The close-season of 1979 was a great time to be a Celtic supporter, as we basked in the glory of the 4-2 game, the night when Ten Men Won the League. It was a time of big change for me personally, at eighteen years-old I was offered and accepted the job of Treasurer of my supporters club, the Cairn CSC, our bus running from Springburn in the north of Glasgow. Little did I know then that a series of lifetime Celtic adventures and friendships had just kicked off.
Cesar’s champions kicked off their competitive season with a 3-2 win against Morton at Celtic Park, Mrs. Cesar unfurling the flag as the Bhoys started where they had left off in May. The following week saw another real test of resolve, as for the second successive derby fixture, Celtic had to come from behind against Rangers with ten men.
This time Roy Aitken was the Bhoy to walk, ten minutes from half-time, the task then seemingly insurmountable as the home side took a two-goal lead early in the second period. However, the newly-opened Copland Road Stand was silenced in the closing minutes, as first Alan Sneddon, with his only goal for Celtic, then Tom McAdam rescued an unlikely point for the Celts, to the delight of the small section of Hoops fans around me in the Main Stand.
A five-goal Parkhead demolition of Kilmarnock on the last Saturday in August, featuring a hat-trick from George McCluskey and a double from Vic Davidson, meant that Celtic finished the month on top of the league.
September brought another two competitions into Celtic’s focus. In the League Cup, there was a first, nostalgic visit to Brockville since Kenny’s goal secured THE nine-in-a row some five years earlier. A fabulous strike from on-form Davie Provan won the first-leg, a late second-half onslaught at Celtic Park then securing a comfortable 6-2 aggregate win three days later. A fairly low-key progression against Falkirk’s local rivals, second-tier Stirling Albion, then set Celtic up for a quarter-final tie with Aberdeen later in the year.
Celtic’s return to the European Cup involved one of our more bizarre encounters, as we were drawn to play Albanian champions Partizan Tirana. The lead-up to the first game was unusual to say the least, dominated by visa issues and a request for Danny McGrain to shave his beard!
Whilst the Press were ultimately denied entry to the then-closed country, the legendary facial hair was in place for a match which Celts lost to a single first-half Murati goal. Fifteen minutes into the second-leg, the tie took another twist, as full-back Sneddon continued his scoring streak with another fine header, this time past Latchford in the Hoops goal to put us two behind on aggregate.
Those of us within the 51,000 Celts in the ground that night briefly feared the worst, before the headed goals started raining in at the right end. Four strikes by half-time finished the match and one of the strangest European ties in our long history.
In the meantime, progress was steady in the race to retain the championship. Celts recovered from the concession of early goals to record valuable wins at Easter Road and Pittodrie, the latter yet again with ten men, as the late Tommy Burns saw red for a late tackle on his future Parkhead colleague Gordon Strachan.
Only two further points were dropped, at home to Dundee United and away to Partick Thistle, as the first round of nine games was completed, Celts leading Morton by three points, with Ferguson’s Dons a further point adrift in third. The next fixture would involve a top-two battle at Cappielow and turned in ten first-half minutes, Murdo MacLeod blasting his spot-kick over the bar before Bobby Thomson hit the only goal of the game, to bring the Greenock side back to within a point of the defending champions.
This was a night which would mark the last first-team appearance of 1977 Cup Final penalty hero, Andy Lynch. Signed as a winger from Hearts by Jock Stein in 1973, Hoops-mad ‘Kipper’ moved to left-back two years later, where he provided great service to Celtic for the next four seasons, including a spell as interim captain, in what had long been a problem position.
Two weeks later, I joined the early morning posse in Tollcross, for my first European away game. If my memory serves me correctly, £29 bought an overnight trip with Cross Travel, so together with some of the Cairn Bishopbriggs Division, we headed south for the Irish ferry. In the height of the troubles, the requests to be quiet as we drove through Belfast met with a predictable response, pure bedlam as the full Wolfe Tones repertoire got its scariest-ever rendition. We did eventually make it to Dundalk for the game, my new-found taste for Guinness then discovering a very different version of God’s Drink from that served in Glasgow.
The match itself was a bit surreal, the cement at the front of our Oriel Park terracing was still being dried off as we arrived at the ground. A packed house of 18,000 saw a real, old-fashioned cup-tie, with Celtic dominating but time-after-time being frustrated by an offside trap or the wonderfully-named Dundalk goalkeeper, Ritchie Blackmore. A Roddie MacDonald ‘goal’ was ruled out before the Irish missed one final, glorious chance in the dying minutes, the ball flying across Latchford’s goal but mercifully with no takers. We dragged our cement-stained feet back to the hotel for the inquest and more Guinness, thankfully still in January’s quarter-final draw after a long, tense night.
On the last Saturday of October, we had witnessed more change, this time with the Hoops themselves, Celtic wearing a new V-neck shirt for the first time, and in midfield, as new signing Dom Sullivan made his debut for the home clash with Rangers.
From the Celtic stronghold of the Garngad, I remember as a young boy watching the teenage Sullivan play in the famous ‘Candy Roch’ green at Petershill Park against Larkhall Thistle, perhaps a decade earlier. Now, signed the previous day from Aberdeen, having played under Billy both there and with Clyde, he had the start of Celtic fan dreams, nut-megging Alex MacDonald in the opening seconds. Roddie MacDonald’s late header did count this time, the only goal of the game in front of 56,000, enabling Celts to maintain a slender lead at the top.
Sullivan was cup-tied for the next match, the midweek League Cup Quarter-Final first leg at Pittodrie, however it was another of Cesar’s old Shawfield boys, Steve Archibald, who did the damage, with the classic hat-trick of right foot, left foot and header. Edvaldsson had opened the scoring in the opening seconds before Archibald struck, with another sensational Provan free-kick then making it 3-2 and keeping the tie alive.
The return leg was weather-delayed and finally played on a Saturday in late November, taking precedence over the scheduled League meeting between the clubs. It was a dark day all round for most of the 40,000 crowd, Celtic’s all-out attacks coming to nothing, then being hit by the classic sucker-punch early in the second half. There was a real ‘future-Celt’ theme about the only goal, as Gordon Strachan’s corner was headed on by Willie Garner, for substitute Mark McGhee to knock home.
There would be no League Cup glory for the champions again this season, as for the second time in just eight months, Ferguson’s Dons came to Celtic Park to end our interest in a major domestic cup competition. Having beaten Rangers 5-1 in the previous round, the team built by Cesar to challenge at the summit of Scottish football was now developing the steel and belief under his old adversary to make the next step, winning regularly in Glasgow.
However, there was now a different threat to be addressed by those with sights on a trophy haul in Scotland. Jim McLean’s Dundee United, having gone so close to the title that spring, finally won their first top-flight honour by beating Aberdeen 3-0 in the League Cup Final replay at Dens Park, following a goalless draw at Hampden.
In the meantime, there was work to be done to stay in the race for the title.
Kilmarnock had burst the Celtic bubble from the October derby victory, by winning 2-0 at Rugby Park the following week. Then, despite a single-goal victory at Tannadice on our return from Dundalk, thanks to a late header from ‘Big Shuggy’ Edvaldsson, there was a third defeat in four away games, 2-1 at Love Street, in early December.
By contrast, home league form was excellent, comfortable victories over bottom-dogs Hibernian, Bertie Auld’s Partick Thistle then closest challengers Morton, making it seventeen points from a possible eighteen since August.
The weekend after the sub-zero clash with Morton would see the final game of the Seventies, a second visit to an under-construction Ibrox. Only 34,000 were present, yours truly in the Centenary Stand for the one and only time, to watch evergreen-skelper Lennox equalise a Johnstone header within a minute, late in the match.
It was a vital point, ending a miserable run of away defeats and ensuring the hard-fought advantage over Morton was stretched to three points, following their surprise home loss to Thistle. Despite being in third place, it was now looking unlikely that the title challenge would come from Rangers, six points behind having played two games more. Aberdeen and Dundee United hovered just below, the Dons in particular looking menacing, carrying three critical games-in-hand into the new decade.
Hail Hail, to be continued…
Matt Corr
