It was not one of Charlie’s best games of the season, and the Press possibly had a point when they said that Celtic in general had an off day in comparison with some of their performances earlier in the year. On the other hand, Hibs were undeniably a quality side with many fine players, not least Joe Baker. For the replay on Wednesday night at Easter Road in front of a heaving crowd that was given as 40,000 but must have been many more than that, Celtic had to play without their captain Bertie Peacock who was injured. His experience would be missed but Celtic brought in 20 year-old John Clark who had played only a handful of games up to this point, and Celtic fans feared the worst.
The game was fast and furious once again, but with defences on top. Gallagher had a slightly better game than on Saturday, but the rest of the forward line were far from their best, and once again Ronnie Simpson was in inspired form in the Hibs goal. The 90 minutes came and went, and extra time was called for. This was before the days of the penalty shootout at the end of a replay, and a third game on neutral ground, or perhaps after the toss of a coin for venue, would have been the order of the day.
But Celtic had the advantage of being a younger team and were therefore that wee bit better equipped to play extra time at the frenetic place that this Cup tie demanded. Hibs were aware that they had not won the Scottish Cup since 1902, although they had been in the final as recently as 1958 and 1947, and the game meant a great deal to them as well. But Celtic now had the advantage of an extra yard in pace. Crucially they were playing down the famous Easter Road slope in the first period of extra time and it was possibly the least likely player of the 22 who scored the vital goal towards the end of that first period. This was John Clark, never even in his later days as a member of the Lisbon Lions known as a goalscorer, but on this occasion when he won the ball after a cleverly worked short corner with Alec Byrne, he shot straight at goal through a welter of legs of both sides, and at last got the better of Ronnie Simpson.
Hereafter, it was simply a question of defending valiantly against a team who had now visibly tired, and even Joe Baker who had made no impact on McNeill throughout the game, could not turn it round for Hibs. In the second period of extra time, the tired Hibs midfield kept kicking the ball down the slope and beyond the reach of their forwards, as the grateful Celtic defence simply let the ball run out of play. Referee Hugh Phillips’ final whistle blew at about ten minutes to ten to indicate that the young Celtic side were now in the semi-final of the Scottish Cup to play Airdrieonians at Hampden on 1 April. The other semi-final would be between Dunfermline Athletic and St Mirren at Tynecastle.
Chances looked good, and one felt, once again after the two games with Hibs, that optimism was rising in both the support and the players.
Indeed, it had already reached dangerous levels and there was the everpresent danger of complacency. The only team left in the Scottish Cup with any sort of Scottish Cup pedigree was St Mirren, winners in 1926 and 1959, and of course memories were still fresh and raw of the 1959 Scottish Cup semi-final when the young Celtic team simply collapsed against the Buddies. But, the support told themselves, this was a different Celtic team now, playing with the confidence and indeed the expectation of success. St Mirren’s opponents were Dunfermline Athletic, a team with no history at all other than a defeat in the League Cup final in the late 1940s, and although it was clear that Jock Stein was doing a good job with them, it was equally clear that they had a long way to go.
The immediate concern however was Airdrie who had to go back to the days of Hughie Gallacher and Bob McPhail in 1924 for their only previous success. On paper they seemed to present few problems, although they always put up a fight against Celtic. Celtic had thrashed them 4-0 in January, however, and there seemed no reason to believe that the same thing couldn’t happen again especially now that the team was doing so well. Willie Fernie had clearly steadied the forwards, and the team now seemed to be blessed with two good wingers. Alec Byrne on the left was far more spectacular, scoring good goals, but Charlie Gallagher was equally impressive with his passing ability and accurate delivery of free kicks and corner kicks.
Fernie and Gallagher on the right wing in particular enjoyed a good relationship. Both naturally able men with tremendous passing ability, Fernie had the additional benefit of experience, and he was able to look after and to bring out the best in the talented young Gallagher. The understanding between the two men was now clearly visible from the terracings.
Three mundane and, frankly, uninteresting League games lay between Celtic and the semi-final. There was a 2-1 win at Partick Thistle, a game in which there was a little crowd trouble involving a few pitiful specimens of humanity being hauled out of the ground as an elderly fan shook his head and regretted the fact that society had not really advanced even though “we had beaten the Germans twice”; there was a dreadful 1-1 draw against Raith Rovers on a night in which fears were expressed about whether the now famous Parkhead pylons could survive the blast of the vernal equinox. Not surprisingly the football was not all that great, but a better game was seen on the Saturday when fellow Scottish Cup semi-finalists Dunfermline Athletic came to town. Jock Stein was given a polite round of applause and a cheer, and Celtic fought back well to win 2-1 after losing an odd goal which hit one post, then another before entering the net. It was actually not a bad game, but as far as Celtic were concerned, these were merely the preliminaries to the Scottish Cup semi-final on 1 April.
The Press stressed that this was one of the youngest Celtic teams ever to contest a semi-final, for only Willie Fernie possessed a Scottish Cup winners medal as Bertie Peacock, now in the twilight of his career, was still out with injury. The only questions really were whether the Celtic forwards could retain their composure in front of the large and expectant Celtic crowd and whether they could get the better of Laurie Leslie in the Airdrie goal, a man whom many (including a few of the more honest Celtic fans) believed was a better candidate for the Scotland job than Celtic’s Frank Haffey.
72,612 saw a superb Celtic performance as Airdrie were beaten 4-0. There was one superb save by Frank Haffey in the first half, but by then Celtic were two up with goals from John Hughes, and playing towards their own supporters at the King’s Park end of the ground, went in at half-time 4-0 up. Not since the 7-1 game in 1957, had Celtic supporters seen such a dazzling performance from their team. Pat Crerand was simply superb, and every member of the forward line of Gallagher, Fernie, Hughes, Chalmers and Byrne was absolutely on song, interchanging at will, finding each other with an almost telepathic understanding. Every man, woman and child stood up and clapped in the Main Stand as the team left the field at half-time with even the Airdrie supporters compelled to concede that this was a great Celtic team.
No further goals were scored in the second half – although Hughes had one disallowed for an offside decision not agreed with by many people in the ground – and the game became a bit of a bore, as Celtic fans cheered, clapped and sang their way through their repertoire of songs, interrupted occasionally by the odd outburst of hysterical shouting when someone passed them the news (in this case, true) that Rangers were losing 0-2 at Kilmarnock. More relevant, perhaps was the news that Dunfermline and St Mirren had drawn 0-0 at Tynecastle.
David Potter
From David Potter’s wonderful 2016 book, “Charlie Gallagher? What a Player!”
To be continued…
From KDS, via @kevtic
Biog: https://t.co/SZhmBN9LCB pic.twitter.com/QhNuJM4npe
— JoeBloggsCity (@joebloggscity) July 14, 2021
🍀 A tribute to the recently deceased and friend of the Cork No 1 Celtic Supporters Club – Charlie Gallagher. They never die who live in the hearts they leave behind. This is his story. HH 💚🍀https://t.co/CXmTDJpiLW pic.twitter.com/ECHti2vNpW
— Official Cork No1CSC (@CorkNo1csc) July 13, 2021
I had the good fortune to watch Charlie Gallagher when he moved to Dumbarton as my dad took me to Boghead quite a bit in their 71-72 promotion year. This is Charlie scoring for Sons at Parkhead in a 5-2 Drybrough Cup defeat, July 1971. #CelticFC #Dumbartonfc pic.twitter.com/ZkYZo2eyng
— Phil Gordon (@PJG_Sport) July 12, 2021
