic teammates prepared for their own journey to Budapest back in April 1964, they seemed oblivious to the possibility of defeat, with an eager media suggesting their place in the Brussels final was already assured. Remarkably, there was evidence fairly close to home that this complacency may prove to be disastrous. Just four weeks earlier, Sporting Lisbon had recovered from a 4-1 defeat at Old Trafford, to beat FA Cup-holders Manchester United – Paddy Crerand, George Best, Denis Law, Bobby Charlton et al – 5-0 in Lisbon in the quarter-final. Indeed, Busby’s men had been 4-0 up in Manchester with just a few minutes to play. It seems incredible to me that this fact seems to have been brushed aside in Celtic’s approach.
The feeling of ‘job done’ had travelled across Europe to Hungary, with less than 11,000 spectators present in Budapest’s giant Nepstadion for the second leg. But MTK had a secret weapon, the return of international captain, Karoly Sandor, from injury, after a five-month absence.
The Mighty Magyar contemporary of Puskas, Czibor, Kocsis and Hideguti had been enjoying the final season of a glorious 17-year one-club career, and sadly Celtic would be on the receiving end of his talents. He set up Kuti for an opener within 10 minutes then, after Vasas had made it 2-0 from the spot early in the second half, Tommy Gemmell having punched a goalbound shot off the line, he scored the third goal himself to level the tie on the hour. Charlie and the Bhoys had been just 30 minutes from creating history, however, there would only be one winner now, as Jimmy McGrory’s young Celts collapsed, Sandor again setting up Kuti for the fourth and final nail in the Parkhead coffin, with 20 minutes remaining.
So, it would be the Hungarians who would meet Sporting Lisbon in the Brussels Final, the battle of the comeback kings instead of an iconic clash of the Green and White Hoops. The Portugese side had required a third match to see off Olympique Lyonnais, before taking MTK to a replay in the Final, thanks to a late equaliser from Figueiredo, his second goal of the match making it 3-3.
Our old friends Sandor, with a double, and Kuti had again scored for MTK, with Angolan striker Mascarenhas, who had scored a European record six goals against Apoel Nicosia in an incredible 16-1 victory in Lisbon earlier in the competition, on the scoresheet once more for Sporting. The attendance in the Heysel Stadium that evening was desperately low, just over 3,000. How many more would have followed the Bhoys to Belgium? Two days later in Antwerp, with an additional 10,000 on the gate, an early Joao Morais goal won the trophy for Sporting, would you believe directly from a corner? Morais would make his debut for Portugal two years later at Hampden and would then commit the shocking foul on Pele at Goodison that summer which put the great Brazilian out of the 1966 World Cup.
Forty years after that tragic afternoon in the Nepstadion, a Henrik Larsson-inspired Hoops side would return to Budapest to avenge that defeat, beating MTK by the same 4-0 margin in a Champions League qualifier. However, back in April 1964, it was a sad Celtic party who flew home to Glasgow, embarrassed, humiliated and dejected. Lessons would need to be learned from the top down at Parkhead if that European dream was ever going to be fulfilled.
But as the much-loved song tells us, night is darkest, just before the dawn.
Hail Hail,
Matt Corr
Thanks, as always, to the folk behind the Celtic Wiki, a wonderful source of information, and to David Potter, author of Charlie’s biography, Charlie Gallagher? What a Player!
Follow Matt Corr on Twitter @Boola_vogue
