CELTIC’S SCOTTISH CUP FINALS – Number 24…CELTIC 3-1 AIRDRIE – HAMPDEN, 3 MAY 1975 – By the time that Celtic came back for the Scottish Cup final of 1975, they had lost the Scottish League. Admittedly they had won the League Cup, but the Scottish Cup now assumed greater importance.
Their opponents were Airdrie, a team who had not been in the final of the Scottish Cup since their halcyon days of Bob McPhail and Hughie Gallacher in 1924, and they were not really expected to do much against Celtic, however tarnished Celtic had been by their miserable performances in the League.
Paul Wilson had lost his mother at the start of the week, but he and Stein decided he should play, and it was a good decision, for Paul scored two goals while Pat McCluskey scored a penalty. Airdrie put up a good fight and held Celtic for a spell at 2-1. At the end of the game, Billy McNeill announced his retirement from the game. He had won 7 Scottish Cup medals and Celtic had won the Scottish Cup 24 times.
The Celtic team was: Latchford, McGrain, Lynch, Murray, McNeill, McCluskey, Hood, Glavin, Dalglish, Lennox, Wilson.
CELTIC’S SCOTTISH CUP FINALS – Number 25…CELTIC 1-0 RANGERS – HAMPDEN, 7th MAY 1977 – This was the first Scottish Cup final to be televised live for 20 years, and given that, and the dreadful weather, it was no surprise that only 54,252 turned up at the antiquated and now dilapidated Hampden to see what turned out to be a dreadful game.
Celtic were already League Champions and today they were marginally the better side in a final which did little for the game’s image in Scotland. The game hinged on a penalty kick awarded half way through the first half which hit either Derek Johnstone’s knee or hand, and pictures are still inconclusive. But Mr Valentine said it was a penalty, and Andy Lynch sank it.
Celtic then held out through a painful second half, and won the Scottish Cup for the 25th time.
The Celtic team was: Latchford, McGrain, Lynch, Stanton, MacDonald, Aitken, Dalglish, Edvaldsson, Craig, Wilson, Conn.
