Charlie & The Bhoys: Gallagher at 80…

Part 6 – The dawn of Celtic’s most glorious era

Following the excitement of Barcelona, Celtic saw out 1964 with three League games which epitomised the inconsistency of Jimmy McGrory’s young squad.

Charlie equalised with a 35-yard howitzer at Firhill as the Bhoys won 4-2, then again with a header against Dunfermline Athletic at Celtic Park, as a late Alex Ferguson strike gave the Pars a 2-1 victory. Willie Cunningham had inherited Jock Stein’s team and he now featured both Callaghan brothers – Willie and the younger Tommy – in his line-up. These would prove to be Gallagher’s final goals of what had been until now a fairly prolific season, with nine in total from just 21 appearances.

For whatever reason, he was dropped for the Boxing Day clash with Motherwell at Celtic Park, the Hoops winning 2-0 thanks to a John Hughes double scored wearing what would soon be known as his ‘baseball boots.’ Celtic thus ended the year in fifth place in the Division, eight points behind joint leaders Kilmarnock and Hearts who had played a game more. Jock Stein’s current and previous clubs – Hibernian and Dunfermline Athletic – made up the top four.

The Bhoys would drop to sixth following the 1-0 defeat at Ibrox on New Year’s Day, Charlie back on the left wing whilst over on the right-wing, Jimmy Johnstone had presumably tired of being kicked all over the pitch, taking his own retribution on Rangers Icelandic forward Tottie Beck and receiving his marching orders from our old friend Tiny Wharton before half-time. Jim Forrest had scored yet again against Celtic just before that incident, giving the hosts a lead which they still held against 10-man Celts when Wharton awarded a penalty following a foul on John Hughes. The Hoops day was summed up as Bobby Murdoch blazed the spot kick high over Billy Ritchie’s crossbar, allowing Rangers to leapfrog McGrory’s men in the League table.

Any remote possibility of a title challenge died in January, as Celts headed into the home match with Aberdeen at the end of the month on the back of a winless run which included defeats to Rangers, Dundee United and Hearts plus draws with Clyde and Morton. Charlie had been dropped for the match at Cappielow, the Hoops contriving to blow a three-goal lead with just 13 minutes remaining, with the referee blowing for full-time just as the ball entered the net for what would have been a Morton winner. Clearly, no lessons whatsoever had been learned from the catastrophic collapse in Budapest the previous spring.

There was good news though, as the prodigal son Bertie Auld returned from his four-year exile at Birmingham City to wear the Hoops again. He would score from the spot against the Dons in a match revered by Celtic supporters of a certain vintage for the performance of John Hughes. Logic would have suggested that the powerfully built ‘Yogi’ would perhaps struggle on an icy surface more suitable for sledging than football, however, the big man was in his element, scoring five goals in those baseball boots as the Bhoys romped to an 8-0 win, a first victory of any kind that month. It was also the first Celtic match in the life of The Celtic Star’s Editor who was born the day after the previous Celtic match ended in a 3-3 draw away to Morton.

And the following day after that 8-0 win, things changed, or as a wise man once said “things changed utterly,” with the announcement that Jock Stein would be leaving Hibernian – at that time tucked in second place in the table, three points behind League leaders Hearts but with two games in hand – to replace Jimmy McGrory as the new manager of Celtic. There had been rumours for some time preceding the announcement, with the re-signing of Bertie Auld – unloved by chairman Bob Kelly – adding fuel to that particular fire.

Charlie Gallagher would remain on the periphery as Celtic went on a four-game winning run through February, knocking St Mirren and Queen’s Park out of the Scottish Cup, whilst beating the Paisley men again and title-chasing Kilmarnock in the League. In the 5-1 win at Love Street, seven days after a 3-0 cup victory at the same venue, the scoring was opened by former Celtic forward Bobby Carroll. Beside him was Pat Hughes, Yogi’s younger brother, and two Scots who would later make their name in English football, Gerry Queen and Archie Gemmell.

Saturday, 6 March 1965 will forever have a place in the history of Celtic Football Club. For the Scottish Cup quarter-final tie with Kilmarnock at Parkhead, the iconic shamrock change kit, much-loved by the Hoops support, would be worn for the last time, and it would also be the final match in charge for the great McGrory, and against his former club at that. In a strange twist of fate, Jimmy’s first match after retiring as a Celtic player was as Kilmarnock manager on Christmas Day 1937, as they lost 8-0 in a League game at the home of his former employer.

He would then gain a measure of revenge by bringing his Killie team to Glasgow’s east end to knock the holders out of the Scottish Cup on Saturday, 5 March 1938. Incredibly, almost 37 years to the day, Jimmy’s team would now eliminate Kilmarnock at the same stage of that same competition, Celts edging a five-goal thriller as he took his last bow after 20 years in charge. He will forever be known as McGrory of the Celtic, an immortal figure in our history.

On the same afternoon, Jock Stein’s last act as Hibernian boss had been to plot the downfall of holders Rangers in another Scottish Cup quarter-final tie at Easter Road. Stein would commence the eagerly anticipated new era in the Celtic manager’s office on Monday, 8 March 1965, his tenure commencing two nights later at Broomfield.

If Carlsberg did debuts, Stein’s first appearance in the Celtic dugout was probably one of those, the Hoops winning 6-0 with Bertie Auld – the man Jock had apparently insisted be brought back – scoring five of the goals, as the winning run extended to seven matches. Sadly, the honeymoon would be over for both men by the Saturday, as St Johnstone completed a rare League double over Celtic with a 1-0 victory at Parkhead and Auld missed a last-minute penalty kick, having scored twice from the spot just three nights earlier against Airdrieonians. It’s a crazy old game sometimes.

The next two fixtures did not augur well for the future either. Celts blew a 3-1 lead at Dens Park on Saturday, 20 March 1965 to drop yet another League point then Jock’s old Hibernian side came to Glasgow to play one of their games in hand two nights later, my fourth birthday, and left with a 4-2 victory, Neil Martin becoming the latest visiting player to score a hat-trick at Celtic Park. Those results would pave the way for the return of Charlie Gallagher, however, and the Gorbals Bhoy would not look back from that point.

Jock Stein’s first cup tie as Celtic manager was the semi-final match with Motherwell at Hampden on Saturday, 27 March 1965, as the Scottish Cup approached its climax, his previous clubs Dunfermline Athletic and Hibernian meeting in the other last-four clash at Tynecastle. The Hampden match would end all-square at 2-2, with all four goals scored by Lisbon Lions, Motherwell striker Joe McBride twice putting his side ahead before Bobby Lennox then Bertie Auld, once again from the penalty spot, set up a midweek replay at the same venue. Joe’s two-goal display would be enough to finally clinch a summer transfer to his beloved Celtic.

Gallagher had replaced Chalmers at inside-right on the Saturday and he kept his place for the second meeting, this time Jimmy Johnstone making way for the return of the prolific Stevie on the right wing. Chalmers would open the scoring in front of 60,000 spectators as a much-improved performance brought a 3-0 win and a place in the showpiece final the next month, where, it transpired, they would meet Dunfermline, in a repeat of the 1961 Scottish Cup final.

An unchanged team struggled to overcome basement-battlers Third Lanark at Celtic Park three days later, a late own-goal from former Hoops captain Dunky MacKay settling the issue. Thirds also featured ex-Celt Mike Jackson and future Parkhead keeper Evan Williams in their line-up. This would turn out to be the final competitive clash between the sides, who had met back in February 1889 in Celtic’s first Scottish Cup final at Second Hampden, later renamed Cathkin. That same ground would close its gates for the last time within two years, in June 1967, as Third Lanark became the final League club to go into liquidation in the 20th century.

If he had been unpopular in choosing to leave Easter Road for Celtic, then the final straw for Hibernian fans was probably the sight of Jock Stein’s Hoops tearing their favourites apart in the midweek League clash in Leith, Bertie Auld at the double in a 4-0 win which essentially ended their title hopes, just two weeks after they had triumphed in Glasgow.

But the Jekyll and Hyde Celtic performances continued the following Wednesday, 14 April 1965, as a Hoops side minus the injured Billy McNeill and John Clark went down 6-2 to Falkirk at Brockville. It would be the first and last time that Stein would see his team lose six goals in a game. Indeed, it would be nearly 50 years before any Hoops side would concede as many in a competitive game, Neil Lennon’s Bhoys losing 6-1 to Barcelona in the Camp Nou in December 2013.

Charlie would find himself back on the sidelines for Celtic’s last match before the Scottish Cup final, albeit that might have been a blessing in disguise, as the Hoops slumped to a 2-1 home defeat by Partick Thistle. Any concerns that Gallagher would miss out again on the showpiece end to the Scottish season, as he had two years earlier having played in the semi-final, were dispelled when Jock Stein named the following line-up for Celtic’s date with destiny.

John Fallon;
Ian Young & Tommy Gemmell;
Bobby Murdoch, Billy McNeill & John Clark;
Stevie Chalmers, Charlie Gallagher, John Hughes, Bobby Lennox & Bertie Auld.

Charlie’s inclusion would be critical as the Bhoys chased a first Scottish Cup success since manager Jock Stein had captained the side to victory over Aberdeen in April 1954. In front of 109,000 spectators, the vast majority praying for a Celtic win, it was Dunfermline who struck first, former Ibrox forward Harry Melrose clipping the ball home after John Fallon had flapped at a cross ball in the 15th minute.

On the half hour, Celts struck back, Charlie picking up the ball in midfield, losing his marker Tommy Callaghan with a flick of the hips before launching a spectacular left-footed effort at the Dunfermline goal from fully 30 yards, the ball beating Pars keeper Jim Herriot all ends up to crash off the crossbar before spinning agonisingly into the air. As the crowd held its collective breath, Bertie Auld was the first to react, with an extraordinary leap, beating a Dunfermline defender on the goal-line to head home for 1-1.

With the half-time whistle imminent, the Fifers regained the advantage with an excellent goal, Melrose tapping a short free-kick to John Mclaughlin at the edge of the box for the striker to rifle past Fallon in the Celtic goal. If Celts were to win the cup on this day of days, then it would have to be done the hard way, however, they were level within seven minutes of the restart, Bobby Lennox racing down the left before cutting the ball back into the path of the onrushing Auld. One touch was all it took for the second-time-around Celt to steady himself for a lethal finish into the bottom corner. A cup final double for ’10.30’ to make it 2-2. Game on again.

The match and Celtic’s modern history would turn as we entered the last 10 minutes of a thrilling cup final. The pace of Lennox yet again took him to the byeline, before a desperate defender’s lunge sent the ball out of play for a corner. Up stepped Charlie to make his second major contribution of the 1965 Scottish Cup final, his right-footed inswinging cross met by the flashing head of his captain Billy McNeill to win the cup and end the years of pain for those with Celtic in their hearts. It was an iconic, era-defining moment in the proud history of the fairytale club, the moment the world changed, and Charlie had been at the very heart of it.

Life would never quite be the same again for Charlie Gallagher and the Bhoys.

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 on Twitter @Boola_vogue