“Charlie Gallagher? What a Player!” – Something special was happening

In the meantime, Stein had told the players that he would manipulate the media. He would leak stories, make sure that Rangers were knocked off the back pages and he asked his players to dazzle the country by their play. He then told them that he would play his master card, although to an extent he had been forced to do this. It was made clear that Charlie Gallagher, that silkiest of passers, would be brought into the team for an extended run.

Bertie Auld struggling with bad injuries sustained at Motherwell would later admitted with magnanimous and characteristic candour “I was drappt” but that was not entirely true. He was in fact badly injured and eventually needed a cartilage operation, but even if there had been any chance of him recovering, it would have been very
difficult for Stein to drop Gallagher.

The first game back for Celtic after the enforced break was at Rugby Park, Kilmarnock on 2 March on a heavily sanded pitch and in weather which was still cold, (there had been a considerable amount of frost) but providing a little reluctant sunshine. Sunshine was the word too for this fine Celtic performance. Charlie excelled that day with his superb passing, although most of the plaudits went to Willie Wallace for his four goals and Jimmy Johnstone who had his own point to prove to Kilmarnock’s trainer Walter McCrae with whom, when the pair of them with the Scotland squad last week, he had crossed swords. Walter had asked Jimmy to be a linesman rather than play!

Jimmy made the remark that his performance was “no bad for a linesman, eh, Walter?” Celtic won 6-0, and one of the goals was scored by a young gentleman with the illustrious name of Jimmy Quinn, the grandson of the great Jimmy from Croy of 60 years ago.

Jimmy Quinn

This game was broadcast on the radio, and highlights were shown on TV, so that all Scotland was impressed and, in the psychological battle that Scottish football always is, all of Ibrox began to tremble. Rangers themselves won 6-2 against St Johnstone that day, but the sheer speed and brilliance of the Celtic team as seen at Rugby Park was not lost on Rangers. It would have an effect on them, and caused their Board of Directors to make a distinctly wrong decision.

Both teams played in midweek on 6 March – Rangers beat Dunfermline narrowly and luckily, and once again Celtic turned it on at Parkhead to beat Aberdeen 4-1 in a game that might, with advantage, have been stopped at half-time. Indeed, it was a game which Gallagher and Celtic seized by the scruff of the neck from the very start and they were 4-0 up at half-time with Aberdeen looking as if “they hadn’t reached Glasgow yet” in the words of a fan.

In the middle of the second half, Stein took Gallagher off, not because he was displeased with him, but rather because he wished to keep his new talisman for future occasions. In any case Charlie’s replacement that night was a boy of some promise. He was a debutant by the name of David Hay. Highly impressive stuff this was, and enough to send more than a few shivers of fear down Ibrox way for it was then that Rangers co-operated with an astonishing own goal.

It concerned the Glasgow Cup, a grand old tournament – the third oldest in the world behind the Scottish and the English Cups – which in its day had attracted great crowds and enthusiasm. By the 1960s it was struggling, – it had not been competed for in 1965/66, for example, because no-one could agree dates – but when Celtic were drawn against Rangers in the semi-final (Celtic had already beaten Partick Thistle at the start of the season) at Ibrox, the game was much anticipated.

The game had been scheduled for some time in February, but the bad weather which had delayed Rangers replayed Scottish Cup tie with Dundee meant that it was postponed until Monday 11 March . Rangers with their fixture problems – they were also in the European Inter Cities Fairs Cup and of course the Scottish Cup – asked for a further postponement because both teams would also be playing on Wednesday.

It would therefore have still been a level playing field in the sense that both teams would be playing three games in a week, and for this reason the Glasgow FA, fed up of being pushed around, dug in their heels and insisted the game should be played on that Monday.

There is a common Celtic perception that authorities, be they the Glasgow FA or the Scottish FA, are in the pay of Rangers, and will invariably back up Rangers and do Celtic down. Not so! History does not really support this assertion. In fact if anything, the SFA, the Scottish League and other organisations resent the arrogance of Rangers who often give the impression that they are above everyone else. On this occasion the Glasgow FA, a body who had seen better days but who boasted correctly that their tournament was older than the Scottish League, showed here that that they were not going to be bullied by a mighty financial organisation like the men from Govan, still less were there any secret deals made by men who rolled up their trouser legs in private and shook hands in a strange fashion!

The wily Stein realised that all he had to do was stay silent and Rangers would be isolated. Celtic of course had always been willing to play. But now Rangers suddenly announced that in view of their other commitments in
the Scottish League, the Scottish Cup and the Inter Cities Fairs Cup, they had decided that they would not fulfil the fixture and that they were to be withdrawing from the Glasgow Cup!

It was an even more astonishing decision considering that the game was to have been played at Ibrox. To a neutral observer, to Celtic supporters, to the Press and to even some of Rangers own fans, this looked like cowardice and fear of facing Celtic in the only competition left this season in which the two teams would
meet. Clearly Celtic’s dramatic return to form against Kilmarnock and Aberdeen was having its effect. Celtic fans certainly thought this was the case, and were not slow in letting Rangers fans know their point of view.


Even given fixture congestion, there were at least two things Rangers might have done. They might have approached Celtic to suggest that both teams fielded a weakened team – but would Stein have agreed? – or
they could have declared their pitch unplayable because of all the frost and/or rain than bedevilled Glasgow that spring. As it was they meekly surrendered – and this from a team whose supporters sang a song that they would do no such thing!

Two days after the Monday when the Glasgow Cup game ought to have been played, Rangers were deservedly punished for their craven behaviour. Clearly smarting from the abuse and ridicule heaped on them, Rangers
went out of the Scottish Cup to Hearts, to a late Donald Ford goal at Tynecastle, thereby, as their critics were not slow to point out, easing their own fixture congestion! But as far as Celtic fans were concerned, this was only the icing on the cake, for they heard the news on their way home from Celtic Park having just seen their own team beat Airdrie 4-0.

The Tynecastle game had been delayed because of serious over-crowding, so car radios and pub TVs had the honour of passing on the good news. Willie Wallace scored a hat-trick, and Jimmy Johnstone was outstanding,
but discerning spectators noted the quiet and unspectacular performance of Charlie Gallagher with his inch perfect passes and wonderful understanding with Jimmy Johnstone and Bobby Murdoch. On that same day came the sad news for fans of Bertie Auld that he was going into hospital for a cartilage operation and would be out for the rest of the season. This clearly put the onus on Gallagher to deliver the goods, but it also gave him a sense of security that his position was not under any immediate threat. He did not pass up the opportunity.

Indeed, a glance at Celtic teams for the months of March and April will show that virtually the same team took the field every game. This was good, for players knew each other, the camaraderie was excellent and they all knew each other well enough to cover for each other’s mistakes and to forgive each other the occasional blemish. It was actually a fine time in Celtic’s history as the support, realising than something was happening,
rallied round after all the “I’m no comin back” sort of rubbish in January, and it was visibly a collective effort.

David Potter

To be continued…

About Author

The Celtic Star founder and editor, who has edited numerous Celtic books over the past decade or so including several from Lisbon Lions, Willie Wallace, Tommy Gemmell and Jim Craig. Earliest Celtic memories include a win over East Fife at Celtic Park and the 4-1 League Cup loss to Partick Thistle as a 6 year old. Best game? Easy 4-2, 1979 when Ten Men Won the League. Email editor@thecelticstar.co.uk

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