“Charlie Gallagher? What a Player!” – A debut during a desperately poor season for Celtic

It was at a particularly dark hour of Celtic’s history that Charlie made his debut for the first team. The start of the 1959/60 season could hardly have been worse. By 22 August, they were already out of two Cups. Drawn in a League Cup section of Raith Rovers, Partick Thistle and Airdrie, one might have expected Celtic to emerge victorious, but they had already lost their first three games and were in the humiliating position of being the only one of the four unable to qualify!

They had also lost 2-1 to Rangers in the Glasgow Cup – a result that was at least respectable, if massively
disappointing – and their only win of the season had been a 2-0 win over Kilmarnock, ironically Kilmarnock being the best ranked of all the teams they had played so far!

“Parkhead is more like Purgatory those days” said Gair Henderson in The Evening Times and even in the wake of the win over Kilmarnock, Celtic were badly hit by injuries to Bobby Carroll, Neil Mochan, John Divers and Mike Jackson, and a debut was given to Charlie Gallagher “the boy from Yoker”. It was of course part of the “youth policy” that the “Kelly Kids” were gradually to be weaned into the first eleven.

The opponents Raith Rovers who were off to a good start to the season and were enjoying one of the better periods of their history. They had reached three Scottish Cup semi-finals in the decade of the 1950s and were consistently highly placed in the Scottish League. The strength lay in their half back line of Young, McNaught and Leigh, commonly known as the “burglar proof” half back line. They were ageing now, but were still generally regarded as being one of the best in the business. Centre half Willie McNaught had played for Scotland 5 times, and right half Andy Young ought to have been capped.

He had played a couple of games for Celtic at the end of World War II but had been allowed to go, and Andy Leigh was also considered unlucky not to have been given some International recognition. Nevertheless, it is not often that Raith Rovers come to Celtic Park as favourites. This however was one such occasion.

The weather was hot, – indeed The Evening Times talks with a touch of hyperbole about “the Turkish bath atmosphere” at Parkhead for the 20,000 crowd – and this was maybe significant in the way that play was to unfold. A glance at the teams will show that Celtic were mainly young men, certainly in the forward line. Only three men – Mochan, Evans and Peacock – could be described as experienced, (they were also the only ones who had won any trophy) whereas Raith Rovers, including their venerable half-back line, was now approaching the veteran stage.

Of the eight youngsters, Haffey, McNeill, McKay, Gallagher and Auld could be said to have gone on and made some progress, even though Haffey and McKay are sadly always to be identified with Celtic failure, whereas Matt McVittie played 33 times for Celtic and had but one moment of glory in the Scottish Cup defeat of Rangers a few months
previously in 1959, Jim Conway played 32 times and was always described as a “promising” youngster even when he had stopped promising and was no longer young. Poor Dan O’Hara with 7 appearances was one of the many players of that era who never made it and simply disappeared. As one says “Many are called, but few are chosen”.

Celtic : Haffey, McNeill and Mochan; McKay, Evans and Peacock;
McVittie, O’Hara, Conway, Gallagher and Auld

Raith Rovers: Drummond, Polland and McFarlane; Young, McNaught
and Leigh; Kerray, Conn, White, McKinven and Urquhart

Referee : Mr T Alexander, Edinburgh

Celtic surprised the Press and delighted their fans by playing fast attacking football with inside forwards Dan O’Hara and Charlie Gallagher being singled out for their good work. Ironically the only goal of the game was
an own goal caused by a misunderstanding between McFarlane and Drummond in the Raith goal. Charlie had played a part in the build-up to this goal, teaming up with the great Bertie Peacock to release the speedy O’Hara. Press reports combine to praise Gallagher’s contribution, and it is interesting that the two things he is commended for are his passing ability and his “thunderbolt” shot – two things that he would become famous for in later years.

The game finished with a 1-0 victory which should in truth have been a lot more if Celtic had taken all their chances and if goalkeeper Drummond had not been in such fine form in the Raith Rovers goal. Cyril Horne in
The Glasgow Herald, a respected journalist and not normally given to exaggeration, even compares Charlie’s performance with some games of his late namesake Patsy Gallacher, generally reckoned to have been one
of the best players who ever lived.

“Not for many a day have I seen a player, young or old, make so many accurate long passes as did the new Gallagher against Raith Rovers. There is no more shrewd centre half than McNaught, yet he was clearly perplexed by the frequency with which Gallagher changed the direction of Celtic’s attacks by sweeping the ball right, left and centre”.

Following such an encomium of praise, it is perhaps surprising to find that Charlie never played another game for the first team until April of the following spring by which time everything had been lost. Yet it can readily be understood in the chaos that existed at Celtic Park as far as team selection went. Jock Stein was still at Celtic Park but worked more with the reserves than the first team, the nominal Manager was Jimmy McGrory, an immortal centre forward in his day but far too nice a man to be Manager, and the power lay in the autocratic and sometimes arrogant hands of Bob Kelly an “inveterate meddler” who seemed to change the team almost on a whim, as if it were some kind of a hobby.